[TinyFargo]

My house has pretty standard oak flooring and oak stair treads. The entire house has stained dark wood trim. A previous owner made (in my opinion) a poor design choice by painting the risers of the staircase white. None of the walls in the house are white. It shows all kinds of marks when people bump the risers with their shoes. Most importantly, the wife doesn't like it.

Is there a best practice for the right finish to put on stair risers? I see my options as:
1. Repaint, but with a more appropriate color. Something that at least goes with the walls.
2. Sand / strip the risers and:

a. Match the flooring
b. Match the trim
c. Use some other finish​

3. Instead of stripping the risers, cover them with a thin piece of wood to avoid the hassle of stripping and the fact that the stripped risers may not accept a wood finish evenly. There's about a 1 1/4" nosing on each step, so I have enough space.

I was thinking that 2b was the way to go and proceeded to sand the paint off of 1 riser. Due to the huge hassle, I'm questioning my decision. Pic attached. Thanks in advance - your thoughts are appreciated.

 

[Nealtw]

Often that wood is nothing more than a white board when it goes in and not a hardwood. You could just cover it with 1/4" plywood stained first or even buy pre finished but you will have to a cove molding top and bottom and that will be fiddly work on the outside edge. It will still get marked up.

 

[mark sr]

I'd either repaint the risers in a color [enamel paint] that is more pleasing to you or stain/finish 1/4" plywood to match or compliment the existing stain. If you finish it first you might get by with just puttying up the nail/staple holes.

 

[Bud9051]

The light/dark contrast would be very desirable in my house as my wife has vision issues. I have had to use reflective tape strips on each tread to help her.

Maybe match the wall color and use a paint that is easy to clean.

Bud.

Mark was 1 minute faster

 

[TinyFargo]

Thanks for your perspectives!

Bud, I did not even think about the contrast helping with seeing it.

Neal, the one board that I sanded looks like pine 1x8's that were trimmed down to fit.

Mark, great idea to finish it first...then I don't have to worry about getting the wrong finish on the treads or the walls.

 

[de-nagorg]

I would get a sheet of Formica, whatever color that suits you, and cut panels from it to fit over those that are there, and use contact cement to adhere the Formica panels over those risers.

It should be scuff resistant, and stay nice for a long time.

A contrasting color, is for safety, and the safer that you can build stairs, the better.


ED

 

[TinyFargo]

Ed, Formica sure would save me some time as compared to the stain & poly process. They offer free samples so I ordered one that's close to the trim color to try to visualize how it would look.

 

[Bud9051]

Ed, I was also thinking Formica, thin and easy to clean, but didn't post it, afraid I be booed out of town. My counters are all Formica and 40 years old, still doing fine.

Bud

 

[Mystriss]

I'd try painting them the dark brown (trim) color and see how she likes it, then if that wasn't pleasing to her, try thin oak veneer or the 1/4" oak.

I think the prob you're going to run into on the latter is that it looks like that outside tread board is flush/mitered into the edges of your risers, ya might need to cut out another piece of the 1/4" oak to add to the tread board, using the existing dark brown board as a kinda outline kinda would look nice though.

 

[de-nagorg]

Ed, I was also thinking Formica, thin and easy to clean, but didn't post it, afraid I be booed out of town. My counters are all Formica and 40 years old, still doing fine.

Bud

Bud: If I worried about other people's opinions of some things that I have done, and know works, I would be in an asylum playing Tiddly- Winks, by myself.

People all have different ideas, likes, dislikes, that is what makes the world an interesting place to be in.

And there is nothing wrong with still having Formica Counter tops, as long as the corners don't separate.

If they separate, it's easy to re cement them back to the structure.

ED

 

[Old Thomas]

I would overlay 1/4” oak veneer plywood. It will leave an inch of nosing which is standard.

 

[TinyFargo]

I'd try painting them the dark brown (trim) color and see how she likes it, then if that wasn't pleasing to her, try thin oak veneer or the 1/4" oak.

I think the prob you're going to run into on the latter is that it looks like that outside tread board is flush/mitered into the edges of your risers, ya might need to cut out another piece of the 1/4" oak to add to the tread board, using the existing dark brown board as a kinda outline kinda would look nice though.

That's very observant, and I'd noticed that too. Yes, a downside of covering the risers is that the bottom few steps are mitered at a 45 to the risers. Anything I cover it with would have its side show. I'd need to figure out how to resolve that; whether mitering the riser covering myself and covering up that entire tread board, or perhaps doing something else creative. Food for thought.

 

[ront02769]

Where I am the Oakland white is a pretty classic look.....see it everywhere. Just make the paint a high gloss washable.

 

[mark sr]

I agree that white risers along with white woodwork looks nice but white risers will always be prone to scuff marks. Most any decent enamel will be washable.

 

[Mystriss]

That's very observant, and I'd noticed that too. Yes, a downside of covering the risers is that the bottom few steps are mitered at a 45 to the risers. Anything I cover it with would have its side show. I'd need to figure out how to resolve that; whether mitering the riser covering myself and covering up that entire tread board, or perhaps doing something else creative. Food for thought.

I think I didn't explain my idea well enough... (Note I didn't fill in the oak all the way across the riser boards, but those would be the oak 1/4" boards, of course)

Miter corners at blue lines.

To finish it, I'd copy the routed edge profile on the top of the brown board over to the bottom edge of the "left side" brown board (red circle and arrow)

Then you can match the round over profile of the step's bullnose to the oak panel edge on the "left side" (pink circle and arrow)

If you really want it to blend in like it "was built that way" then you can add an oak panel section going all the way up the stairs over top the brown board on "the right."

Basically using the existing brown board as a "shadow" and also providing depth too.

 

[TinyFargo]

I appreciate the ideas, everyone.

Update: The 2 formica samples came in the mail yesterday and the colors are very different than they looked on the computer screen, so I ordered a second batch of samples. I did at least get a sense that the material could possibly work if I find a color/texture that's close to what we're looking for.

Once the second batch of samples arrives, I'll get aligned with my wife's opinions and post an update.

 

[TinyFargo]

After going through some samples, my wife seems to want to go with vinyl stair riser decals. I had no idea such a thing existed. It's cheap, seems to go on like wallpaper, and if we hate it, we just take it off. Sounds like a decent enough solution to me. Thanks for the advice all. Will post a picture if we ever settle on an exact design...we've been going back and forth on our preferences.

 

[de-nagorg]

The best thing that YOU can do is say .

Yes Dear.

Remember the old advice, " A happy Wife = A happy life."

ED

 

[Mystriss]

You got off easy with the stickers (there's some great ones on Amazon BTW)

I'm making my husband replace the entire staircase :vs_laugh: