Railings

How I Gave My Ordinary Oak an Espresso Finish:

Step One:  After all the prep work, taping off the balusters and laying down carpet protection, I stripped the existing varnish off the staircase with Klean-Strip.  It was nasty, smelly full-of-chemicals stuff.  I had to ask Mr. CG to keep the kids away for an entire day.  I wore a mask, and the fumes gave me a bad headache.  And I still had to sand afterwards. 

Step Two:  Sand, sand, sand, then sand again.  I spent about 4 hours just sanding until my fingers cramped and refused another stroke. 

Step Three:  I cleaned off the sanding residue with wet wipes, then stained the upper hand rail with Minwax Gel Stain in Walnut.  This is a wonderful product which I had used before to redo the highboy in the entry.  It’s not Minwax’s fault that I wasn’t satisfied.  It’s just the nature of oak.  It’s such a grainy wood.  When the stain was applied to the oak, it gave me too much of a stripe-like effect.  Darker was much better, but the product only took me half way to the look I desired.

Step Four:  I did something unconventional, and a bit daring.  I glazed the wood with two coats of semi-opaque Burnt Umber acrylic craft paint.  Yes, you heard me right.  Craft paint.  I know purist wood refinishers are absolutely appalled, but I’m telling you, the semi-opaque craft paint filled in the gaps and gave me just the espresso finish I wanted.  See the difference after one coat? 

Yessir.  These were the three products that gave me the look I desired.  Minwax Gel Stain in Walnut, Burnt Umber semi opaque craft paint, and Minwax Wipe On Poly. 

They gave me this finish:

 Hello gorgeous !

Using the glazing effect with the semi-opaque craft paint, rather than latex paint, helped to preserve the visible grain of the wood. 

Step Five:  With the help of a dear friend, and professional painter, we primed the bottom of the stairs with oil based primer, then finished it with two coats of ‘Swiss Coffee’ oil based white paint for durability.  Thanks Mike !

Here’s another peek at the staircase before the base was painted. 

And after it was painted:

Step Six:  To the upper railing only, I applied one coat of Minwax Wipe On Polyurethane.  This took maybe 10 minutes.  No joke.  Pour a few drops on a sponge, wipe on, and you’re done.  It was dry overnight. 

Here’s just one more look at the dramatic change.  We plan to upgrade the carpet to wood steps when the children are a bit older.

Duraseal in ‘Antique Brown’, which is also made by Minwax

« Posh PumpkinsHomeGoods ‘Mom Cave’ Contest »

Finished Staircase!

OCTOBER 22, 2010

Oooooooh happy Friday friends.  Guess what?  I finally finished our staircase!  Let me tell you, with two little monkeys running around, I was forced to take this on late at night after they had gone to bed.  So for the last ten days, yours truly has been up late sanding, staining, priming and painting, plus polyurethaning (is that a word?) in order to get our staircase to look like this.

Hello gorgeous!

Remember the before from last year?  The blonde oak banister and the carpet?  Last year, you’ll recall we redid the banister and primed and painted the oak base white as a first step.  This year, we finally have wood steps at last!

I LOVE MY STAIRS!

Last week, I started experimenting with some stain just to see how dark I could get the blonde oak treads with different colors and qualities.  I had some leftover Walnut Gel Stain from a few previous projects.  Then my carpenter recommended Duraseal in ‘Antique Brown’, which is also made by Minwax and sold to the trade to contractors.  The Walnut stains were just not dark enough, and the ‘Ebony’ (far right) was too black.

I agreed with my carpenter’s recommendation and the Duraseal won.  It leans a hint mahogany but with two coats of poly on top, it was exactly what I wanted.

Before I could stain, I had to strip the paint off the curve on the bottom step.   Some Citrustrip (which I compared to old school chemical strippers here ) did the trick!

I also had to fill all the nail holes on the treads and risers then sand it down.  This little 3M detail sander, used with some coarse sandpaper, worked great!  No need to plug in my orbital, yes!

I used an old sock over a latex glove to apply the stain on every other step for the first coat, just so I could get up and down.  The second coat I did late at night, and I stained every step, so I just camped on the couch after staining the last one.

The Duraseal was thick and gooey, unlike watery stains, so it penetrated the blonde wood very well.  I got mega messy with my stain because I knew I would cover it up with primer and paint.

After two coats of Duraseal, and two coats of polyurethane, I taped off the stained steps and covered up the messy residue with none other than Zinsser Cover Stain!  My fav.

I touched up the paint on the walls, painted the risers, and then painted the picture frame molding too.

Ta dah!

True love.

I’m not a matchy matchy girl, so I have no problem with the blonde oak floors right now, but my secret plan is to stain them darker. 

Want the full chapters on the staircase from beginning to end?  Chapter One: staining the banister; Chapter Two: ripping out the carpet and preparing the plywood; and Chapter Three: installing the risers and treads.  Today is the happy ending!

I have to thank my husband for his eternal patience with me and this project.  He liked the carpet and originally was hesitant to take this on.  The carpet was cozier and quieter, albeit dingier.  He tolerated my late nights sanding, painting, staining and polyurethaning each step and riser.  But this morning even Mr. CG said "Hey, these stairs look really good."

So tonight is date night, and after he has a glass of wine, I’ll be saying with my most charming voice, "Honey, now about those floors . . . "

.

Minwax Polyshades'Bombay Mahogany'