DIY STAIRCASE MAKEOVER UNDER $100 | Updating Oak Banister

[Music] [Music] everyone welcome back to my channel my name is Kristen and today we are finally starting another huge makeover of my parents house you have seen me transform a room after room in this house and now I really want to focus on their nineties staircase so this staircase is original to the home it's the only orange Oakwood left in here and I think it really needs an update so I really want to tie in the dark woods in the kitchen the trim around the home and really accentuate the staircase and make it look beautiful so I'm going to be doing this entire makeover on a budget you guys know I love doing budget-friendly DIY home improvement projects and this one's gonna save us thousands of dollars so I'm repainting and staining and doing it all myself and it's gonna make such a huge difference so if you guys have a staircase like this and you've been really looking to update it I hope this video gives you some inspiration and tips on how to do that do you enjoy watching make sure you give this video a big thumbs up and hit that like button and make sure you subscribe to my channel for more room makeover and home improvement videos let's go ahead and jump right into it [Music] all right so let me tell you guys the plan behind this staircase so we're all in the same page here I really like these images on Pinterest that I found that have a two-tone look to them so it's a white and a dark wood I think that will work perfectly in here I'm especially going off of this picture that I found I love that they have white spindles a dark railing and it really has a nice mix of the two so I'm gonna be doing dark wood railing all the way up here this is going to be a dark walnut color we're gonna do this dark walnut as well these side stringers I'm choosing to do white to match with this trim here and white spindles and this little piece up here I'm choosing to do dark so I think it's gonna be a really nice mix and tied together all of it the plan is to really tie together the rest of the woods in the house matching that dark wood trim piece right here the dark woods throughout the kitchen and really make this entire house a lot more cohesive this staircase might be a little bit more challenging because we are working with carpet and we're not removing it so I'm just gonna have to get really close to the carpet there without making a mess and making it look really crisp and clean so those are just little details that I have to think about when doing all this but I think it's gonna make for an amazing transformation and really bring this staircase out of the 90s so day one of this makeover is prep day and this day cannot be skipped it's very important to the end results that you're gonna get if you want a really nice finish you have to prep the staircase so I'm taking off all of this oil and grease that might be stuck on here using credd cutter it's a really good degreaser as well as sandpaper to take off the varnish that's on top and really matte it down so that you don't have this gloss anymore so I'll leave all of these products down below in the description box in case you guys are refinishing your staircase and need to find these products [Music] so now that the staircase is clean I'm going in with my sanding block and sanding all across the railing and all the spindles and really getting into all the details of the wood this is really going to make sure that the products that we use to refinish the staircase are really going to attach and grip to the surface I'm also using a damp microfiber cloth to wipe off all the dust so that it doesn't go everywhere and we have a clean surface again [Music] alright so the stairs are looking a little more dull now I've sanded and cleaned them now I'm gonna focus on taping so I'm going to focus on taping the top of the spindles the bottom of the spindles so I can really get the railing without touching everything else I'm going to be using this frog tape I usually use this one I'm painting I find it really strong and it's really wide so it will cover more space without cutting multiple pieces of tape all of this prep work kind of takes a while but I think it makes for a better cleaner job it's day two of this makeover and today I'm so excited because we can finally get started with some staining gonna be using the very thing gel stain in the color dark walnut and I hear that gel stain is kind of like the chalk paint of stains and it's easier to work with you don't have to do as much prep like I know I had to prep but I didn't have to totally strip the wood and sand down to bare wood so I'm using it more as like a paint instead of a stain so I'm not gonna be wiping it off I'm gonna be letting it dry and doing another coat so that I get more of a full coverage so this probably will need two or three coats and it's a 24-hour drying time in between so this is gonna take a while it's kind of a longer project but if you have the time and you can carve out the time to do this I think it's worth it so see how it's more of like a pudding consistency it's way thicker than normal stain so you won't have that drip and it will really grip it's a good thing to open a window cuz it does get pretty smelly let's get started so to apply this gel stain I'm using a foam brush and I had to buy quite a few of these just because they don't really last that long so