Step it up with a stairway makeover

Your home should rise up to greet you, lifestyle experts preach. Sprucing up your stairway is a simple start.

"Stairs are architectural details that should be played up," said Karol Nickell, editor in chief of Fresh Home magazine. "But they often get ignored because they're passageways. People forget that they're the transition between the public and private places in the home, which makes them important."

Patricia Shackelford of Kansas City, Mo., felt uplifted when a candy-colored striped runner recently spiffed up her stairway. "Is it possible that the installation of a carpet runner would offer such joy?" she wrote in her blog, Mrs. Blandings (www.mrs blandings.blogspot.com). "Can you imagine your heart skipping, not a beat, but just skipping?"

How does she feel about her stairs now, after her three sons, ages 7, 10 and 13, as well as the family's boxer, Rosie, have trounced up and down hundreds of times in one of the snowiest winters in history?

"The same," Shackelford said. "It's wearing well."

However, she concedes that no one wears shoes in the house, which is why the cotton runner still looks new. In a shoe-wearing house, wool is better at taking a beating -- especially in high-traffic areas.

Shackelford used two Dash & Albert rugs as runners. It took installers about half a day to staple them in place to the stairs. The project cost about $750.

There are other ways to add a little springtime to our steps, Nickell said. Painting the risers -- not the treads -- a contrasting color is a smart choice.

"It would also improve safety because it's easier to see each step as you go up," she said.

The skirting of the staircase in front entrances, often painted the same color as the molding, also could be painted a new color.

"You could even stencil in a traditional support bracket and paint it a bright color like lime green," she said. "And when you got sick of it, you could just paint over it."

Another idea Nickell likes is using carpet tiles, which are easy for do-it-yourselfers to install.

Aubrey McClintock of Old Forge, Pa., and her husband, Lee, swapped out their scuffed rubbery stair treads for zebra-print Flor carpet tiles.

"It was a huge change right away," said McClintock, who shows crafting and home projects on her blog, A Daily Obsession (www.adailyobsession.com). "I really wanted animal prints. ... They're not over the top, but they're fun."

Even though the carpet tiles include adhesive on the backing, she opted to staple them in place since they're also on the treads. The staples are concealed within the nap of the rug.

The change was fairly inexpensive, about $100, and McClintock likes the fact that it's easy to pull the squares and change them out.

'Instant pick-me-up'

"You could go to home-improvement stores or online for vintage decorative tiles and it wouldn't cost a lot," she said. "You could do one or two lines per riser in a beautiful color, and they're an instant pick-me-up."

Casey Simmons of Kansas City took tiling her stairs several steps further. About eight years ago, she installed mosaics of tile samples, shells and river rocks from vacations, as well as broken dishes to the treads of the stairs leading up from the lower level.

"I love them," said Simmons. "When I'm talking on the phone, I'll go and sit on the rocks. It created a nice nook. They feel great underfoot, too, like those pebbly massagers."

Simmons spent six to 12 hours on each step in yoga-like positions to accomplish the elaborate mosaics. She knows their eclectic, beach-bungalow look isn't for everyone.

"Someone could do it in one color palette or one style of tile, and it would be sophisticated," she said. "And at the same time, personal."