Facebook
Instagram
What finish should you choose for wooden stairs?
-
Posted by
Stairs Sowosz
Once the wooden staircase structure is ready, it’s time for finishing work. They serve to protect the coating and give it an aesthetic appearance. What to begin with? How to finish stairs in your home? Can you do it yourself?
You can, of course, entrust the task to a renovation and construction team, but finishing wooden stairs is not difficult. If you have the time and desire, you will certainly be able to do all the work yourself. Here are the steps that will lead to the best result.
- Grinding ‒ the surface of the stairs must be perfectly smooth, so any imperfections must be carefully removed. It is best to use sandpaper to sand the coating, remembering to select the appropriate grit. Sand along the grain and check with your hand whether you actually achieve a smooth surface.
- Varnishing ‒ covering the stairs with varnish protects them against mechanical damage. Matte, semi-matte and glossy varnishes are available in stores, so consider what effect you want to achieve. It is recommended to varnish three times to obtain the appropriate thickness of the protective layer.
- Re-grinding ‒ after applying the first layer of varnish, it is worth sanding gently again to make sure that the coating is perfectly smooth. Obtaining it is necessary not only for aesthetic reasons, but also for the safety of subsequent use of the stairs.
If we want the stairs to look as natural as possible, even raw, they can be used after the varnish has hardened. But how should we finish wooden stairs (winder or straight) if we want to match their design to the interior, make them stand out somehow, and give them a unique character? The best way is to paint them.
Painting wooden stairs
Black, white, gray, beige, dark walnut or light ash… We can freely choose from the samples and choose the shade of stairs we like. It is a good idea to purchase color testers in advance. A given paint may look different in the store and in our home, so it is better to check it and avoid surprises.
Featured Products
What finish should you choose for wooden stairs?
Have you decided on wooden stairs in your home? Great choice! However, this is not the only decision that needs to be made. There remains the question of finishing the wooden stairs. What options do we have and which one is best? We will try to shed some light on this topic.
Painting wooden stairs is also the easiest way to refresh them, introduce a different style or renovate them. We write about renovating wooden stairs in a separate article – we invite you to familiarize yourself with the available techniques.
Before starting painting, make sure to protect the surrounding area. Using special painter’s tape, cover the walls, floors, any skirting boards and anything else you might accidentally get dirty while working. The surface of the stairs must be clean and dust-free.
The question remains: What to paint interior wooden stairs with?
Paint for wooden stairs
The paint you choose for wooden stairs is also important. Colors are colors, but what matters is its quality. It is best to choose reputable brands from well-known manufacturers. Good paint for wooden stairs is easy to apply, durable and scratch-resistant. Adhesion to the substrate is also important, so if you choose a low-quality paint, it may negatively affect the safety of moving on the stairs.
We can choose from the following paints:
- oil paintings ‒ durable, scratch-resistant, but take a long time to dry and have a characteristic, not necessarily pleasant, smell;
- acrylic ‒ they are easy to apply, dry quickly, but are considered less scratch-resistant than oil ones.
Please read the instructions before use. Use the tools indicated and ensure optimal working conditions, including interior temperature and appropriate humidity levels. After painting, do not use the stairs earlier than recommended by the manufacturer. Walking on freshly painted stairs prematurely can ruin the effect, so it is definitely worth waiting.
Stain for wooden stairs
An alternative to paint is stain, which is a substance used to impregnate wood and additionally give the surface a decorative color. Stain for wooden stairs has the advantage that it does not cover the grain. As a result, we achieve a beautiful, original, yet natural result: a shiny surface on which the wood structure is still visible.
Thanks to the stain, we protect wooden stairs against mold growth. It will be especially useful if you have a window in the stairwell through which sunlight enters the stairs. Although they beautifully illuminate the interior, in the long run they can be harmful to the wood.
You already know how to finish interior stairs and what materials you will need. High-quality construction – the kind you get when ordering wooden stairs from Sowosz ‒ is a guarantee of durability for years, and the appropriate finish, including the carefully selected color, will give your interior a unique character.
