Now that we’ve crossed off the kitchen, office and dining room from our last house, let’s chat about the room that connects them all – our entry! We made some easy updates to the stairs and entry that completely changed the look of the space, so wanted to share for anyone that’s looking for a little DIY project or inspiration.
Let’s start with the before photos, mmkay?
The light fixture and the green tile had to go, so when we laid the hardwoods down in our house, we had them flow right on through.
Better, right? But not quiteeeee there yet. I’m looking at you old carpet 😉
In our last house, we removed the carpet only to find raw lumber underneath that we spent hours upon hours sanding and staining using a stain that took days to dry. It was a great fix compared to the carpet, but wasn’t the exact polished look we were hoping for. So, in this house, we were SO excited to have traditional bullnose treads to work with and I couldn’t barely wait to rip off that carpet.
While we were ripping out the carpet, M also decided to tear out the white spindles and add rod iron spindles instead. With the right tools, it was a fairly easy project! We used plain spindles and shoes and these spring kits to fit each spindle into our existing holes. There are directions on the spring kits and we were able to complete the whole thing in an afternoon!
Next, using our orbital sander (one of my first and favorite tools!) we sanded down each tread to the bare wood, and started testing stains. We knew we wanted to match our wood floors as close as possible, and since I had to take Duke out of the house for this step because of the fumes, this decision was all on M.
Luckily, the guy works well under pressure, because I was so happy with how they turned out when we got home!
The only thing we needed to add was additional cove molding where the old molding stopped and the carpet started. It’s available at Home Depot (and Lowes and other hardware stores!) and such an easy project to do. I measured each stair, cut the piece to length, used our favorite nail gun to hang them (easiest and least intimidating nail gun ever!) and then painted them and the risers a crisp white.
The last step we did before selling the house, was painting the oak banister black as a little dramatic pop. I used paint leftover from our nursery closet, and sealed it with some water based poly. We knew we had to do something with it before selling since it was the original oak color, and paint was a great solution to update it on a budget and tight timeline!
Last but not least was the light fixture. This one we hired out to replace since it was so high up, but we bought this Pottery Barn fixture and loved the scale for the room. Plus, we vacationed in Napa for our honeymoon, so it was a fun little nod to that!
So much better right? It’s amazing what a little sanding, balusters and painting can do. The cost to redo the balusters was around $200, the stairs were free (or would be about $10 if you didn’t already have stain on hand) and the banister was also free using leftover paint!
I also think the railing would have looked amazing sanded down and stained to match, and one day we planed on adding a fun runner to the steps, but when your goal is completing projects to sell the house quickly, these are some awesome options that can be completed in a day!
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Hi do you recall what paint color and finish you used?