DIY Fair Isle Painted Stairs Renovation
DIY hand-painted stairs in a Fair Isle pattern are the eye-catching centrepiece of this hallway.
Image: Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary
On a small budget and fancy redecorating?
Transform your stairs into a work of art with a little bit of acrylic crafter's paint, some Fair Isle knitwear patterns and a steady hand!
Image: Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary
You Will Need:
- sandpaper - wood filler - white spirit - white matte paint - pencil & pencil sharpener - graph paper - Fair Isle knitwear patterns or photographs - coloured pencils - precision ruler - 1 piece wood beading (width of your stairs) - paper towel - acrylic paints in assorted colours - I used DecoArt Crafter's Acrylic - paint tray with several wells - clear matte varnish & white floor paint - 2.5 inch wide paint brush and a thin acrylic paint brush- I used Langnickel #1
The acrylic paint colours I used were: white, antique white, colonial blue, red carpet, paprika red, burgundy, navy blue, sky blue, orange spice, rainforest green, antique gold and yellow.
Step 1
First you need to prepare your bare stairs. Remove any nails and fill holes with wood filler. Allow the filler to dry and then sand down both the treads (the bit you walk on) and the risers (the bit you'll paint with the Fairi Isle patterns).
Wash and wipe down with white spirit to remove any traces of grease.
Paint a layer of white matt paint onto the risers (you could paint the treads with undercoat too, but I didn't). This makes the coloured acrylic paints stand out more.
Image: Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary
Step 2
Find some knitwear patterns that you like. I used patterns from Fair Isle textile designer Mati Ventrillon. Use Google Images to source free patterns online. Test out the colours of acrylic paint you have to find the best colour pairings.
Using graph paper and coloured pencils carefully transfer the patterns from the photos to the graph paper. I used Xs for the different colours and Os in pencil for white so it was easy to follow.
Make sure your patterns will fit the height of your risers. My stairs were 18cm high by 86cm wide.
Fair Isle knitwear patterns come in small, medium and large sizes. I alternated a large pattern (filling the whole stair) with a medium pattern (two rows of matching pattern per stair) for variation.
Step 3
Using a very sharp pencil (a battery operated pencil sharpener is really handy here as you'll be sharpening every few minutes!) and a precision ruler, mark the risers out in a 1 cm grid.
A piece of wooden beading cut to the width of your stairs makes it easier to mark out the horizontal lines, while a precision ruler will help with the vertical lines.
Use some paper towel to remove as much of the pencil lead as you can. You could even lightly wash with a bit of water, but take care not to remove the pencil lines - you'll need these as a guide.
Image: Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary
Step 4
Start painting!
Using both the image you chose and your graph paper pattern, with a steady hand begin painting the 1 cm squares with the background pattern colour. Leave to dry and then paint the foreground colours.
You will need to repeat this twice to get a good colour coverage to and to fix any wobbly hand errors. Don't worry if your squares aren't perfect or if you can see pencil lines, this gives it a rustic mosaic tile look!
Step 5
Persevere!
Painting these tiny squares takes some time and patience.
Try keeping your hand steady by resting one wrist on the other. Your arm will go numb so do take regular breaks and shake it off!
You'll need to paint the bottom step while laying on your belly on the floor. It's not the most comfortable position, so choose an simple pattern without a lot of detail/colours.
Image: Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary
Step 6
Paint the 1cm left and right hand gaps with white paint.
Using the 2.5 inch paint brush, seal the patterns in place with two or three coats of clear matt varnish.
Step 7
Paint the risers with two coats of white floor paint and stand back and enjoy your handiwork!
I painted my floorboards with the same white floor paint I used on the treads, the skirting boards with white gloss and the walls with apple white matt paint.