I probably used three a day but anyways this gel scene is very easy to use you just have to make sure that you get more of an even coat and you don't let big clumps of darkness kind of dry up there so it's easy to move around really easy to pull down the banister and it's actually pretty simple so I went in did all the top then I went in and did the bottom and really tried to make a smooth surface [Music] I [Music] got my fan going out the windows open have all my ladders I just finished doing the first coat of the gel stain where I want it as you can see the first layer of the gel stain it's still see through you can see through it and it looks kind of streaky but when you do a second layer and a third layer it's gonna look really smooth and clean I'm going to start priming these stringer pieces of the stairs so this side and the other side I'm going to be using this primer here and this is an oil-based primer so this is really good for sticking to wood glossy surfaces and then you can use latex paint on top so I'm just gonna do a layer or two of this on the stringer pieces here and then we can start painting tomorrow and doing more coats of the gel stain [Music] so I let the first coat of primer dry for two hours and then did a second coat this primer kind of feels like glue it's very tough but it really sticks and holds on to this wood all right so it's day three of this whole process today we'll do the second coat of the gel stain so we get more of a solid finish that will really cover a lot of the orange tone coming through and hopefully finalize that color before we do a top coat [Music] [Music] all right so this is day three of staining I just finished the third coat on the railing here and I really love the way it looks has great coverage but you can also see the wood kind of coming through it so it looks natural doesn't look too painted I haven't done this yet so you can really see the difference between two coats and three coats so really love the look of three coats I'm actually glad that this wood piece doesn't just continue all the way down the stairs because it's pretty difficult to get in between there I would say this has been the hardest part but the railing super quick really easy to do spindles are pretty easy next thing we'll have to worry about is painting [Music] so I think it's day four now of this staircase makeover I finally have all of it stained where I want it looks so good it is such a crazy difference that took I think three days in total so maybe we're actually on day five of this makeover I don't even know at this point so now I can finally seal it I'm gonna be using this polycrylic top coat and this is gonna make it so much more durable and last longer I got it in semi-gloss right now the stain finish is pretty matte so it kind of looks a little dull I think the semi-gloss is really gonna make it look amazing so this will be the final step of the staining process then we can finally move on to the spindles so this polycrylic is kind of like a milky consistency it goes on and looks a little blue at first but it dries crystal clear it's really nice you have to be careful with this as well so you don't put too much on where it starts to drip or bubbles so just smoothing it all out and really trying to make an even coat is the best way to go I'm using again a foam brush to get this all put on that way I don't have any brush lines and I have a nice even coat [Music] if you're doing a similar thing to your staircase just make sure you completely finish the railing and finish it off at the top coat before moving on to the spindles I ended up doing two coats of the top coat to really make sure it's sealed alright so it's been about two days since I did the top coat on all of the stain and it looks really good to have this really nice shine to it so it's nice and hard and sealed and I can now move on to the spindle so I have to remove all of this tape here kind of flip it so that it's all around the stain so that we have a nice crisp line underneath here and all the way down the railing [Music] now that everything is perfectly taped off I'm going back in with the same primer I used earlier the cover stain primer and doing two coats all along the spindles using this little angle brush it's really good to use an angle brush a smaller brush to really get into all of these details this is quite time-consuming because spindles are really hard to cover you kind of have to go back and forth from the front of them to the back of them wrap yourself around the railing to really get into all those spaces just get that first layer on smooth because we're gonna be doing a second one and some pink on top [Music] since this first coat took me like a whole day to do I ended up having it dry overnight waking up in the morning and repainting a second layer so I could move on and let it dry to start painting alright I'm back on the stairs I've been here for too long now hopefully this is the final and last day of this makeover today we can finally move on to painting I'm going to be using this bare alkyd semi-gloss enamel paint it is really good for high-traffic areas like this it has a good finishing coat and it's like a hard finishing paint so it's gonna be durable cleanable and it's good for vertical surfaces like trims and doors so I'm going in with a white obviously so it's gonna be bright and clean using a foam roller to