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we painted the tired wood floor on a three-season porch with a contrasting painted border and put down "stick-on" decals on top of that border and applied several coats of a good quality water-based polyurethane to the whole thing. Has held up well after a number of years.
They look orange, because I wanted to match the oak floor I just put in. They are a perfect match, but they do look "odd" to me and I plan to repaint them a different color. But I can't say enough about how much I prefer having the painted stairs over the carpet.
Ideally I would have painted the right side of the treads with several coats, using only the left side to go up and down, for about a week. I think it took about that long before the stairs were no longer tacky. Then I'd have done the left side and used the right for a week.
The paint dries to the touch in about an hour, but it does stay tacky for several days. We didn't have time to do the job right before subjecting the stairs to heavy traffic, so all of the dirt that was on peoples shoes, adhered to the tacky paint. But even with THAT problem, I still prefer the not so perfect painted stairs to the carpet I had there! I can't believe how there is no sign of wear on that paint after a year of hard use.
I'm looking forward to repainting them next month, just to change the color and to get a nice clean job this time. Oh, and the white risers have MANY spots on them from people's heels. I haven't decided how to handle that yet...it IS a problem.
They look orange, because I wanted to match the oak floor I just put in. They are a perfect match, but they do look "odd" to me and I plan to repaint them a different color. But I can't say enough about how much I prefer having the painted stairs over the carpet.
Ideally I would have painted the right side of the treads with several coats, using only the left side to go up and down, for about a week. I think it took about that long before the stairs were no longer tacky. Then I'd have done the left side and used the right for a week.
The paint dries to the touch in about an hour, but it does stay tacky for several days. We didn't have time to do the job right before subjecting the stairs to heavy traffic, so all of the dirt that was on peoples shoes, adhered to the tacky paint. But even with THAT problem, I still prefer the not so perfect painted stairs to the carpet I had there! I can't believe how there is no sign of wear on that paint after a year of hard use.
I'm looking forward to repainting them next month, just to change the color and to get a nice clean job this time. Oh, and the white risers have MANY spots on them from people's heels. I haven't decided how to handle that yet...it IS a problem.
Thank you so much for sharing! After much thought we decided to go ahead and replace the treads and re-do the complete staircase. Of course the job was supposed to be a nice little fix and has turned into much more. I detest carpet on stairs and our dog must not like it either since she decided to destroy it. The stairs lead into our finished basement so they are horrible plywood. The risers have huge gaps and really the only way to paint and make them look decent would be adding a ton of molding or replacing the risers. The list goes on and on. So we are replacing the treads and adding some thin wood to the risers. I will paint those and stain the treads. Then add hardwood the landings. What a job. Anyway, thanks for sharing the pictures. I love your hardwood floors and your dog is a cutie!
Thanks for the pictures Decor - that's a really good tip on painting one side of the stairs at a time and helpful to know how long the paint stays tacky! (And I agree with falling - your dogs are sweet!!!)
I painted some floors once.
It was a rental with too many urine stains to make sanding the oak worthwhile.
After some sanding and screening to get past what remained of the finish...
I used a good quality oil based primer (Kilz) and then a name brand floor and porch paint.
It looked great... especially the contrasting color band.
That darker color ran around the perimeter of the rooms and at the thresholds.
I even added some polyurethane to the finish coat.
It still didn't last very long.
Some portions (traffic lanes) were worn through in a few months).
You know, some people pay good money for that distressed look (usually on furniture, though).
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