Done! Er, wait. Not done.

I stayed up late, working on the staircase, finished at 1:30 a.m., stepped back to look at the effect of my hard work ... and didn't like it.


It matches the old wood fairly closely, but the overall effect is too dark, especially with the dark tile. It changes the feel of the whole room, which had been more light and airy before I stained the stairs. It felt like a sullen stranger had moved into our dining room.

So I started thinking about how I could fix it. This stain color had not been my first choice ... I came to it through a series of events that included grabbing a gallon of stain while trying to keep track of two rampaging children in Menard's (never a good way to make decisions). My original vision had been to have a dark railing and white spindles -- I'd seen something like this in one of the Sarah Susanka Not So Big House books. With that in mind, I started playing with my photo in Photoshop and came up with this:

And I like that effect much better! It involves a good deal of detail painting -- first primer, then paint -- but I think it will be worth it. I'll just use the high-gloss trim paint I have for elsewhere in the house. I haven't varnished it yet, thank goodness, or this change would involve sanding the whole works again.

Dave wants to wait on this project till next summer, but I'd like to have it done before the Tour of Homes in December ... the paint isn't that stinky. I can even do it after we've moved in, if it's at all warm enough to have the windows open.

Gotta love Photoshop!