Staircases - what would you do with this one?

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Caporegime
Joined
13 May 2003
Posts
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Location
Warwickshire
Hi all, we're doing some home improvements at the moment and next on the list is decorating the hall, stairs, and landing. As part of this, I'd like to do something about our staircase:

FnWfTuvh.jpg


It's covered in some nasty dark varnish that I dislike intensely. What would you do? Rip it all out and start again, or get busy with the varnish stripper and sand back to wood?

I'm tempted by a brand new contemporary staircase, but have no concept of potential costs for something like this, so if it's £ks to replace vs. £hundreds to refurbish, then I'd probably go with the latter.

Any thoughts gratefully received, thanks.
 
Do you like the current design enough to spend time using chemicals to take it back and redo it? Or could you paint over it and make it all white?

As for contemporary and cost, that depends on the design you want.

You could remove everything varnished, get a chippy to put in new wooden verticals on the corners and a handrail between them (or it could all be done in metal) and they buy some perspex to go in between them, you could even run LED strips along the edge of the perspex to create lighting. Easy to do and costs aren't too bad for something like that. Costs could be a few hundred for that really, but obviously as the design starts to get fancier so does the price.

have a look here: http://www.shawstairs.com/
 
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Getting rid of junk on post would make a difference :D:D

Get rid of banisters and replace with frame-less glass panels.

At a push paint them white like rest - it's a nice big staircase

Edit -- Pipped to the Post
 
Paint all the spindles and uprights white.

Leave the base and handrail the darker colour would make a large difference in my eyes.
You could even look at staining the left over bits a bit darker too?
 
Paint everything white, lift the carpet and do a central runner up the stair in an interesting carpet (stripes or something)
That would be cheap, you'd get much more dramatic results with a new stair but that's significantly more expensive - really depends on the rest of the house and what extent your renovation is going to
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
Paint all the spindles and uprights white.

Leave the base and handrail the darker colour would make a large difference in my eyes.
You could even look at staining the left over bits a bit darker too?
Click to expand...

We did this and it was a big improvement but now my wife wants all white after two years of going with the white spindle, dark rail/base look.

I can highly recommend Zinnser primer in these situations. No need to strip back with chemicals or heat or whatever. Just key the the dark stain and go over with Zinsser and you'll find after that three coats of paint with sanding in between will give a decent finish.
 
I actually quite like the dark varnish - except it doesn't look right with the bottom section painted white.

I suppose you could paint it all white so it blends into the background. Personally I'd want a little more dark varnish.
 
Bobmunkhouse said:
I quite like it....
Click to expand...

You need to be banned :)

I have the same problem, nasty dark stain that just sucks all life and light of anything within its hallyway radius, its like a blackhole of staircases....

Zinser rocks, used it on a window sill the old owners decided to pain s..t brown.
 
If you want something cheap then strip it back with a chemical, undercoat and paint white. I had really dark wood that I did this too and it looks much more modern.
 
We went with what a lot of people are suggesting. When we moved in, all the wooden panels were mahogany along with the spindles and banister.

We painted it all white except the hand rail


i59gisF.jpg
 
I'd paint the lot white no need to strip it back just sand prime appropriately and then top coats it is a crappy horrible job and takes ages but well worth it!
 
Heavy Sand

Zinseer BIN

Light Sand

Zinsser Again

Light Sand

Top coat (TRADE SATIN WOOD)

JOB DONE and will not chip easy
 
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