The carpet on the stairs was in bad shape. They were worn down, stained, fraying, and difficult to clean. They didn't exactly match the new carpet in the living room either. I'm not sure what sparked the idea to try painting them, but I remember scouring the internet for examples. My house is fairly new, which I thought might make the project more difficult if they were plywood. I had no idea what I would find under the carpet. I peeled off the bottom to see what might be underneath.
I was delighted to find pristine risers and something like mdf for the treads. I went to work removing the carpet, padding and tacks.
Ripping this stuff out was fast and fun. The picture above shows how discolored the carpet was. The treads had deteriorated, and much of the padding had torn to shreds. That could have been from when we moved the elliptical downstairs, but that's another story.
It did not take long before I was looking at unfinished wooden stairs. And a lot of trash. Taking out all the little carpet tacks and staples was a bit tedious. Some areas looked like a staple gun testing site. I used a standard office sized stapler remover, pliers, or a hammer to get them out.
I puttied the holes and swept up the little carpet shreds, feeling very satisfied with the progress I made in one afternoon. Little did I know that I would still be working on this project six months later.
Onto Part 2: first coat and
cat-astrophe.
