It's thyme to paint a FLAG runner in the stairs

After painting my

 Play it again Sam Mural

in my stairs I decided I couldn't stop there!

I decided to paint a FLAG runner in the stairs! 

Here is the step by step process that I used to paint it

You can read about how I painted 

my 

Play it again Sam mural

HERE

When we bought the house the stairs were carpeted

we removed the carpeting. 

Underneath was just plywood so we had to buy all new stair threads adnd risers

which made this project  somewhat easier

Wow! 13 risers x 13 stair threads = 26 new surfaces to paint on!!

I first primed all the stair threads and risers

 

I painted all the stair risers using 

Olde Century paint

The color I used was Old Navy

I added a product from 

Vermont Natural Coatings 

to my paint to 

make it durable for floors

Stair threads

I stained each of the stair threads using 

MinWax Golden Oak

My husband then installed them in the stairway

He then installed the NAVY blue risers that I had painted

I then proceeded to measure 

and

 tape off where my runner would be painted

I basecoated that using several coats of white allowing 

each coat to dry well in between.

This was

 NOT A QUICK PROJECT!!!

My stairs go up to a landing then turn

then there are 5 more steps up to the second floor

stairway looking down from top

after applying about 5 good coats of 

WHITE paint

 and 

allowing it to dry

I measured and taped off for the 

RED stripes

( the BLUE you see is my painters tape)

 first painted where the RED stripes 

would be with a base coat of GRAY as a primer

as RED is a very difficult color to paint and get good coverage!

This whole process took me about 2 weeks to complete

We were still able to carefully go up and down the stairs 

stepping only on the very sides of the stair threads where it had been stained

It was so EXCITING to remove the tape and see the stripes after all that hard work!!

Now it was thyme to paint the field of the flag runner!

I painted the landing in the stairs with Old Navy

the same color that I had painted the risers

Now to paint some stars!!!!!

I consulted my "in house engineer" AKA husband Pete to plan out 13 

perfectly placed stars in a circle as a template

I then used a stencil to draw the stars on, 

I then hand painted them on the BLUE field

stairway looking from top 

completed BLUE field

I finished the flag runner by applying about 5 coats of 

MinWax Polycrylic Protective Finish

 to protect them

This product is water based.

This was a BIG project to complete but oh so worth it!!

Happy Painting !

Lynn

"Each day is a new canvas to paint upon. 

Make sure your picture is full of life and happiness, 

and 

at the end of the day you don't look at it 

and 

wish you had painted something different." 

~Author Unknown