Heya friends! We’re gearing up to start our staircase renovation project! I told ya guys the stairs were on the list for 2018! As you may know, we ripped out the ugly carpet when we moved in and removed all of the railings when we got our floors installed upstairs (so they wouldn’t have to cut the hardwood around the railing posts I planned to remove anyway). We have two staircases, one to the right of the front door and one off of the dining room. Not much to look at now, but keep reading to see what I have in store.

I’ve had this staircase renovation project on my mind for a hot minute. I even have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to stairs, check it out. I’ve requested about 12 stair railing quotes, research treads and balusters and learned more about staircases than I ever thought there was to know. My latest obsession is with the stairs is tile. Yup, you read that right, TILE! Why you ask? If you follow me on Insta then you may have seen my story where I was explaining my contemplation with tiling the stair risers, like this:

Via

Via

What do ya think? When I posted the poll about it on Insta to get your thoughts, most of you liked it! Since this idea has entered my brain, I have been non-stop obsessing about tile. I’ve scoured over hundreds of tiles, ordered many samples (some are still on the way), researched tile risers installation, watched YouTube videos, you name it! I have a Pinterest board dedicated to some of my fave tiles, naturally, if you’re interested in taking a peek. 😉 Here are some samples hubby and I have been mulling over. 

I’ve considered a fun shaped tile but it looks like 8″ square tiles are going to be best for us, but we’ll have to trim them down to fit each riser. I also REALLY love Tabarka tiles but considering we have 30 stairs – some measure nearly 6′ wide – and we need about 80 feet of railing, Tabarka is out of our budget so I’m on to Plan B.

Since I’ve been considering tiling the risers, which will be an extra expense, I have been re-thinking the staircase renovation as a whole. Originally I wanted horizontal iron railing but those quotes were astronomical so for the last several months we had pretty much decided to go with cable railing. But now we’re moving away from the cable railing too and may just do simple verticle iron balusters and an iron handrail. I have some samples on the way before we commit.

We’re also considering ordering retro-fit stair treads as opposed to having our hardwood guy come and install the same hardwood we have upstairs (which will eventually cover all of downstairs). I have some samples on the way to determine if the distributors stain options will match close enough with our hardwoods. If it does, this will save us approx $2k on covering the treads and landings, which will free up more space in the budget for the tile!

Whew! Are you still with me? Here’s a helpful diagram if my staircase lexicon is confusing you! 😉

If we go with retro-fit treads, we can probably DIY the entire project. Thank goodness for handy husbands! It will be a lot of work though. We have to trim each existing stair tread (stairs that had carpet previously require a little more work before you install wood), get the staircase skirtboards (the trim) squared away, install the tile which will have to be cut individually, order and install custom treads, install over 250 iron balusters, install a handrail which will have to be welded to the balusters, and there’s probably something I’m forgetting.

Obviously, we’re still in the planning phase of the staircase renovation but I wanted to get you guys up to speed on what I’m thinking and of course, I’ll keep ya posted! Stay tuned…