I am a notorious carpet ripper upper. I'll tear that nasty stuff out any time i can and paint whatever is underneath - I don't care.
When i showed my daughter a photo of my painted stairs this weekend she told me how much she used to hate it when they were younger and lived with me - and i tore up carpet and painted the floors.
Ok... you know, after the fifty million traumas they put me through - I guess i can just live with them not liking that habit of mine
Anyway - they still need some touch ups and some sealer but
here they are!
I don't have any before photos, but just imagine an off white berber carpet that was about 12 years old and looking gray and dingy -
Here it is all taped off
Doing the whole thing was more about patience than it was about being difficult. I hired someone to rip up the carpet because it was so totally worth it to pay $20.00 an hour for the hour and a half it took to pull out the carpet, tack strips and staples
Then i painted the stairs white with floor and deck paint - which for some reason took 4 coats - that was torture
then taped it off
and then....
had to choose the stripe color
Sooooo, why is choosing a paint color for walls and or stairs the hardest possible thing in the universe?!!!
FINALLY I narrowed it down to two colors, started with one of them - nixed that, and then painted them this gray that looked like it would be perfect
AND.....
IT WASN'T PERFECT!
It was just OK
You know how you do something and you try really hard to like it - and then you go #&!?%#?! because you know you aren't ever going to like it...
That was me
In the photo below can you see that the stripe on the left is more gray?
that is the color i did not like
the rest of the stripes that are more blue gray are the stripes i had repaint by hand AFTER i had pulled up the tape
patience patience patience ... grrrrrr
It is pretty fun though to walk in the front door and see these pretty stairs, so it was worth it
Alrighty then, enough about the stairs!
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Check out "Willow"!
She is around 9 months old and she is so grown up!
This is a photo of Willow when she is being good...
I swear this cat has attention deficit disorder - seriously - i know cats are active, but she has no attention span
she will snuggle in with you, get all just right, and then 4 seconds later she's over it and up doing something else
leave it to me to get a cat with ADD
...and she can be so very sweet, follows us into each room we go into... so happy to see us after work and full of purrs
she's fine with face petting, and face kisses
rubbing her back is ok sort of if she's in the right mood
but don't even think about touching that cute furry tummy
i just want to get all in there, but it ain't happenin because i don't want to loose an appendage
Willow wants nothing more in the world than to go outside, but she's supposed to be an inside cat.
It seems so wrong not to let her out to walk in the sweet spring grass - she flings herself at the storm door trying to catch moths and get outside
it's sad and it just doesn't seem natural to me
have any of you ever tried an electric fence with cats?
I'm thinking about it and could use some advice
and now i'm turning into a person who talks about their cat
sorry...
still ... electric fence with cats? anyone tried that?
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Anyway, the phlox and candytuft and viburnum are blooming and it is just all to die for...
hope you all are having an amazing spring...
...the end...
Your stairs are amazing. I really could never do that! I just do not know how you got it so perfectly straight?! I would have just painted them all white and called it a day.
ReplyDeleteAs for Willow...keep her in. I felt the same way with our Lily. She was a good kitty too and would never go too far. We have wetlands behind us so she thought she was in paradise. But one day she got her leg caught on our fence and was hanging upside down screaming. When my daughter and son ran to free her they got scratched and bit by her. Then my Husband tried go help and got bit too. The wounds were deep so they had to take antibiotics in case of infection. My daughters wound was so deep that they thought they might have to do surgery. The next day Animal Control showed up at our front door because the Doctor reported it. Our cat was quarantined for 29 days and required to get a chip and city license...costing a pretty penny. We could not believe it. She is our pet and was up to date on all her shots. Crazy! Needless to say, she is an indoor cat forever now. Its been 3 yrs now. Its nice not to have to worry a out her too.
Sorry for such a long comment! I hope it helps. xo
I love your painted stairs. They look great!!
ReplyDeleteKathy
Ok Cindy,
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous look for your home, don't you just love all that carpet out of your home?
It's so much more easier to clean a painted surface then to deal with matted, worn, dirty carpets....everything feels so much more cleaner with raw floors.
Willow must feel like you are punishing her getting rid of all her scratching posts. I wish I had stairs to paint, I have seen some really cool ideas with step painting....# Numbers going up the steps, wall paper patterns or hand painted scenes on the faces like little canvas prints, her Cindy you could do that to a few steps paint a farm scene on the kick spot of farms with your sweet live stock :)
I want to add your steps you could sand them a bit here and there adding a bit of distressing with a palm sander making some forced worn areas then when they age and get nic's and scratches it has a worn beauty without the stress of Ooooh Noooo! Have to touch up the steps again feeling. After aging them you can finish the. With a nice Marine Varnish like on boats and you will enjoy them for life ( Spar-Varnish )
I helped a China painter Friend of mine who Painted for Disneyland, her China pieces were for sale in a shop on main street Disney. We both being artist in Tromp L'oeil art went crazy doing her staircase, and her whole wrap around front porch.
