At least that’s how I feel about stairs. Some people hate them, but after seeing countless beautiful staircases on Pinterest and a slew of creative DIY stair updates, I found myself wanting stairs badly. After seven years of living in single-level houses, we fell in love with a home that has a second floor. Part of me worried I’d regret the change, and part of me excitedly started pinning stair inspiration. I daydreamed about stair runners and new rails instead of sidewalks.
After three and a half months in our new house, I’m certain about two things:
- We actually like having stairs. They provide helpful separation between public living spaces and private sleeping and dressing areas upstairs. While we’ll always love a classic mid-century ranch, it’s nice to only have to tidy the first floor when guests arrive rather than every room in the house.
- We’ve completely neglected our stairs so far. Despite being excited about updating them, the blue baseboards, painted balusters, and worn runner made the staircase look sad and dated.
Why is that old stair runner still in place? We planned to remove it before moving, but kept it temporarily to protect the wood during moving day and to give our dogs a familiar surface while they adjusted. We cleaned the runner, moved in, and figured we’d replace it within a few weeks. A few weeks turned into a few months, but seeing black-and-white stair runners on Pinterest finally pushed me to pick a new one.
- I loved one runner I found for its simple, elegant pattern, though it didn’t show the ebony rail and white balusters I wanted to replicate.
- Another example showed the exact dark rail and white baluster combo I pictured, even if the rug pattern wasn’t quite my favorite.
- Some inspiration photos featured bold striping paired with high-contrast rails and balusters — not all were perfect matches for our taste, but the look really appealed to us.
*Baluster spotting became a running joke in our house.
When I shared the pins with John, the visuals convinced him too, and we committed to the project. I searched for a durable runner that would stand up to daily wear without costing thousands. A friend recommended Dash & Albert, so I checked their offerings and found a runner nearly identical to my favorite inspiration photo — a great sign that the pattern would work well on stairs.
John liked it immediately, but before buying I searched for other vendors and found the runner on sale at a different shop. The seller was offering a discounted price on two extra-long runners plus free shipping and an additional clearance code, which brought the total well under $200 for both. They were back-ordered for a week, but we were thrilled to have scored a good deal and to be this close to replacing the worn carpet ourselves.
While we waited for the runners to arrive, I started painting the blue baseboards and balusters at the bottom of the staircase. The two balusters in the upstairs hallway also needed attention.
First I applied two coats of primer — I’ve learned that this blue trim often takes multiple coats to fully cover. After primer I painted with a semi-gloss white to match the rest of our trim. Even after one coat you can still see the old blue peeking through, which is frustrating, but by the fourth coat the coverage was perfect and everything looked bright and clean.
It took about five hours spread over two days using a short-handled brush, which gave me control without taping. The effort paid off — the trim finally read as crisp white, and I celebrated the small victory of a clean, refreshed staircase.
With the balusters freshly painted white, we’re one step closer to the look we want: a striped runner, white balusters, and a dark railing. I even played around with a mockup of a darkened railing to preview the final contrast.
I’m still a little amazed we have stairs now, but I’m loving the progress and can’t wait to get the new runners installed and the railing finished. It’s been a small, satisfying transformation so far, and the best part is the difference these changes make in how the whole entry and stair area feels.