Our basement stairs were one of those projects that almost didn’t get done.  They were a significant undertaking, but finishing them was difficult to justify psychologically because they are not, by themselves, a room.  Eventually I sacked up and got it done.

Here are the before and after from the top of the stairs:

Way before –

In medias before:

A little more in medias:

Most of the woodwork is in, which I got at our local recycled building materials store called Community Forklift.  I used the same woodwork on our bookcase made out of doors.  I had finished most of the painting at this point too.

And Afters:

Another:

Here’s the  before and after from the bottom of the stairs:

A new light fixture installed at the top of the stairs, new woodwork along the banister, some more woodwork horizontal to separate the wall coverings (the basement is pine wainscoting painted white and an adobe on the wall above the wainscoting to cover up the horrible concrete meringue wall covering, which looked like this and is still on the ceiling:

), refinished and installed a new handrail (also picked up at Community Forklift) using a few handrail brackets I got on Amazon, and used some wood putty to form a flat surface over the woodwork), a good amount of paint (semi-gloss white for the woodwork, eggshell sherburne buff leftover from the dining room for the walls, and ceiling white for the ceiling), sanded and re-polied portions of the stairs like the Newell post and banister, painted the banister spindles, and it was that easy!

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