When my husband is away I like to do Reno projects to our house!
Ever hear the expression, “It’s better to ask for forgiveness then to ask for permission”? If you haven’t now I’ve given you an excuse to go ahead with something you feel needs renovated without asking first. Of course it has to be something that in your heart you know REALLY needs attention to. Like this Ugly 70’s carpet, tile, and laminate wall leading into our basement.
I don’t want it to seem like I went behind my husbands back because I didn’t. This is a project that's been on our “home to do list” and haven’t gotten to. Two weekends ago when he left for a work trip I thought it would be a great time to surprise him with a newly finished basement stairwell.
Quite honestly, I needed this project. A week without him around would’ve put me parked on a couch watching Big Bang Theory reruns over and over. {They are still funny every time!} I also wanted to have a project that I put 100% of myself into. I wanted to pick the colors, I wanted to do it at my pace, and I wanted the satisfaction that I could complete a project this large by myself. Sometimes you need a little “I” in a marriage or else you lose your pizzazz.
Now for the looming thoughts, “Who cares what a basement stairwell looks like, it’s just a basement.”
Unfortunately/Fortunately for us we have an open stairwell which means there is no door to the basement to hide the ugliness factor. We have two entrances to the house, the main entrance that opens to the foyer… my husband uses that one. And the entrance from the garage breezeway into the house/kitchen area. So every time I enter I have to look down to the ugly yellow carpet and brown walls… it' just sucks the life out of the house.
I started by evaluating what I was getting myself into… this 70’s carpet was GLUED to the stair treads. Who does that! It would take extra time but would it be worth it? The answer is always YES when your carpet it yellow/brown!
It took only 10 minutes to pull the carpet from the stairs. It would take a day and a half, a heat gun, and pure muscle (what I have of it) to remove the carpet padding glued to the treads. This was a freaken mess!
After I got most of the padding off with a scraper and heat gun, I went back over with an adhesive remover to get them cleaner. I wasn’t able to get all of it but I was satisfied with what I was left with. Green BABY… GREEN. From there I decided to start working on the walls. After much Googling I came across the best project which was a oil based primer. You HAVE to use oil-based on tile and laminate in order for the paint to stick to the slick surfaces.
With all of the cracks I had to brush in the paint before I went over the walls with a roller. It didn’t take as long as I thought it would.
After this step I primed the stair riders an rolled the rest of the walls
I was pretty tired after 2 days of this but I managed to paint the final coat on the walls {Khaki} and get the stair treads painted. What color? I’ll post later this week to show you part two of the stair case Reno.
What do you think so far? Should I have stayed in the 70’s?
{Before} {Half way there!}
Love it! I'm impressed :)
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