Step It Up

Eric and I are trying to sell our house right now and I have been obsessed with perusing the internet at all the houses that are on the market. Now, I know I am a picky person, I don't deny it, but what is up with all these houses looking exactly the same. It seems that everything that is being built these days in the DFW area is some sort of cheap version of Tuscan style. There is no character, no design and you may or may not have seen your exact house 4 doors down on the left.

I don't feel like I am asking for too much here. Cut down on the 4,000 square feet of blah and build a quality home with some character and nice finishes. I have discovered that in order to find something with some quality and workmanship you either have to fork over a lot more cash or buy an older home.

One thing that is exactly the same in all of these houses is the staircase. Every one of them has the same black iron spindles, cheap carpet treads and they usually hit you in the face as soon as you walk in the front door. I know why builders do this, MONEY! It is definitely cheaper to come up with a few designs and then build a whole lot of them instead of really customizing each home. If I have to look at one more carpeted dining room with fake wainscoting (ie shoe molding trim pieces glued to the wall in rectangles and painted so it looks like paneling, except wait, it's not!) I might just pass out.

So, I kinda went off on a little bit of tangent because believe or not this post is supposed to be about staircases. It happens, ...a lot.

I wanted to share with you some fabulous staircases that I have come across.

The first idea is to cover your treads with some not so typical carpet. I absolutely love all of these stairs! Forget the plain old beige and step it up with some pop of pattern or color.

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For carpeted stairs, you can either buy carpet that is made to be a stair runner, which would sit on top of your wood stair treads (see picture # 1 & 5) or you can have carpet that is inset and covers the whole tread. (See picture #3) For inset, you can pick from any carpet to cover your stairs but for the runner, it has to be a special carpet for stair runners (bound and seamed edges) or you can have something custom made.

Next up, painted stairs. For just a little bit fun, try painting the treads a fun color or paint a runner down the middle.

You can even try stripes!

We recently wrote a post about stenciling walls and fabrics and floors, but what about stairs? Yes, stenciling works on stairs too and looks fabulous!

These stencils are from the Moroccan collection at Royal Design Studio.

If you don't trust your hand to stenciling, you can try using wallpaper on the stair risers. This is a great way to add a lot interest to your staircase.

Another fun painted trend is to number your stairs. I love this idea!!

Another way to update your staircase or just make it more unique is to do something creative with the banister.

Love Love Love this!!!

So Creative!

And now for a look at some really creative staircases!!

This is so beautiful! I love how fluid the design is and how it looks like it's moving.

Very cool staircase out of shipping crates.

This looks awesome! So much fun!

Great for storage.

A bookshelf and stairs in one!

Creative storage solution.

So does this inspire you step it up on your staircase? I know I am inspired! I am really wanting to try out that stenciling!

~Jessica