really get a smooth finish on the wood so that you don't see any streaky brush lines as well as a foam brush [Music] [Music] [Music] so after letting the first coat dry I waited and did the second coat and it really did help because there was some spots around the stairs that needed to be recovered that you could still kind of see the wood through so this was definitely worth doing after the first coat I was so tired I want to go to bed but I really stuck it out to get this done [Music] [Music] good morning we're back on the stairs again I really thought yesterday would be the final day but I think that was hopeful thinking today we are taking off all of the tape and touching up all the areas that need to be touched up I knew going into this that you know some paint would seep through some stain would be off so I need to just touch everything up to make it as perfect as possible I can still see the lighter wood kind of popping out from underneath here so I'm going to be using this to hold back the carpet like that and get in there with a tiny little brush if you don't have something like this you can use a ruler or a piece of plastic just to like hold things back and create a guard but this is all the tiny little detailing that we're gonna be doing around here almost likely just freehand so that's not too much of a worry since we're doing all these touch-ups today we might as well touch up the paint as well there are some areas that are missing paint looking really messy and it's just dragging my eye right to it every time I look at the staircase I actually didn't know what color this paint was we didn't have any left think I got as close as possible I think it's pretty good and will look so much better so we're gonna be touching up some paint today as well I do recommend if you guys are trying to color match some paint go behind this plate right here and you'll find some hanging paint left over and you can kind of peel some off without ruining the whole wall [Music] I just finished all the little finishing touches to the staircase and I am so happy with the way it looks especially when you take away all the paint that's been lying around for two weeks this looks amazing so I'm so proud of myself and I cannot wait to show my parents they've seen me work on this for the past two weeks now I think so they just haven't seen it without the tape and all cleaned up and styled so I can't wait to show them their new and improved staircase they're gonna be so happy let's go ahead and show my parents the big reveal okay keep your eyes shut you remember what it used to look like yes okay one two three [Music] well is so much better yeah and they really jumped so just a jet described it would but it feels like somebody else's house I know that is amazing you have the vision and there it is and I know how challenging it is to do that really Wow right a brand new staircase I know commend us what are you glad I did it I love it yes I'm very glad yeah go sit on the couch there it just looks right no but look at that Wow that it was even orange before I know now it just makes sense elegant it looks very elegant matches the floor in the woods the kitchen is like the whole look that was meant to be it's kind of Mediterranean looking isn't it yeah you think like that's what the floor was always meant to be and now you have a staircase going up too well doesn't it look more expensive oh for sure yeah it's a real eye-catcher when you come in the door oho nice is that I couldn't figure out whether we should paint this or not but you're right I think it makes it brighter by painting it you could go both ways but I think it makes it look sharp and knew you had to do that yeah it just takes it out of the 90s you know well do you how I even fixed all the little marks so it makes it look cleaner already big difference right I fixed that corner look at me color matching oh thank you guys thank you thank you for letting me work on it I know a lot of parents wouldn't let them do this Oh any time all right guys that's it for today's video I hope you guys enjoyed watching this huge staircase makeover I hope this video encourages you guys to get started on your staircase if you have anything similar I know if I can do it you can for sure do it as well so if you enjoyed watching and loved this huge transformation and sure you give this video a big thumbs up and hit that like button and make sure you subscribe to my channel so you don't miss any more a room makeover in home improvement videos I have so much more to do so make sure you're here to see it click the red subscribe button down below and make sure you guys have my notifications turned on so you never miss the upcoming videos love you guys so much and I'll see you in my next one bye

Channel: Kristen McGowan

Views: 959,515

Keywords: diy, diy staircase makeover, under $100, updating oak banister, kristen mcgowan, kristen mcgowan diy, how to update staircase, updating oak staircase, stair makeover, home makeover, tutorial, diy home projects, staircase, diy home improvement, gel stain, transformation, makeover, how to, staircase makeover, diy makeover, on a budget, oak staircase makeover, how to use gel stain, staircase makeover ideas, builder grade updates, interior design, do it yourself, before and after

Id: h3jD9qDprxs

Length: 19min 51sec (1191 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 07 2020