Chalk Paint Staircase Makeover

I almost feel silly typing anything about this makeover because the pictures say more than I ever could! Almost. So just indulge me and let me gush for a minute. Annie Sloan reached out to me to give me some of their paint to play with, and I thought I’d take full advantage of the non-priming non-sanding feature of the chalk paint and redo my most wood-covered area: the staircase. Just look at these photos! SO much ugly dated wood. SO much priming and sanding I would have had to tackle otherwise. wood-staircase-before-photo-annie-sloan

I did sand the treads of the stairs because I knew that I would want some natural wood tone to ground the space. I used an orbital sander for the bulk of it and a multi-tool with a sanding attachment for the corners and edges. Those two worked together like a dream and a couple of hours later, my treads were sanded and dreamy. I went through a LOT of ideas before I decided on my final design. I thought for SURE I wanted a runner going down the staircase, but after many renditions it just didn’t feel right. See for yourself!

The biggest difference right away was made by painting the wood paneling white. This small hallway felt IMMEDIATELY bigger. It is incredible! annie-sloan-progress-photo

I removed the handrails and sanded them down. This was simple but tied in the natural wood finish of the treads. I finished all of the wood (and the chalk paint) with Annie Sloan’s Matte Lacquer. stair-rail-sanded

This place looks AMAZING and I can’t get over all these colors together! Thanks again to Annie for supporting (and inspiring) this project! To get the colors that I ended up with I played with a bunch of different colors, mixing a few until I got just the right blends. Here’s my list of mixes and colors, from the bottom up!