[p]For someone who has a single story home, you wouldn’t think I’d give stairs much thought, but you’d be wrong. I have found over the years, as I peruse my favorite design magazines, blogs and websites, that I am actually suffering from a serious case of “stair envy”! There are so many options for treating your treads that surpass the usual carpet vs. runner debate from the olden days (although those are great, too!), that I now have a whole file of my favorite stair treatments, some of which I plan to use in my future Portland-area Interior Design projects.  Here are a few of my favorites:[/p]

[p]1) Painted Stairs…[/p]

[p]Adding a little flair with paint can be as safe or as fun as you want to get. There are so many options in painted stairs, it’s hard to narrow them down to a few styles, but I’ll try.[/p]

[p]Here is a traditional runner made with contrasting paint:[/p]

[p]Painted Runner[/p]

[p]I love this one from Design*Sponge so much – it’s a twist on ombré fabrics, where a single color graduates from dark to light:[/p]

[p]Pink Painted Stairs[/p]

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[p]These stencils work so well because they each break up the repetition by alternating with color/tone and pattern:[/p]

[p]Patterned-Stairs           Henna-Stair-Risers-11[/p]

[p]These “books” are fun for the stairs to the children’s area of a library or to your playroom/kids’ rooms:[/p]

[p]storybook-painted-staircase-staircase[/p]

 

[p]And of course, a simple, yet classic look can be achieved with wood (or a wood-like color) treads and painted risers:[/p]

[p]Traditional Painted Stairs[/p]

[p]Of course there is more fun to be had with stairs than just painting them.  I’ll look at a few more options in my next posting…[/p]