Everyday I park in the garage and come into the house through these gross stairs. I knew this was not a very welcoming way to enter the house, so I had to do something. Yes, cleaning and decluttering would have helped, but they were so depressing, so they kinda became the catch all for everything.
1. Clean and declutter. The first thing I did was to get rid of everything that just kinda landed on the stairs. Then, I took a broom and tried to get all the dirt and dust off the stairs. I did not clean the stairs with any solution. I knew I was going to sand the wood and use a really dark stain, so I didn’t worry about getting them too clean.
2. Sand the stairs. The next step was to stand all the wood. I used a small electric sander. I started with some pretty rough sand paper to really get some of the tough dirty spots clean. You might only need a really light sand, but my stairs were pretty gross! Then, I came in with a light sanding to smooth out the wood. Remember to always sand in the direction of the wood grain! This will keep your wood looking great without weird sanding marks. Once I finished sanding the wood, the stairs needed a good dusting. First I swept the stairs with a broom. Then I came in with a damp cloth and tried to remove all the small particles of sanding dust. In total it probably took about 20 minutes to sand.
3. Stain the stairs. I choose to stain first and paint second because I thought if I made any mistakes, it would be easier to cover with paint than with stain. Before you begin staining, think about what is going to be stained and what is going to be painted. I decided to stain anything that was “on top”. Okay, that is not a technical term, but it made sense to me. The hand rail and the actual stairs you step on (tread) are on top, so they would get stain. I also stained the two large posts that were holding the stairs and railing together. I used Rust-Oleum Ultimate Wood Stain in Dark Walnut. I bought one quart, and that was more than enough! I used a brush to apply the stain. Make sure to use a brush that is made for staining. I only needed one coat. In total the staining took about 30 minutes.
4. Let the stain dry. I let the stain dry over night and decided to paint the following day.
5. Paint. Everything that was not stained, I painted a bright white. I just bought this house, and the previous home owner left the paint that was used to paint the garage walls, so I just used that. Yep, it was free 🙂 Using a paint brush I painted everything that was not stained (the riser, the stringer, and the spindles). I also painted the door. It was already white, but it was pretty dirty, so it needed a good coat of white paint. Painting was the longest part of this project. Paining all the white spindles was time consuming. I never really tape anything off (I feel like it takes too much time). So, I just had to be careful and try not to get white paint on any of the freshly stained wood. If you are worried, just use painters tape and tape off any areas where you don’t want to get white paint on your fresh new stain. In total, painting took about 2 hours. I had to do several coats.
In the end, I really liked how it turned out. The stairs cost me less than $10, but it totally changed the look of my garage! I decided not to add a clear protective top coat because I liked the matte finish, and I thought it would be easier to re-stain later if the stairs needed a touch up. I did the stairs about 3 months ago, and they still look great. I can’t see any wear. So far, the stain is holding up well.
Hope you enjoyed this project! If you have gross garage stairs like I did, give them some love with paint and/or stain. Let me know how your project goes!