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Home Decorating

Bad influence... pics

13 years ago

Stairs have been sanded and the first coat of stain applied. I went with Minwax English Chestnut and I think it came out too red. So on the third step I applied a second coat of Minwax Dark Walnut. What do you think?? During the week, DH will apply the second coat of stain. This weekend, we'll poly and hopefully get some white paint on the risers.

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Comments (9)

nanny2a
13 years ago
I think it looks marvelous thus far, and I'm envious of all of you that can do that with your stairs. Our staircase has 20 year old carpeting that looks awful and can't get clean anymore. I'd love to be able to do this type of treatment, but unfortunately, the stairs were built with particle board risers, so there's no hope for this type of finish. Oh well, one less project for me to worry about!

Can't wait to see your finished results!
azwildcats70
Original Author
13 years ago
The hardest thing is that we have two different types of hardwoods in our house. In the foyer, hall, downstairs bath and kitchen, we have random width peg floors. In the reading room, dining room (which flank the foyer) and the upstairs including the landing, we have Brazilian Cherry. The peg floors (which I like) are original to the house and the previous owner put in the Brazilian Cherry (which I don't like so much). I'd rather go darker than red.
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I'm a bad influence
Q
Comments (16)
I get my leaves from a neighborhood that is 4+ miles from my house where they bag leaves. I jam my pickup truck very full, including putting the cleanest bags inside the cab. Evidently the people who are supposed to pick up yard waste aren't very reliable, as one place where I was taking their bagged leaves off the curb the guy yelled "Thank you" out of the house. I saw another guy loading a trailer with bags of leaves. I thought at first it was another leaf stealer, but he was wandering around the yard such that it was clear he lived there. We eyed each other, finally I took some leaves from the house next to his. He asked when I was done and he took the rest, to the dump for alleged composting. I have been to that dump, it is shared by my town and his city, it is full of plastic bags and pots and all sorts of crap, I can't imagine where/how it gets composted. Anyway, I tried to convince him to take the leaves to my house instead of the dump (I live closer to him than the dump) but he said he had to pick up another person's leaves and he had some trash to throw out. I did get him to give me the pile of flower pots he was taking to the dump. Anyway, take other people's leaves if you can. I am glad of this neighborhood, in most of that county they just rake the leaves to the street. Marcia
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You people are a VERY bad influence.
Q
Comments (14)
ponce418, you know about summer sowing, don't you? You could ss a few of the seeds you have now, sweet william and snapdragons, maybe some others. If you do the sweet william this year you will have blooms next year. Learn from my mistake, get those beds enlarged or made now so those sprouts have a place to go when they are ready. Saves extra work of potting up or frantic digging. My DH loves when I dig up more sod, less lawn for him to mow. My first large bed was made at his suggestion so he didn't need to mow the slope. You might visit the seed trading and round robin forums. If you have more seeds in a packet than you need you can use some of those to trade. Some traders set up SASBE offfers. LOL, soon you will have to think of new ways to store all the seeds you will accumulate. Medontdo, I suggest you skip the landscape fabric and use cardboard. The cardboard (or newspaper) will break down and add to your soil. The landscape cloth will be there for years, and is difficult to cut through. My friends and I hate that stuff. Imagine us cussing (or at least thinking of cussing) when we run into the landscape fabric in our church garden. Also consider adding some soil and peat moss to your compost. Pure compost tends to dry out and gets crusty. I mulch with shredded leaves to keep weeds out. Paula, I started ws zinnias last year and am hooked. Each of the last 5 years I have sown more containers. Expect to sow fewer this winter as won't have to sow many perennials. I am adding an annual bed for next spring, starting to dig tomorrow, and will include zinnias.
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How bad is this? (Trying again with pic)
Q
Comments (1)
No pics post them in a comment wait till each is no longer grayed befor doing next one and then when all are done submit
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I was influenced by an influencer
Q
Comments (39)
I much prefer your bedroom to the IG one! and the pillows look better in your room, too. Probably because you chise them because you liked them, right? I have scrolled a couple of IG accounts and follow only one. I notice that the one I follow, as she has become bigger on IG her apartment has transformed to less personality. Why is that? I had a cat who was NOC to the neighbors. I figured it out when, one sleety blustery afternoon he didn’t come in for hours, despite my calling and tapping the Friskies can. He finally showed up hours later, dry and warm. Hmmmmm… I mentioned it to my neighbor, and she laughed. He’s spent the afternoon with them on their couch. He would come over most days, she said, meow at their back patio door, walk in, make a circuit around the condo, then sit in the middle of the living room floor. Françoise loved cats, Bill hated them, but he said ”Beau isn’t a cat, he’s a dog” and enjoyed his visits. True enough, I thought so, too, and did not consider it an insult to dogs or to cats lol.
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greenthumbfish
13 years ago
Looking good! I would continue with the Dk. Walnut as the 2nd coat to coordinate with the handrails color. I'm afraid the Chestnut may look like you were trying to match the BC and failed.
kjmama
13 years ago
I don't know what to say in terms of advice, but we just finished our floors. So many people rec engl chestnut to me. We ended up not choosing it though because Minwax must have just changed the formulas. From one can to the next, they were totally dif colors... One rich dark brown, the other very red in tone... I almost wondered if the lable was wrong.
I did read that 2 coats will not soak in right and can be sticky. This certainly was true on our cabinet. It took forever to dry with 2 coats. I had to get mineral spirits to get some off. You may want to test before plunging ahead with 2 coats.
juddgirl2
13 years ago
I think it looks great! It will be so pretty when you put the finish coat on and the richness of the wood comes out even more.
loribee
13 years ago
Good for you!!!
lala girl
13 years ago
That looks amazing!! So rich and substantial looking - awesome job!
teacats
13 years ago
Gorgeous!!!!

What a great project!

Can't wait to see more pics ! :)

Jan at Rosemary Cottage
cardamon
13 years ago
Wow, those are the best projects. For time spent, effort and not much money you just changed it for the so much better. They look wonderful. I took some of our stairway rug up and it was just wood that you'd cover up. You are fortunate. We just had hardwood installed on our stairs and I like it a lot. But I wish I could of done it your way. I hope you post when you get the white on the risers.

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