Who’s ready for a good before and after? I love looking at them. It’s not only inspiring, but they show how far you’ve come. Once a project is complete it’s easy to forget where you once were. Looking at the before is a great reminder of the hard work you put into a home improvement project. We completed the first phase of this change back in September of 2019. You can read about the details in this post How To Update Carpeted Stairs With Paint Just like a half-don makeover, it was pretty but not quite complete…like when you forget the lipstick! I love the way this board and batten finished off the whole look of the stairway. It was so simple and wow what a difference it made. Keep scrolling for all the details and pictures of the updated stairway project!

 

Here is what the stairs looked like first. However, I had already painted the handrails black and the risers were originally an orange oak. So they already looked different. I have always loved the look of classic black painted stairs so the first step was to tear out the carpet and refinish the look of the stairs

 

 

 

Once the carpet was removed and the stairs were all painted I really felt like it needed something else. However, I needed to wait just a bit until I was sure what look I wanted.

 

 

 

We’ve done several board and batten projects the past year and I just love the texture and classic finish it gives a space while still looking simple and chic.

Once we did this project How To Update A Boring Hallway With Board And Batten & A Gallery Wall we were loving how simple and inexpensive this project really was. So to add some personality to the upstairs wall, we did this look to create a unique gallery wall. After looking at how  the stairs blended into this space I had my answer on what to do to complete the look.

 

 

Our biggest challenge to begin was that our railings are attached to the wall with a separate board and we really didn’t want to remove it and damage the wall creating more work. So, we accepted the fact that there would be lots of angled cuts, oh yay…hence the procrastination of the project itself

 

 

Another challenge with board and batten projects is the spacing. It’s always the slowest part of getting started for us…lots of math, yuck! However, this hand dandy website has a great calculator to help with that. You just enter your dimensions and it will tell you how to space out your boards.

 

 

I love how helpful this has been for us. The other challenge for this particular project was the sizes of the 3 different walls. We ended up having to tweak a little to make it work our because it was inconsistent with the various wall angles. So if you’re not super picky, sometimes you need to make adjustments to eye ball and not through measuring.

 

 

The other helpful tool especially with the angle cuts is this app called Angle Pro. It helps you to get the exact measurement to be sure they are precise. It was super helpful especially the amount we had to do for this project.

 

 

Once we figured out the measurements and cuts needed it went pretty quickly.

 

 

 

 

The holes were filled and caulked once the boards were added. Next, we sanded and wiped down all the dust.

 

 

 

We also removed our old alien head light fixture and replaced it with a pretty sconce instead ( yay, why did that take us 3 years to complete?)

 

 

TO give a fresh crisp look to the black, I painted everything out with the color Alabaster and I love the look it gave the entire space.

 

 

 

For details on the rest of the staircase products you can visit the post here How To Update Carpeted Stairs With Paint

 

 

Can you believe how different it looks? We did all the work ourselves and the cost was very minimal. I also want to mention that this isn’t a traditional “board & batten” look. It’s really just the batten boards to create the look. With all the angles we just didn’t think it would be worth the time for a minimal difference in look. Our walls do have a slight texture but that doesn’t really bother us.

So what projects have you been wanting to do? This one for us was one that we said ” what took us so long” after we completed it. But I’ve learned that the timing and whwen things happen is always for a reason. So be patient with yourself and do the research and jump in when you are ready. There’s nothing worse than rushing a project only to have to re do it.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and as always be sure to leave me any questions you may have, I would love to help you. Also, don’t forget to subscribe for my newsletter so you won’t miss a post or update. It will also give you access to my free printable page.

 

Happy Decorating | Updated Stairway Project