Stairwell Before

So remember this post from the other week? I thought I'd go back in time and do a little reminiscing about what that part of our house used to look like. Are you ready? I don't know that you are, but here goes anyway :) .....

AAAAAAAAHHHHHH! Holy pink carpet Batman!!!!

Pure hideousness!! So last year around Christmas, knowing that there was hardwood underneath (yes, even the first level's floor was covered in this monstrosity and you can see above where we'd already taken that up) I went to town on these steps, slowly erasing the last trace of the evil pink monster :)

In the photo above you can see the weapons of choice one would use to kill a pink monster, should you ever be so unfortunate as to encounter one yourself - but I sure hope you never do!

10 steps, 1 landing, a gajillion staples and 1 bad backache later, it's okay - I'm better now :), I had this!

And this!



Let's take a little bird's eye view of the landing, shall we? We shall:

Aaaah, that's better. Hello beautiful wood, goodbye fugly pink carpet.

Also, since the slaying of the pink ogre (which was nowhere NEAR as nice as Shrek!) I've painted the facing of each step and the side moulding in semi-gloss white to give it nice contrast and a classic, traditional look.

Here's a before and after, side-by-side. The after photo is one I took of my pumpkins for Halloween this past October:

 What a difference, right???!!!!!! I'm in luuuuuuuuuuve :)  Oh, and my pumpkins now say 'Thankful'. The 'Halloween' and 'Thankful' pumpkin idea is one I found on another blog earlier in the year and I knew I HAD to copy. I love blogland - I find such inspiration there every day.

So that's the story of how one ugly and worn pink carpet was laid to rest, making me one happy girl...and my husband too...a happy boy, that is :) 

The End.

p.s. Installing pink carpet in anyone's home should be a federal crime.

p.s.s. Stay tuned for an upcoming project once again involving the stairwell (yes, I'm going to beat this portion of our house into shape once and for all) and it may or may not - ok it definitely will- have something to do with this:

Can't wait!!! Til then, have a great day!

~Amy

Stairwell went well

**This post has been edited afterwards to include where I got the items used in this project and some other tidbits about the photos**

The other day I had a day off from work and I decided to take on a project I've been thinking about doing for a little while now. I reveal to you, my staircase! :)

Here's the view at bottom of stairs looking up:

Here are a few closeups of some of the frames as you ascend - all of the frames I either already owned, or I bought them from yard sales, dollar stores, and the Salvation Army. The letter 'S' was from Joann Fabric (used a 40% off coupon) the little frames were from the Dollar Tree and the medium-sized dark brown frame was from the Salvation for $1.50 or something close.

See the little kid and grown-up in the frame with the little scrolly things in the corner? That's me and my grandfather at the railroad station in front of a train - I was probably only 5 years old there and it's one of my favorite kid pictures :)

And sorry for the flash reflection in the black and white photo above - that's a picture a friend of ours took a looooooong time ago near the bus stop on Market Street in downtown Harrisburg. I like it because you can see people in the background waiting on a bench, but my eye is drawn to the foreground on a beautiful tree's full foliage.

 In this crossword collage, the numbered puzzles say 1982 (the year we were born, 7/3 (our first date), and 10/9 (the month, day and year - 10/10/09 - we were married)

That's my cute hubby in the white frame :) the frame used to be a different color (like a two-toned atrocity kind of thing, haha) so i just spray painted it off white.

The picture of us with the field and mountain behind us was taken on a romantic getaway up to the Poconos for my husband's birthday. That was hands down one of the best trips I've ever taken - besides our honeymoon destination of course.

The Country Wisdom Almanac pages are in a shadow box that used to be brasstastic :) again, I made uss of my off-white spray paint here.  The green scroll design was actually on the side of a brown paper gift bag and i really liked it so I tried it in the frame. You can kinda see the bag's fold lines so I may or may not switch it out later on.

And the T in the small white frame at the bottom is for "Trust God. He's your biggest fan."

When all is said and done, the goal is to have it look like this (pic from the set of abc’s Modern Family) with board and batten on the bottom half under the pictures:

(photo from here)

And just to round out the top of the stairs, here’s what’s in the hallway on the wall directly in front of you:

I plan on doing more board and batten there as well, but a bit taller, like maybe to just under the wreath.

That pic was taken on our 1-year anniversary: same day, same time, same place, same two people in love :)


Hope everyone's enjoying their Fall and looking forward to Thanksgiving!!


~Amy