Stairways to Heaven

If any of y'all are following me via my account on Pinterest you'll have noticed I have added a new board:  Stairways to Heaven.

Why?

Well, that's my new project:  Painting our stairs.

When we bought our house, our stairs looked like this:

Whoo-boy!  If we had only looked at the wallpaper when we moved in, we would've never bought the place.  Ew.

BUT...  You don't even want to see what it looks like today.  A few years back, I was into all things primitive and decided to strip all the wallpaper off and paint the stairwell this hideous mustard yellow.  Yeah.  Bad.  And the sheen I used showed every last imperfection in the plaster.  And who knows why, but now its starting to bubble off like Eva's room did and I know for a fact we used a good quality paint.  I'm beginning to wonder if the walls weren't painted with an oil based paint, which gives birth to all kinds of issues with painting our walls.  I do not even want to THINK about using oil based paint and the mess that would ensue. :(

Okay.  I promised full disclosure, so I'll give you a peek (deep breath here, Laura) at what I'm going to be dealing with:

How do I live with it?  Well...  I just don't look at it when I go upstairs.  Ever.  Its amazing what you can ignore and how long you can ignore it for.  Kind of reminds me of those poor people on "Hoarders".

Needless to say, its a HUGE undertaking.  That's probably why (Okay, that's TOTALLY why) I've been putting it off.  Not to mention that the stairwell soars clear to the top of the ceiling of the 2nd floor (we're probably talking 12 feet) and you have to balance (okay, SCOTT will have to balance) on top of a ladder that is propped onto the highest stair to be able to reach the top of all the walls.  He didn't like doing it the first time and thanks to my color choice (that he asked me repeatedly if I was sure about), he now has to do it at least 3 more times as we prime and paint to cover up that hideous shade of baby poop.  I'm seriously considering dry brushing pallet board and nailing it to the walls to be done with completely - that would also take care the hanging light fixture that some home improvement moron decided not to put behind some sheetrock or something.  I don't have a clue what to do.  Any ideas for a fix that isn't a budget buster????

So, to try to get my boo-tay motivated to do something with that stairwell wall, I'm going to at least paint the stairs and railings.  That's the first half of the project.  Goal date to finish to finish the whole entire thing:  November 26th.  Crunch time.  The day after Thanksgiving and traditionally the day we put up our Christmas stuff - after Black Friday wrestling, of course.  That way, I can put my garland and wreaths up and not have to photoshop the heck out of my pictures. LOL!

So here's some inspiration I've found around Pinterest:

Kika Reichert

 Definitely NOT for the color, but the idea of hand painting words on the risers, except I would do a Bible verse.

HGTV's Sarah's House Season 3

 Love the idea of a numbered staircase, but maybe a little overused now.

Source Unknown via Pinterest

 However, I still love the look - especially two-toned with an accent stripe on either side.

Or how about these lovelies...

Country Living: Cottage Of Many Colors

 I adore the hues and aged quality of these stairs!

 Whimsical perhaps?

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How can you go wrong with an aged aqua plus a little whimsy from the Wizard of Oz?

Or I could go more old farm house-y...

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 These gray and white stairs' simplicity is lovely.

But, I gotta admit on the ones below...  The mice on these stairs freak me out a little.  Yeah...  Mice have their place.  Not on my stairs.  Preferably in a trap.  Dead.

Source Unknown

And no post about stairway inspirations would be complete without these beauts from Donna @ Funky Junk Interiors.

Although I'm not sure I'll have the guts to try something like this.  :P  I know my limitations.  LOL!

Anyhoo...

Better get to cleaning those stairs, so I can have them primed before I go to bed.  God knows why I'm starting this on a day when I have a meeting tonight and wrestling tourneys planned for the entire weekend, but I am.  Maybe it's because I know I work best under pressure.  ;)

Take care, y'all!