Staining the handrail

I began a job that in been both dreading and looking forward to. Painting the staircase.

David wanted to hire a painter to do it. But I said "don't be ridiculous, that will cost a fortune. Let me do it." He didn't think that I was serious, but I don't joke about renovating. Plus I love a challenge and telling me I can't do something makes me even more determined to prove them wrong. So here I am beginning to paint the staircase, thinking gee I hope I don't stuff it up.

If you don't recall my inspiration pictures, here they are again:

This is Mel's staircase at The Inspired Room blog.

I headed off to the paint shop to look at stains and ask how would be the best way to do it. They suggested doing the staining and varnishing of the handrail first, then paint the white posts. I chose a colour by Cabots called Indian Tea. It is a stain and varnish in one product and I got the water based version.

Indian Tea

I also got some sanding sponges (these are awesome as you can wash them out and reuse them) in a 180 grit but would have liked 220 but they didn't have any.  

The first step was to sand it all and then vacuum and wash off all the dust. That took about 45mins. Then I applied the first coat and already it looked fantastic.

I will have to do at least 1 more coat to darken it up and sand it in between each coat.

I have done almost all of the first coat on the whole handrail now so hoping to get more work done on that this weekend.

After work tonight, a plaster guy came to look at the job and give us a quote. If we like the price it is possible for him to get started on Monday and have the top level done by the end of next week. How exciting is that.

We have started moving things out of the back room so Dave can start laying the floorboards this weekend. Can't wait to see what they will look like on the floor. We also need to buy the flue for the fireplace this weekend too. Busy, busy just how we love it.

Cheers,
Nat