Paint and Carpet

June marked our 5th anniversary in this house and in this town. On Friday morning I sat at the kitchen table looking at our stairwell. It had this nasty old carpet that was frayed. On a couple of steps it had come off altogether. The off-white paint was chipped and dirty. I realized how much I hated the way that stairwell looked and thought it probably made me just a little bit depressed each time I sat staring at it.

"You know," I said, "If we'd just repaint that stairwell and replace the carpet, it would look a whole lot better." 

Not only did everyone in the house agree, Munchkin #1 suggested it was a project we should start that very day. By Friday evening we had removed all the old carpet and repainted. My photos don't really do it justice, but I love the stairwell now. In fact, unlike many remodel projects, which leave me feeling at least the need for a year's recovery time before I begin the next room, this one has me itching to get out the paint and transform the remaining rooms in our house (those we have not already tackled).

Before: The stairs as they have looked for the last 5 years.

After: The walls are now Darjeeling (I would call them a kind of dark sage green).

The carpet has flecks of dark and light green, dark red and a kind of tan color. We painted the top of the stairs a color called Irony. It had a bit of a yellow look to it in the can, but really just looks clean and white once we got it on the walls. The girls redid the banister, as well. They sanded and stained it. I think I'm going to use the same color stain for the trim in the project room (at the bottom of the stairs) should I ever get around to putting trim up!