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Painted Garage Stairs

What do these stairs in my garage say to you?

Something along the lines of
I’m nasty
grouchy
and neglected
???

What stairs wouldn’t be saying that when they look so awful?

Nowadays, these stairs that lead up to our funky little mudroom are singing a new tune:

I went with a floor covering that would make the wooden steps and floor of the landing and mudroom washable, and would stand up to a lot of abuse from a family of five and a very large dog: deck paint.

I primed the steps and floors with Kilz, and then mulled over my color options for a couple of weeks, in which time my children and dog helpfully added their muddy little footprints to the white primed steps. It soon became clear that in order to protect my sanity,  I would need to go with a paint color in the general color family of dirt.

I decided to go with a painted runner so I could have the functionality of – yes – dirt-colored paint,  as well as a pretty coordinating color. I chose not to fill all those nail holes since this is, in fact, my garage and the main goal was to make this area a little more attractive but not send me over a cliff.

After I primed the steps, I used regular white latex to paint a stripe the width of the brush on both sides of the stairs. When that dried, I measured and taped about an inch of the white off and painted the sides Ben Moore’s “Fantasy Blue” (a fave color that I used in my last house’s master bath) and the center “Mesa Verde Tan” (BM Deck Stain – it’s true color is represented better in the second picture below).

I loved how the painted runner came out but decided that a whimsical something-or-other on the risers would be fun, considering this is my garage and the main entrance for the neighborhood young-folk, so I played around with different fonts and freehanded the letters.

 
Yep, the rest of our garage is still a mess {I’m tackling it one area at a time!}

I have to tell you that it just feels so much nicer to pull into the garage and see these stairs instead of the nasty filthiness of days of yore.

They are bound to get banged up and worn down, but I think I will like them even more then. And if we tire of the “welcome” (I have been known to change things up once in a while!) it’ll be a snap to paint right over the letters with the leftover deck paint.

UPDATE! Check out another version of these painted stairs here!

Thanks for visiting and hope you have a great weekend!

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Comments

  8. Farmgirl Paints says

    It looks awesome Lisa. We painted our garage door black and added white vinyl numbers in our last house and it completely dressed up the space. Made me look forward to coming home. Great job.

    Reply

  9. Farmgirl Paints says

    It looks awesome Lisa. We painted our garage door black and added white vinyl numbers in our last house and it completely dressed up the space. Made me look forward to coming home. Great job.

    Reply

  12. At The Picket Fence says

    Hi there! I'm new to your blog but just love everything I'm seeing! These stairs are just fabulous and I've been looking through your other posts to see the changes you have been making to your home and everything is just gorgeous. 🙂 I'm now a happy new follower!
    Vanessa

    Reply

  15. kelly@refresheddesigns. says

    That is such a great project and what a simple way to brighten a spot in the house that most would overlook. Great job!

    Reply

  17. Sandy says

    Wow Lisa!
    Totally Fab! (as the young neighborhood folk would say).
    You better get a major supply of popcorn, because with stairs like this and then saying Welcome that really looks like a "Welcome" you will never get the young folk to leave.
    Maybe, you need to do something like
    "stop by again when you can't stay so long" on the back of the door or something. (this is what my Mother in Law used to jokingly say when we stopped by) Love her.
    But, I guess a sweet Till Soon somewhere would be nicer.

    Well, you did an awesome job. Love it.

    Reply

  22. Moore or Less Cooking says

    I really love it! You are so inspiring- my staircase to our studio barn is so dreadful, this would look fantastic. I will let you know!!

    Reply

  33. [email protected] says

    Update after 2 years: our stairs have held up pretty well – definitely showing wear after being the main entrance for a family of 5 plus a St. Bernard. I am going to give them a fresh coat of paint this year along with a coat of polyurethane which I didn't do last time and I think would contribute to the finish lasting longer. I'm glad I painted the stairs and I knew going into the project that they would get worn over time but I still think they look so much better than unpainted, plus I am able to mop them. I would recommend doing it!!

    Reply