Before & After: Facelift for a Carpeted Stairway

After Matt renovated theliving roomof his 1930’s bungalow, everything looked nice and sleek — except for the carpeted stairway at the edge of the room. The stairs had become even more of an eye-sore next to the newly transformed space.

The project started out innocently enough, with just the idea of ripping up the carpet and painting the stair treads that were underneath. Ambition stepped in, however, and soon enough we were in the garage, with the detached stair treads, sanding away.

In the meantime, the old trim was being refinished and reconstructed to lay flush against the bowing stairway wall. For about a month or so, everyone living in the house was carefully climbing the deconstructed stairway, with OSB temporary treads.

After removing the treads, sanding, refinishing, and replacing the wood trim, Matt was faced with a predicament. The replaced treads didn’t quite make it to the edge of the wall! There about about a half inch wedged gap at each stair, probably from where the trim used to bow out away from the wall. Unfortunately, Matt had to purchase new stair treads to fill the space properly, but the glowing finish was worth the wait.

Check out Matt’s whole House Tour: A Bright & Beautiful Bungalow from an Ohio Trio here, complete another image of the stairs at the beginning of the project.

Images: Amanda Johnson