STAIR MAKEOVER BEGINS

Stair make over begins! I started this last year.... just haven't gotten around to sharing yet.

This job was a pain in the butt!! It took so long and I'm still doing the stair case as we speak :( It's not hard, just very time consuming and fiddly.

The timber is Tasmanian oak which looked beautiful when it was first lacquered, but over the years has gone yellow and yuk and lets face it.... so 90's haha. Our entry and stair case is so narrow so white and bright will look so much better.

Sanding took forever! Luckily I was just doing the hand rail not the spindles otherwise I'd be still doing it.

The handrail I wanted really dark and rich so I used an oil based stain "walnut" in British paints brand. Don't make the mistake and buy water based walnut because it's not the same colour!! It has red undertone and looks nothing like the oil based walnut colour which is a nice warm brown :)

Altogether I did 3 coats of stain just applied with a rag let sit for 5mins and wiped excess off with a clean rag.

Finished colour with 3 coats of stain.

Below is 3 coats of 'satin' oil based polyurethane. I hate painting oil based poly but it turned out really smooth so I was quite happy with the finished product. 

The spindles I did a quick rub over with 180grit sand paper. On most timbers in my house if I'm painting white I'll use Zinsser Bulls eye 123 primer and sealer. Its the best! covers great, not much prep work to be done and blocks previous stained timber from coming through :)

Painting the spindles took time so I did 10 had a break didn't another 10 etc... All up I did 1 coat of Zinsser, 3 coats of whisper white by Dulux but I use Taubmans easy coat paint in semi gloss. 

Over the years of painting I have found Taubmans to be better quality of paint :)

All done & nicely decorated for Christmas :) Since this pic I have done the other handrail and am up to the staircase. The sides are in primmer and treads have been stained and lacquered, we have run into a problem with the sides of the staircase so until its fixed I can't finish painting :) hopefully won't be too much longer.