{"id":4827,"date":"2016-11-13T18:00:17","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T01:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=4827"},"modified":"2016-11-17T20:21:53","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T03:21:53","slug":"diy-stairwell-transformation-all-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2016\/11\/diy-stairwell-transformation-all-done.html","title":{"rendered":"DIY Stairwell Transformation: All Done!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in October, while the contractors were working on the bathroom, Dave and I stained the banisters of our stairwell. Wow what a difference it made!<\/p>\n

\"img_7436\"<\/a>

This is just before taking off the masking and putting on the polyurethane gloss coat.<\/p><\/div>\n

We used the General Finishes Java Gel Stain<\/a>. Be sure to take your time thoroughly masking the areas. I used brown paper instead of taping several inches down the balusters. After “washing” the oak-colored surfaces with liquid sander deglosser<\/a>, I used an old clean sock to apply the stain on the broad areas. If you put the sock over your hand, like I had, be sure to wear a rubber glove — the stain will stain your skin for several days. For the fine detail area (such as the underside of the railings near the balusters), a small foam brush worked just fine.<\/p>\n

The end result turned out to be 3 coats of stain in most areas. Dave touched up some spots such that a 4th coat exists in some areas. After the stain thoroughly dries, we used a basic clear polyurethane<\/a> topcoat to finish off the job.<\/p>\n

\"I'm<\/a>

I’m sure you have plenty of old socks around, right? And yes, that first coat will have you wondering “Was this such a good idea?” Fear not, the subsequent coats will go on much more nicely.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"img_7430\"<\/a>

You can see the transformation here…<\/p><\/div>\n

\"img_7422\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I think this is the last of the home improvement we have planned for a while. There are a couple things on the wish list, but it depends on my work situation. When I work, we have the money to invest in the house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in October, while the contractors were working on the bathroom, Dave and I stained the banisters of our stairwell. Wow what a difference it made! We used the General Finishes Java Gel Stain. Be sure to take your time thoroughly masking the areas. I used brown paper instead of taping several inches down the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[648,450,670,671],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-1fR","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4725,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2016\/09\/diy-stairs-transformation.html","url_meta":{"origin":4827,"position":0},"title":"DIY Stairs Transformation: Our Trickiest Stain Job Yet","date":"29 September 16","format":false,"excerpt":"We've been doing a lot of little updates around the house lately. The most recent one I shared was with the fireplace last spring. I've been working full time off and on since July, but now I have a break for a couple months and I can return to our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"diy\"","img":{"alt_text":"diy_deck_bath_stairs-1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/DIY_Deck_Bath_Stairs-1-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4079,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2016\/04\/diy-fireplace-wip.html","url_meta":{"origin":4827,"position":1},"title":"DIY Fireplace Transformation: Work in Progress","date":"03 April 16","format":false,"excerpt":"I thought you might like to see our progress. Frankly, I haven't done much personally with this project. Jacob unloaded the bookcases for us, and Dave is doing everything else. For reference, here's the \"before\" look. I am loving how this is going to look! And here's a picture of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"diy\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/12931196_10153630523828865_1335726189034613061_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3823,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/06\/diy-kitchen-new-floor.html","url_meta":{"origin":4827,"position":2},"title":"DIY Kitchen Transformation: The New Floor Revealed","date":"07 June 15","format":false,"excerpt":"On Thursday and Friday, we had a contractor come in to\u00a0sand and re-stain our hardwood floors. Jeff from \"A Cut Above Hardwood Flooring\" was recommended to us by our carpet cleaning guy. This piece of floor is continuous from the front door to the kitchen, and to access the front\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"diy\"","img":{"alt_text":"Can you see the difference? ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_1815-1024x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4068,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2016\/03\/diy-fireplace-transformation.html","url_meta":{"origin":4827,"position":3},"title":"DIY Fireplace Transformation","date":"20 March 16","format":false,"excerpt":"We're at it again. Dave and I had been contemplating our fireplace for quite some time...with some of other changes happening on the main floor of our house, we wondered what we could do to make our mundane, builder-grade fireplace more modern-looking. We looked on Pinterest for some ideas; our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"diy\"","img":{"alt_text":"Our next (small) DIY project, freshening up our fireplace.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_5197-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4127,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2016\/04\/diy-fireplace-reveal.html","url_meta":{"origin":4827,"position":4},"title":"DIY Fireplace Transformation: The Reveal!","date":"06 April 16","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight Dave finished up the fireplace paint job. Today's work was mostly just correcting the bleed-under at the\u00a0tape lines. (That's a whole other\u00a0rant: we have tried EVERYTHING and can't seem to find a masking tape that can completely avoid bleed-under. We invested in the good \"Frog Tape\" and we've tried\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"diy\"","img":{"alt_text":"The final result. I LOVE it!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_5271-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3982,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/10\/diy-guest-room-transformation-planking-the-wall.html","url_meta":{"origin":4827,"position":5},"title":"DIY Guest Room Transformation: Planking the Wall!","date":"12 October 15","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure it's actually called \"planking\", since my first thought would have gravitated towards this kind of planking.\u00a0But it's what I'm calling the process Dave and I went through today, putting the planks up on the wall in our guest room. We picked up the wood, called blue stain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"diy\"","img":{"alt_text":"IMG_5195","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/IMG_5195-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4827"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4827"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4847,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4827\/revisions\/4847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}