Recently, I painted the stair risers rainbow, which turned out to be a very satisfying weekend project—and I loved how it turned out! Elsie helped me pick out the colors. We were aiming for something a little more muted, and of the 13 stairs, we wanted to lean a little more into warm colors than cool. It feels like a fun little surprise when you open the door that leads upstairs—it’s whimsical! 
Here are the stairs before I painted them rainbow. Another goal I had was to fill a lot of the old nail holes and small cracks/crevices before painting. Since we had the floors refinished a few years ago, the white really shows off how chewed up these old wood stairs actually were.
Supplies:
-paint samples (I used interior latex paint in an eggshell finish)
–nail hole filler
–sandpaper or sanding block (fine grit)
–paint brushes
–painter’s tape
Step One: Before I even bought the paint samples, I laid out the paint chips to make sure I was happy with the progression of colors. I’m a visual person and it always helps me to take little steps like this to see if I’ll be happy with the final result before spending too much time on a DIY project.
Step Two: After wiping down the stairs, I used the above nail hole filler. After it was completely dry, I sanded the surfaces smooth and then cleaned off the stairs again. This took longer than I thought and was WAY less fun than painting the colors. Ha. But I filled so many holes, it was insane.
Step Three: Tape off the areas you will paint. You may also want to use a small drop cloth as you work from top to bottom.
*I should also mention, if your stair risers aren’t already white (like mine) you may need to prime them first after taping off. I didn’t need to since they were already white.
Step Four: Starting from top to bottom, paint the risers. I only had four brushes so I had to clean them in between at times. I also needed two coats of paint, so I had to wait for the first coat to fully dry. I worked on this project over two days.
After the paint is dry, remove the tape. If needed, use a very small paint brush to fill in any small areas if the tape wasn’t sufficient.
Here are the BEHR paint colors I used, from the top to the bottom:
Thanks for letting me share my rainbow stairs DIY with you! xo. Emma
Rainbow Stairs DIY
Ingredients
- paint samples
- nail hole filler
- sandpaper or sanding block, fine
- paint brushes
- painter's tape
Instructions
-
Before I even bought the paint samples, I laid out the paint chips to make sure I was happy with the progression of colors. I’m a visual person, and it always helps me to take little steps like this to see if I’ll be happy with the final result before spending too much time on a DIY project.
-
After wiping down the stairs, I used the above nail hole filler. After it was completely dry, I sanded the surfaces smooth and then cleaned off the stairs again.
-
Tape off the areas you will paint. You may also want to use a small drop cloth as you work from top to bottom.
-
Starting from top to bottom, paint the risers. I only had four brushes so I had to clean them in between at times. I also needed two coats of paint, so I had to wait for the first coat to fully dry. I worked on this project over two days. After the paint is dry, remove the tape. If needed, use a very small paint brush to fill in any small areas if the tape wasn’t sufficient.
Notes
Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.
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