Well my dear, your home is so magazine cottage worthy.
See you soon Cindy, I need to look and see if there is something I can paint.... Guess what? My daughter and I were talking about doing our cement front porch ... Will just have to see what French thing we come up with, without being to crafty.
Xx
Dore
I have a cat that is crazy acting too, hubs says she is mental! My 3 yr old kitty is here to play with her which helps. She used to run for the door whenever she heard it open. She got out once without us seeing her. I went to let the dogs out and it was raining and cold, she came streaking in, never wants out now. I would suggest a harness and a leash but really it is safer for kitties indoors. She is used to it now. Sweet Willow, so pretty. Love your stair update, ripped the carpet off ours a few months ago, still to be painted. Patty/NS
ReplyDeleteThe people in my neighborhood have screened in porches. We call them Catios. It's much safer then letting them outside.
ReplyDeleteI love your steps, too. I don't care at all for carpeting on steps either. Yours look great-funny what your daughter said about that though.
ReplyDeleteNever would think about putting a cat out with an electric fence...you mean kind of like a shocker collar that they use for dogs, I am assuming?
Good luck with that! Hope you have a great night- xo Diana
Your stairs look amazing! Love the color and the stripes! Awe...Willow is so sweet.Well Cindy our cat is the totally opposite. She will sit on your lap until the day you die...seriously..a total lap cat.Yes very sweet...but she can drive you nuts as she is very needy....follows me all day long! But we love her <3. Hmmmm not sure about an electric fence and a cat.I would ask a vet.Beautiful Phlox...I love the scent!
ReplyDeleteyou did such an unbelievably gorgeous job, cindy! the blue grey is so perfect, i can't stand it. does it help you at all to hear that my own grown kids prob spend time on the therapist's couch with their laundry lists of how they have been scarred by a mom with problems? someday they will all understand that living with an artist was truly the gift of a lifetime. you and your soul are so beautiful, cindy. peace to you right where you are.
ReplyDeleteLOVE the stairs...love them! My munchkin cat, Woody is bi-polar. one minute he is happy go lucky, and fun...the next he's so down, he's border line demonic. He stares at me from the other room, then slinks into the living room, and disappears. All of a sudden he's on the back of the sofa latched onto my hair. I try to stand up, but he's got my hair in his teeth!! I use the can of air that you spray the keys on your computer keyboard to get him off me!!! I've tried water, but that doesn't work, because he likes being in the shower!! so, I totally understand living with an ADD cat. Electric fence? Woody would consider that a breeze....he's a stumpy legged Ninja.
ReplyDeleteYour flowers are gorgeous!!!
Debbie
xoxo
Willow is darling!! And I've found inspiration here for our stairs. We're ripping out the carpet and this would be the perfect look. I love it!
ReplyDeleteLove the Stairs... and the hilarious comment about the fifty million traumas kiddos put us thru and being okay with whatever Couch Time they end up with from our little quirks, right? *winks* Okay, so mine aren't so little and they'll probably all need serious Couch Time from growing up around my obsessions, but it's still a fair trade off since I've raised two generations so I'm probably up to way over fifty million traumas now... I'll probably suffer from PTSD from the Child Rearing in fact. Your Fur Baby is Adorable and no I have never tried Electric Fencing because all but one of our long lineage of Fur Baby Cats were Strays or Ferals that Adopted us and aren't comfortable with being in Captivity or in a house. I wonder if the Cat Whisperer has a Blog or something and could offer a suggestion, he seems to know everything about Cats and he's way Cool and Interesting. Happy Spring from the Arizona Desert... Dawn... The Bohemian
ReplyDeleteFabulous job on the stairs, beautiful flowers and stinkin cute cat! So many blessings!
ReplyDeleteCindy -- you should paint a picture of Willow! She looks "enough" like our big ol' MacSimba that I could buy a print and pretend it's of our kitty! ha...
ReplyDeleteKimberly Bruhn
Your stairs look amazing…can't imagine getting all of those lines straight…fabulous!!
ReplyDeleteMy dear, my Maine-Coon-Mix just has a balcony, and he is happy with it, does not want to go outside. He is not allowed to go outside, because he is ill, just special food keeps him healthy, and if little Mr. would eat a mouse, it would kill him. So he lives with us in our appartement, and he is healthy and happy, is used to this now. If I had a garden, he would have a huuuuge aviary, but so we (no joke) have a birchtree in our sleeping room :)) for him to feel goooood...
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this name Willow - if the name of our Hobbit was noch Hobbit, we would call him Willow.
And I had to laugh, at first I thought, "Oh no, this before was so much better, what HAS SHE DONE?", because I just saw the blue stripes and thought, this was an after, hahaha. But reading helpes.. jaja, and know I see, how it was meant, hahaha
Gorgeous work, lookes so unique and... when it chippes here and there, it will have the patina of your life - your footsteps will create such a wondeful look then...
I wish you a wonderful week, here morning broke, greetings from Méa from Germany :)