Staircases and paint colors.

I'm super excited to write this post.  I have written in past posts that there was a second staircase that opens into the new kitchen and that we opened up the wall on one side to make it look more open. My dads friend had a bannister, post and spindles that he donated to the cause so the staircase looks great.

Problem was, the bannister was stained one color, the spindles a different color and the post was just unstained wood. It would be impossible to try and match everything. So I took it upon myself (with Dads permission) to sand down the bannister and stain it in my favorite "English Chestnut" stain. Sanding down the bannister didn't prove to be too hard. I used a rotary sander for most of it.  The spindles on the other hand were another story. Trying to sand those down by hand right down to the wood so that we could apply stain would take hours and hours and it would just be too much work. So.... New plan. Stain the bannister and post and paint the spindles and trim in white.  It ended up turning out beautifully. 

 

Now what to do with those ugly stairs?? Well first thing that needed to be done is to tear up those dark brown whatever they were. Grippy things. Lol.  Once those were pulled up and the tacks pulled out, I put wood putty into the hoeles and cracks and primed the whole thing white. Including the trim that ran up the sides. 

Regretfully I forgot to take a picture of the staircase primed. But here's the plan. The trim and the instep will be painted white. Originally we wanted to find a brown paint that would complement the stain of the bannister to put on the tread or top of the step.  We even got some paint swatches that we liked last night.  But while we were at the hardware store though, Dad looked over the cans of discounted paint (the mistints) he found two cans of gray paint for ten dollars each. One of them was a light gray that will complement the green sink he had for the bathroom and the other was a much darker gray that had almost a bit of blue in it. Both grays complement each other well so we decided to put the light gray in the bathroom and the far gray in the kitchen. We painted a little bit of it tonight and I love it but I digress.... Back to the stairs.  So original plan was to paint the stair tread brown but once I saw that dark gray I began to change my mind about it. I think I want to put the gray on the top of the step. Dad is thinking the same. So I took a picture of the colors on the primed stair tread to show you all. What do you think?

 

And so there we are.  And since I'm so excited about this color, here is a sneak peak of the kitchen color. Keep in mind that the paint was still wet, it was dark outside and we were working by the light of the dim kitchen light and a spotlight when I took the picture. It looks a bit darker than it actually is. I will hopefully take better pictures tomorrow. 

The cavity where the fridge will be. 

Above the trim near the ceiling. Oh and look I did take a picture of the primed stairs!  I love how the dark gray looks with the white of the trim and the cabinets. 

Dad is also toying with the thought of painting the panels of the cupboard doors the light gray for an accent. He did a couple of the doors to test it out. What do you think?

Well that's all for now. I will take some daylight pictures tomorrow and post them!  Hopefully tomorrow we will get all the crown molding that Dad hand made up and the room will really start to look like it's coming together!