Before and After: The Bannister

When we moved into this house 7 years ago, everything was white: the walls, the appliances, and the woodwork. Unfortunately, that included the bannister. And in an effort to keep the house affordable, we tried to keep overpriced builder upgrades to a minimum. As such, having a shiny, wood- stained stair rail rated low on the list.

After a few years, painting a few walls and watching a few decorating shows, I fancied myself an expert. I was going to make the Mission-style railing look like white-washed oak--just like the cabinets in the nearby kitchen.

Instead, it looks like a bottle of Pepto Bismol exploded on the bannister. Oh, and what the %#@* was I thinking with those wall colors? I wanted Granny Smith apple green. Instead, I got lime popsicle green. And that garish blue looks like that same color as the toxic paint Adam had Jeff's office painted on Dynasty.

I hated it immediately. But at Quinton's urging, I agreed to live with it for a few months. Let the countdown begin.

Then one Saturday morning, in a fit of boredom, I put a small amount of paint stripper on a hidden corner of the newel. I couldn't believe the beautiful wood underneath! I was so excited, I made Q come see what I had done. He too was impressed and agreed we should strip all the paint and expose the wood. And since he had a week's vacation coming up, that would be the perfect time to do it.

Shortly after we began, we realize we had made a mistake. The paint was coming off slow and gummy (those stripper cans make it look so easy!). This was going to take forever! We had to work hard to protect the surrounding walls and the carpet below. We made countless return trips to The Depot, buying every kind of tape, drop cloth, solvent, steel wool, scraper, and sanding block we could find. We even bought a second detail sander so both Q and I could work without having to take turns.

I had the stain chosen and bought before the paint was removed. But while stripping the spindles, we discovered that all 13 spindles were made of 13 different types of wood. Oops! That honey-colored stain isn't going to cut it. The only way to solve that problem was to stain the spindles with the darkest stain possible. In this case, I used walnut.

Nine days, and numerous tantrums later, we completed the beautiful stair rail shown here. I was so proud that I had to show it to a neighbor who has the same house we do...still with the white painted bannister. When she saw mine, she gasped: "VAL! How much would you charge to do this to mine?"

I told her: "You don't have enough money."