We are nearing the end of our painting projects. The back stairs–the “servants'” staircase–had walls that needed to be repaired and stairs that needed to be repainted. We saved these for the end since these stairs were used a lot during the renovation.

These photos show the stairwell from the kitchen to the second floor. We had the walls and ceiling plaster repaired by Iorio Plastering. We also removed the door and raised the opening so light from the window could shine into the kitchen. There was no other light in the stairwell, so we added an electrical box for a new chandelier.

David took over from there. He scraped the old paint off the treads, then painted them with deck paint. We used colors that were very similar to the original. The result is clean and bright! Someday we’ll change the railing, but that is a project for the distant future.

The stairwell to the basement was in desperate need of work. We use this stairwell a lot since it leads to my laundry room. (Which will be a huge project!) This also had broken plaster walls, but also peeling paint, cracking floor tiles, and missing plaster.

David repaired these walls. He added wall board over the missing section and repaired the plaster. We left the broken plaster over the brick because we like the effect. We also went with a similar, but darker adobe red.

David put down vinyl tiles that mimic slate and added two extra kitchen cabinet panels on the wall. (They were made for our kitchen island, but were originally cut the wrong size.) We added some coat hooks and eventually will add a bench for shoes.

Quite a change, don’t you think?

Life is a series of steps. Things are done gradually. Once in a while there is a giant step, but most of the time we are taking small, seemingly insignificant steps on the stairway of life. Ralph Ransom