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Effie Row

Build What You Love

December 2, 2016

Painted & Upgraded Basement Stairs

Fresh paint and a few simple upgrades for our basement stairs saved us hundreds (if not more!). The staircase is now a clean and bright addition to our basement remodel.

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When the basement renovation was underway we had no intention of keeping the original basement stairs as they were. They were creaky, narrow, and dirty. Ultimately, we wanted to pull them out and start fresh. But as the project progressed we decided to take our chance at leaving them in place and rehabbing them the best we could.

Upgrading basement stairs with paint and plywood
Upgrading basement stairs with paint and plywood - no need to rip them out!
Upgrading basement stairs with paint and plywood - no need to rip them out!

I’m kicking myself a bit because we didn’t seem to take any progress photos of the staircase overhaul. But essentially, as you can see, we chopped out the vertical 2×4 at the end of the railing and replaced it with a simple square newel post.

We added simple square balusters and painted them white. A new railing was installed and stained (Varathane Carrington) to match the newel post.

Upgraded basement stairs with paint and plywood - no need to rip them out!

To fix the creaking issue, we had replaced the 2×4 supports below the stairs when the basement was initially framed out. The simple fix for the risers of the stairs started out as temporary but wound up staying. We filled them in with plywood just to meet code, and then later decided they needed to stay to complete the look. We filled in any gaps with caulk before giving the treads and risers a coat of paint. For the treads, we used leftover paint from our laundry room floors (Sherwin Williams Porch and Floor enamel tinted to BM Ashwood Moss). The matching paint gives the whole basement some cohesion.

RELATED POST: PAINTED LAUNDRY ROOM FLOOR
Upgrading basement stairs with paint and plywood - no need to rip them out!
Upgrading basement stairs with paint and plywood - no need to rip them out!
Bright and cozy living room with wood tile floors

This was a pretty straightforward and easy overhaul. While the results may not have been as glamorous as they could have been if we started from scratch, the project wound up being much easier – not to mention cheaper!

Affordable option to redo basement stairs. This full basement reno is AMAZING!

LINKS TO ALL POSTS IN THIS BASEMENT SERIES:

Basement Bathroom Addition

Painted & Upgraded Basement Stairs

Basement Made Beautiful: Part 1 – Planning & Plumbing

Basement Made Beautiful: Part 2 – Framing & Lighting

Basement Made Beautiful: Part 3 – Flooring

Basement Made Beautiful: Part 4 – Finals Touches & Reveal

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Filed Under: Basement, DIY, Home Improvement, Renovations & Remodels Kate

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Comments

  1. 1

    Sam says

    November 6, 2017 at 12:12 am

    What did you use for the flooring??

    • 2

      November 17, 2017 at 5:30 am

      Hi Sam – we used these ceramic floor tiles from Lowe’s: https://www.lowes.com/pd/GBI-Tile-Stone-Inc-Madeira-Oak-Wood-Look-Ceramic-Floor-Tile-Common-6-in-x-24-in-Actual-5-87-in-x-23-62-in/50244557

      Worth every penny!

  2. 3

    Lauren says

    December 2, 2018 at 2:18 am

    Looks great! Can you tell me what stain and type of wood you used for the railing and post? Thanks!

    • 4

      April 6, 2019 at 5:22 pm

      Varathane stain in Carrington. The wood type though…. I have no idea:(

  3. 5

    Mac says

    January 2, 2020 at 12:28 pm

    Did you use any finish on the stair? Polycrilic or something like that?

    • 6

      February 3, 2020 at 6:09 am

      Nope, just the paint!

  4. 7

    Todd says

    April 21, 2020 at 6:59 pm

    The stairs look great! They have a lot of visual interest, especially up against the painted bricks, along with the stained post and rail. From a glance, the steps look a lot like they are slabs of slate. I like how you painted the stair stringers white. That’s will be a good example for me for when I paint/fix-up my basement stairs.

    • 8

      April 23, 2020 at 4:31 am

      Thank you so much:) I can imagine stairs would be a pain to replace so YAY for paint!

  5. 9

    Denise says

    January 4, 2021 at 6:18 pm

    What color paint did you use?

    • 10

      January 10, 2021 at 6:37 am

      The color is Benjamin Moore “Ashwood Moss” but we used a Sherwin Williams paint.

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