I didn’t like the boring beige carpet on my stairs it was just a dust and dirt trap. I decided to give my hallway the wow factor by ripping up the carpet off the stairs and wallpapering them. Now they make me smile every time I open the front door.
I have a bit of a thing about Marimekko the Finnish textile designers, especially their iconic UNIKKO poppy print. Therefore I decided that I would use Marimekko wallpaper for my stairs.
I also wallpapered my lampshades at the same time to match (which you can see here).
Before wallpapering the stairs I had to remove the old carpet. As the stairs were going to still be in constant use, I cut the carpet and removed it one step at a time. That is so that I could insure all carpet grippers and nails were removed before people started walking on the stairs. I just used a stanley knife, claw hammer and pliers to do this.
Next using a heat gun and a scrapper I removed the paint off the top of the steps. I then sanded them down with a hand electrical sander. As I was going to be wallpapering the risers, I didn’t need to strip the paint off these.
I then varnished each step with 2 coats of varnish. This took a little while as the steps were in constant use. They are old victorian steps which are rather steep so I couldn’t varnish every other step whilst in use. Instead I varnished down one half and then the other when that half was dry.
To prepare the risers for wallpapering I keyed them by covering them in wallpaper paste and then leaving them to dry. This helps the wallpaper adhere to the wood.
I cut the wallpaper to the size of each riser. You will need to think carefully about what wallpaper you use and how the pattern flows. The wallpaper I chose worked just as well either way up. Which meant that I could cut my wallpaper length ways and thus avoid any joins on the steps.
I used wallpaper paste to attach each piece to each step, positioning it carefully and using a damp sponge to make sure the wallpaper went into any groves. There are a few more details on my blog.
I also gave my banister and railings a fresh coat of paint. I painted the banister blue to match the wallpaper. I noticed my old white banister got grubby really easily and I was hoping this wouldn’t happen with the blue one.
I love my new fresh bright looking hallway. The great thing about this is that now that I have done all the prep work it will be very easy to change the wallpaper if ever I feel like something different. I don’t see that happening for a while. I use a lot of wallpaper to upcycle with in my house ( click here to see them), but funnily enough I don’t have much on my walls.
