Railing stain vs paint
5 years ago
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to chair rail or not to chair rail, that is the question!
Comments (5)In Postwar houses with the same kind of evil, rough, sanded-plaster walls that we had when I was five, a chair rail may protect chairs' finish or upholstery from getting shredded, but generally, a chair rail's protection is intended to work the other way around: not to protect the chairs, but to keep the paint unmarked & the plaster un-gouged from the chairs being knocked into or dragged along the walls. I'm just sayin'. But chair rails protect the walls from more than chairs. There are also kids, and while plain walls with smooth finishes were all the style thing in 1965, they're also a lot harder to maintain in pristine condition than walls broken up into separate sections with moldings, which moldings allow you to freshen the walls without too much effort. In our family we had four boys & assorted pets, and in no house we ever lived did the place look as dingy & dodgy as our 196Os ranch with its long, narrow corridors of mint green & aqua & pink. Up above, the brand-new walls were immaculate, but from doorknob height on down, it was always a mess. Worse, because there was no convenient cut-off place--as there would have been with a chair rail--you couldn't just touch up the wall where a say, the heel of cowboy boot had gouged the plaster during a corridor ambush of the posse by a gang of bad guys, or where an errant Big Wheel had gone out of control & left a dirty scrape all the way down the hall. Add to those occasional incidents the continual finger-dragging that little kids seem to do by nature, and the the general grimy area that you get when you combine narrow halls & large dogs, and you can see the logic of having a molding a few feet above the floor. But our house was crisp & Modern and it didn't have what were considered superfluous, old-fashioned moldings, so it was either paint the whole wall, end-to-end, floor-to-ceiling, or do nothing & just leave the marks & smears & chipped plaster. My mother, being an early proponent of Energy Conservation, chose the latter, with the result that that place always looked like hell. When we moved into a big old Craftsman Style house, with a dark oak dado that stood chest high in the hall & the corridors, my mom no longer had to worry about telltale dirt & scuff marks on the walls. Not, of course, that she ever did. Anyway, stylistically speaking, chair rails may be out of place in a Modern house, but for simple practicality, they're hard to beat....See MorePaint vs white stair handrails
Comments (12)Well the spindles are going to be white, since they've been partially painted. Maybe he doesn't like to stain. but I would prefer a stain on the post and the bannister. Rather than try to match, maybe go darker. Or, as phassink suggested leave them natural, but I would do at least two coats....See MoreHand railing stain/paint color help!
Comments (7)You can mix your own stain from other colors. You’ll need a close sample of the wood though. Maybe you can buy a sample of the same type of wood as your handrail to play with, then buy small cans of stains that are close to the color you want. I got some stainless measuring spoons at Walmart, and disposable styrofoam bowls or preferably leftover glass jars to play with mixes. Also consider buying sandpaper and wood conditioner to use before you stain - it affects the final color. I have had more success with ”original” oil based stains than with any fast-curing or water based or poly stains. I was able to match a piece of oak transition strip to a dark taupe stone tile. It was worth the trouble! You might be successful going with a darker version of the color on your stair treads. Dark colors are easier to get the desired effect, because it is easier to null out the yellow and red tones in the wood. My favorite new stain color is a smokey espresso! I would not paint it white if you are planning to use the handrail a lot....See MorePost and hand rail color
Comments (2)Thanks ! Kinda what I was thinking—but wanted to just see what other ideas were out there...See MoreRelated Professionals
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