Most of the choices we’ve made for our attic addition have been pretty straightforward. We saved and splurged for a couple of things, but we’ve done a lot of work ourselves and made choices that saved us…lots. Plus, we’re filling the rooms with furniture and accessories that were thrifted or found free to revamp, on clearance, etc.
But when it came time to choose how to finish our stairs, we were stuck. We had our hearts set on stairs like these….
and these….
and these….
I love the contrast of the dark wood tread with the white riser. The only problem is stair treads run about $17-28 a piece!
Exit my dream of yummy cottage stairs.
But wait…
Haven’t a billion of you painted your stairs and floors??
So, making lemons and all…..
Now, I know it’s not fancy…it is an attic stairwell, after all. Instead of spending $25 per tread we bought and cut 2×12’s…costing about $4.60 a step. Total, these beauties only set us back about $75! We literally saved hundreds.
I know I don’t have a before, but just imagine very rough. The board was added along the side as a buffer for little feet and to fill the space between the boards and the wall.
We stained the boards with Minwax Ebony stain and haven’t poly’d them yet, but we don’t have anything else to do, so I don’t know why we haven’t gotten to that yet.
🙂
All in all, we’ve truly tried to only splurge a bit on items that are harder to replace. And have cut corners in other places….like picking a laminate floor that we love and will be super durable for the little kiddos. Matt’s theater chairs were bought from a scratch and dent section on clearance. And of course, all furniture in my room was scoured for!
I think all of our bargains have turned out beautifully…but I know this one did! What do you think??
What have you guys to save hundreds? I’d love to know and share it with everyone.
Have a happy weekend…my great sis-in-law is the house with her two little girls….much fun to be had!
Fantastic! They are beautiful & I can't wait to see them poly-ed!
We face the same dilemna with our stairs. We haven't done anything with them because we weren't sure what we could on a tight budget. Your stairs look beautiful. I kind of like them better than the more polished ones you showed in pictures. Yours look a bit more modern farmhouse which I love. Thanks for giving me an option!
They look gorgeous! We had to paint our stairs (they had been painted in the past, and we wanted to seal any possible lead paint) and we painted them all solid brown and now I regret it. I may get around to adding white eventually!
shaunna they look wonderful and you got the look you were going for,that is what counts. Good for you and hubby, I think it was a very smart choice. Congrats!! Happy weekend,Kathysue
Turned out fantastically!! Who said cutting corners can't turn out great?!?!
I think they turned out fantastic. I too am a big fan of dark wood and white paint. Love it.
They are just darling. I wish I had some stairs I could paint like that!
They look great. It's like a cottage version of the inspiration pictures. We have done so much to save money. We re-did the kitchen floor to ceiling completely on our own, we built a front porch, we teach ourselves to do what we need to save money. I am proud of you and can't wait to see what's at the top of those stairs. Lisa~
looks amazing…that's my favorite look for the stairs and to be honest…I think the boards look better than the treads would have anyways…all adds to a charm…a beautiful charm.
Absolutely beautiful! The best part is that they have more texture then a regular stair so that makes it even more unique and interesting to look at. Fantastic job!
Way to go, they LOOK fabulous! Just a caution, we did the same thing and a neighbor slipped on our stairs and broke her leg. Our homeowner's covered it, but it was overall a sad experience for all. After that we added a black self adhesive gripping strip to each stair. It was not as pretty, but it has been effective! Your ideas for your attic are inspiring…thanks.
Gorgeous! I like your simple, clean design. Nice job! Thanks for stopping by.