Woman quoted hundreds for stairway makeover does it herself for £120
If you're looking to make a real statement with your hallway decor, a stencilled staircase is the ultimate – but it doesn't come cheap.
Having been quoted £450 to revamp her tired staircase, Danielle Duvall, 40, from Nottingham, decided to take on the challenge herself at a budget-friendly price.
The DIY-savvy mum longed for a statement staircase to transform her home and after spotting some chic stair risers, she knew they were just the thing to take her stairs from drab to fab.
"I was given a free professional quote for my walls and ceilings to be painted," Duvall told LatestDeals.co.uk.
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Even though she was planning to supply the paint and intended to do all the woodwork herself she was still quoted £450 for the work.
"That's a lot of money and I just don't have it to hand out like that, so I decided to just get on with it myself with help from a friend," she says.
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After browsing eBay for floor and stair tiles, Duvall came across stair risers, which she says looked "different but nice", so decided to go for it.
"I did have carpet on my stairs but it started to come away as my stairway is so cold, the carpet wouldn't stay down.
"Plus it was a nightmare to keep the stairs clean after people would come in and out."
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Before embarking on her DIY project Duvall had some ideas for the colour scheme in mind.
"I have always used magnolia or white gloss where I’ve lived, but the woodwork always seems to change to a dirty yellow colour after a while or just looks dirty all the time, so I decided to have a change and wanted to do the place cream and light grey throughout," she explains.
Sourcing supplies was relatively cheap, with Duvall picking up 2.5 litres of Dulux Trade Vinyl Matt paint in Pebble Grey for £46.07 from Designer Paints, and 5 litres of Dulux Luxurious Ivory Lace Silk Emulsion paint from Wickes for £26.
On ebay, Danielle purchased 1 litre of SupaDec Industrial Floor Paint in light grey for £13.65, and a pack of 3D DIY Stair Riser stickers for £27.25.
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She sourced her floor tiles from Studio in the shade Sillia Black, which cost £5.99 for a pack of 11, bringing the total cost of the impressive makeover to just under £120, saving her hundreds.
The whole makeover was completed in a total of eight days, with a five-day break halfway through.
"The walls and ceilings were painted first, then I did all the woodwork," Duvall explains. "That involved scrubbing all the stairs clean of paint, then filling in two stair tiles that were broken with grip fill.
"After that, for four nights in a row, I applied one layer of tile paint on all the steps.
"Once that was all done, I laid the floor tiles down, which took just over an hour. Then I measured the stair risers and trimmed them down before applying them to each step," she adds.
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Despite the impressive results Duvall says the transformation wasn't without challenges, such as covering up paint mistakes and cleaning the dirt off the stairs and woodwork.
"I also had to be mindful of dust trapped inside gaps and holes, and there were lots of marks and imperfections on the walls which made the painting more difficult," she explains.
"If I had to do it all again I would definitely give myself more time to get it done, as I feel like I could have done a better job of it.
"I’m happy with it now it’s done though."
