DIY Stair Runner & Gallery Wall

I am so excited to share our “DIY Stair Runner & Gallery Wall” with you today!  First, I need to give a little history, then I’ll share the two big reveals, a full DIY Stair Runner tutorial, and a mini section on how to create your own “Gallery Wall” easily.

Here we go…

A couple years ago I fell down our stairs and boy did that hurt.  Luckily, I caught myself by hanging on to one of the spindles, but pulled many muscles in my arm keeping myself up.  I knew then that it was time to install a runner on our very hard wood stairs.  These stairs are mainly used by our daughters and there was no way I was willing to risk them falling.  I also carry a ton of laundry up & down.  So, a few years ago I hired a rug company to come in and install a berber type rug runner on all 4 sections of our stairs.  You see, we have 2 sections that lead to the upstairs, and 2 sections that lead to the walk-out basement.  I made a few mistakes when choosing the runner and the biggest being the color.  What was I thinking with off white?  Someone must have drugged me.

Here’s what they looked like originally…

Here’s what they looked like after the old runner was installed, and we also painted them.  You can find all of that painting information here: Original Staircase Makeover.

They looked beautiful, and I was very happy for a couple years.

Then I got bored.  It didn’t help that the runner was getting dingy.  I have to admit though, it held up pretty well dirt wise, but it was still bringing me down.  Luckily, not down the stairs again.

So…I’m not sure if my style is changing, or what, but I had to try something different.

I needed a change, man.  Careful, this next image may put you to sleep.

Okay…so time to wake up.  I went bold, but not over the top.  Not only did we change our runner, I changed the walls.  Oh, yes I did.

POW!

POW!  POW!

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Ohhhh, I know.  You’re thinking, “But Julie…what if you get tired of the ‘pow’?”

My answer is…”I will change it again.”

Here’s our colorful new “trellis” runner up close…

And down hill…

I love the blues, and I also love the unique trellis design.  It looks super cool from a distance.  It’s definitely not dingy, and it really goes nice with the rest of our home.

Okay, now that you have gotten to know our new snazzy runner, what did you think of the gallery wall I designed?  Maybe the runner blinded you and you didn’t see it 😎 ?  Here it is before (notice that I left most of the old runner out of this old image because I knew it looked drab).

Here’s it is now 😆 …

Believe it or not, I put the “Golden Gallery Wall” together while my husband was working on the runner.  Most of it I had including the big sun, mirrors, stars, and angel.  The clock seemed to fit in because it’s white & gold.  The monogram F (for our last name) was actually wood toned, so I spray painted it gold with this gold spray paint.  In fact, I spray painted the arrow, the “DREAM BIG” frame, and the beaded plate all gold.  Apparently, I needed some gold in my life and I knew it would look pretty up against the navy blue runner.  In addition…the wall is fun.  My teens are fun, our house is fun, I want fun.

{After thoughts after reading comments left by my sweet followers…

I honestly didn’t plan on this coming together to form a “celestial” design…but the more people comment on this post, the more I realize the way this all fits in together even more than I had planned.  The sun, the stars, the angel, the word “dream”, the movement of the design in the runner going up to lead to the gallery wall…my goodness I’m better than I thought I was.  I honestly didn’t see this until my readers pointed it out to me.  The other thing is that these stairs lead to our daughter’s bedrooms.  Our girls are the lights in my life.  No wonder it worked.}

If you want to make your own gallery wall, let me give you a few tips you may be surprised with.

1. Remember you can hang pretty much anything.  Don’t be afraid to hang something weird.  Where there is a will, there is always a way.  I use Command Strips to hang weird stuff, and not weird stuff.  The large wood star is hung with command strips.  They are fantastic for heavy items, too.  You’ll find that they state how much weight they can handle on the package.  I also used them on this gallery wall.  Not once have they failed me.  The remaining items are hung with nails.  I used a molly with the clock.

2. You don’t have to measure for a gallery wall.  Start in the middle (I started with the big sunburst mirror) and work your way out spacing things evenly.  You also don’t have to start in the the middle of the wall.  This is proof that you can cover any portion of the wall you want.  I went rather diagonal since we were going up the stairs.  I could always add more to it later.

3. You don’t have to just use photo frames for a gallery wall.  Mix it up.  Put something up there that means something to you.  For me, it was the antique clock that my Mom found at a flea market with me in the 1970’s.

4.  Stick with one color OR don’t.  If you stick with one color use spray paint to accomplish it.

Oh, look…another gallery wall.  Sylvia seems happy.  And yes, I did buy a matching round rug for the foyer.

We haven’t finished the other sections of the stairs yet.  Getting there.  Here is the full “DIY Stair Runner” tutorial I promised:

Step By Step Instructions for DIY Stair Runner

1. Measure your stairs 1 section at a time (we have 4 sections of 6 steps) and buy the runner(s) you wish to install.  When I measured I used a flimsy fabric measuring tape that could reach all of the angles.  Keep in mind, it is possible to use a runner that is longer or shorter than your stairs.  You can cut it to fit.  We were lucky and ours just had to be cut at the end.  If you use more than 1 runner on a section of stairs, you will have to match them up carefully. Here’s where we found our runners and there are many affordable options & designs to choose from: TRELLIS RUNNER.

2.  While you wait for your runners to arrive, prepare your stairs.  Ours were previously painted (see how we did that here).  If you have an old runner that you have to remove like we did, be very careful removing the staples.  They are extremely sharp.  Removing our old runner took some strength because the guy that installed it must have thought I might go on a magic carpet ride if he didn’t use 5000 staples on each step.  Luckily we couldn’t see any holes after we were finished.  If you can see your holes, use wood putty to fill them, and sand lightly.

3.  You will need 2 people to install your runner.  Install the rug by beginning under the “nosing”(the wood over hang part) on the “riser” (the white part).  The photo below shows it perfectly.  Be sure to measure so the runner is centered all the way down and mark it with a pencil all the way down to use as a guide or your runner will be crooked.  By the way, we did not install a carpet pad.  I thought it was unnecessary, and I was right.  I didn’t want a fluffy high runner.  I wanted it as flat as possible. I absolutely love it with out the pad.

We used this staple gun to attach the rug to the stairs securely.    We started at the top and worked our way across the top coming down slowly making sure it was straight and snug to the wood.  It was actually quite simple.

Use something flat that can help you guide the rug into the corners (see below).

Here’s the biggest tip of all…roll up your runner so it is resting on the step below where you are working.  Believe it or not, this took us a while to figure out.  It was so much easier once we did.

Also, don’t forget to pay attention to the pencil markings you made to keep the runner straight.

4.  We ended our runner (cut it with a very sharp blade) under the nosing because our cat thought it was her personal scratching post when we went down to the floor.  You can decide which way you want it.  Now that I’ve done both, I prefer that last riser to be bare white.  I have also seen where some folks like to keep going with the runner onto their floor and out a few feet.  That would work great on a landing.  We used sharp scissors at the end to shave off any extra threads.

Boom.  You’re finish.

I absolutely LOVE IT, and no one else has it.  I don’t think?

PLEASE PIN!

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