Last winter I painted the hallway. And by hallway I mean the entire first floor main entrance, the staircase up to the second floor, and the entire second floor hallway. Basically, every ‘common’ area that isn’t a room. I’ll share some pics of that project later, because it was quite the process. I’m a bit pressed for time this week because I leave for Japan on Saturday! JAPAN! So excited. More to come on that later too.

Anyhoo, one of the major issues in our hallway was the staircase. Or the stairs, banister and spindles to be more precise. Not only did they need painting, but the stairs needed a runner.

Our oldest dog needs to be careful on the stairs so we really wanted something that would ensure he wouldn’t slip. And honestly, thinking about not hearing every single step anyone would take was a nice thought.

The three main factors I considered were quite obviously first, appearance. Second, price and third, durability. We needed something that wouldn’t cost a fortune and would wear well because our dogs go up and down them quite literally 100 times a day. Some days I feel like I do too! I didn’t want to feel guilty three years from now tearing up a $1000 runner because it had been ruined by excessive use, or excessive paw prints, or a wine spill (these things happen).

It took a year,but thanks to my most wonderful BFF and an amazing blog, the stairs now have a great looking runner, that cost next to nothing, and so far is wearing crazy well. And to top it all off, my DIY loving self got to install it! Hashtag awesome.

When visiting said BFF in late December she said to me, “you’re still looking for a runner solution right?”. She went on to say just that morning a blog she follows posted a great DIY runner that looked great. We had a look, she sent me the link to Little Green Notebook, and the rest as they say, is history.

Within a week I had visited IKEA to get my supplies (total cost $150!!!). A week after that (Christmas interrupted my DIY plans…LOL) I got to work following Jenny’s blog exactly. And two and a half hours after I started, project staircase was complete!

So, here are the stairs after I had painted the hallway, trim, and spindles (I love the banister natural wood).

Unlike Jenny’s stairs, I decided to paint ours black. For two reasons, painting black over the cruddy brown that was there clearly was easier than painting white. And secondly, we have dogs who leave paw prints. Black wins every time.

Here are the stairs with just the black paint before I put down the runner.

And here is the finished awesomeness!!! It’s been two months now and the runner is holding up really well. I am super pleased!

ps. This is why I love blogs. You can find such amazing inspiration! Huge thanks to Jenny for not only making Little Green Notebook a great blog I am now reading regularly, but also for sharing SUCH an awesome project. 100% credit goes to her for this great idea I was just inspired to recreate. And of course, BFF I love you.

pps. the painting is one of mine.