When we bought our house last year, we had all these grand plans to redo every room and install all kinds of fancy things… including a new bannister. Because we live in a split-level, the first thing that you see when you walk into our home is a staircase. Not chic. The bannister was dated and ugly, and I wanted to replace it with a super expensive new, more modern one. Unfortunately, after all the other changes we’ve made, it was out of budget so I had to find a way to update the space in an affordable way.
After attending a DIY course with Amy Howard and ACE Hardware, a brilliant idea popped into my head. I had seen a navy lacquer bannister at the Serena & Lily store in Westport, and wanted to emulate that look for less. The total cost of this transformation was under $400 (broken down below).
As you can see in the “before†photos, the landing was empty, and there was a whole lot of brown… aka my worst nightmare. Now it’s inviting, bright, and so much better thanks to a few easy DIY projects! The best part? All of the tools for this project can be found at your local Ace.
We started by painting all of the brown portions of the bannister with Amy Howard at Home One Step Paint in American Dream. It couldn’t have been easier, and that’s coming from someone who is fairly new to DIY. It took one round of light sanding with a 400 grit sandpaper and two coats of paint. When it dried, we sprayed it with Amy Howard at Home Bright Idea Furniture Lacquer to get the beautiful shiny finish I was looking for.
Once it was done, I had the idea to add a side table to hold things like keys, gloves, and the dog’s leash. I picked up the one you see here at Home Goods for $100 and used the same steps to paint it. It was originally a cream color, which we left on the piping of the drawers and doors.
We spray painted the hardware gold (originally silver) with Amy Howard Gold Egg Furniture Lacquer. I love how it turned out.
The last step was to add a durable rug that I could easily wash, as it’s bound to get dirty in its highly-trafficked location. The rug adds a lot of warmth to the previously bare and cold looking space.
Now when people come over, I’m excited for their first impression of our home. This change has made such a difference!
Here is the breakdown of cost for this project:
One Step Paint, 1x bottle (and we still had some leftover!): $15.99
Bright Idea Furniture Lacquer, 1x can: $14.99
Paint brush: $5.99
Table with drawers: $100
Gold Egg Furniture Lacquer: $59.96
Rug: $192
Total: $389. So impressive, right?
Thank you to ACE Hardware for sponsoring this post.