Be-foyer and After

My entry is done. New stairs. New tile. New paint. Broken finger. All totally worth it. Look! Here's the be-foyer:
Those are pine forest green tiles on the floor. Dirty faux berber carpet on the stairs. Honey oak trim. Peanut butter paint. And a chandelier that says, "Would you like an onion blossom appetizer before your fajitas?"
So...first...I was determined to do it all myself, not just because of budget constraints, but because I'm weird like that.
Remember when I started painting a million years ago?
Cutting in up there took the skills of Spiderman and Rain Man combined. But I pushed on.
And tackled that railing. With gel stain.
Took a hammer to the green tiles. Maggie's hammer is there, too. Ripped up the backer board.
Messy. Satisfying. Worked out a lot of aggression.
Painted the front door yellow. 
Put on a new doorknob. At 10 o'clock at night. Don't ever attempt this. Look at these doorknob instructions. Are you fucking kidding me? I don't often cuss on my blog, but are you fucking kidding me? 10 o'clock at night. Exhausted. Husband away. Needed to lock door for the night. Pushed on. 
Got the tiles down. Still needed to grout. Grouting is hard. 
And then turned to the faux berber. It was mocking me. And I ripped and ripped and pulled and cut, and it felt sooooo good. 
And to my horror, those particle board treads had to come out. Big ugly bull nosed things. 12 of them total. Couldn't cover them. Couldn't stain them. They had to come out. Crowbar. Puuuush...FALL...forward, thank god, and I was a crying, crumbled mess on the stairs. Broken finger. Husband calls from kitchen, "Just stop and let me do it!" "NNOOOO!" I growled through my tears. I was not going to have him step in and do the hard parts. So I pushed on. Each particle board tread was attached with 6 screws, 16 nails, and industrial strength construction adhesive. Ouch. 


Whoa dizzy. Don't look down.
Did I leave my wine glass in the garage?
Oh, there it is! Feeling very cirque de soleil.
So are you ready for the after? After all those in betweens? Ok, here it is. Remember the before?
I love to torture you so you feel my pain. And then my ultimate JOY!
I can't stop staring at it. I just sit on the steps and stare. Stair at it?
It is so unbelievably satisfying that I did this. I've never done anything like it, but, hey, I watch the DIY network, you know? The chandelier was a $35 clearance special order orphan. The mirror was a 50% off from Hobby Lobby. I'm amazed at how little I actually spent. Sure, there was the broken finger. But whatever. So worth it.
I love the little edge of black tiles that lead down the bottom half of the stairs.
I feel like I'm in Paris instead of Minnesota now.

Comments

  1. It looks absolutely beautiful! But you deserved nothing less after your marathon effort- I am truly in awe.

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  2. This is so awesome! And I didn't think there could be anything worse than IKEA instructions. Apparently, I have been proven wrong.

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  3. Katie, I adore you. Heck, I wish I WAS you. The befoyer picture wasn't as bad as I thought it could've been (because have you seen MY entryway?) but the after picture? WHOA! It made the befoyer look vile. Which doesn't say nice about my entryway, come to think of it. Sniff.

    Right, eyes back on you now. It's phenomenal, Katie. Your new foyer. It's bright and alive. Visitors will never want to venture beyond the threshold into the interior of the house because it's so glorious. Sigh....

    Sorry about the broken finger. Hope it heals quick. It's not the one you need to triggering the drill, is it? You can just spackle /wood filler it, I guess, for a DIY cast. And Jon wouldn't get to do THAT for you, either. Brava!

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  4. aaaaannndddd.... now I want to rip the carpet off of all my stairs. Fortunately, I know my limits, so I will just skip right to the wine, I think.

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  5. Hi! This looks great, and I know you must be proud of it. That was a TON of work!

    Do you mind sharing a little more about the gel staining process on the railing? Did you have to sand all those spindles (which would have caused me to say the F word one meeellion times!)? What brand stain did you use, and what color is it?

    Thanks!
    Carla

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    1. Hi Carla-
      The original post I wrote about gel staining the rail is here:
      http://matsutakeblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/before-and-after-gel-stained-stair-rail.html
      Basically the takeaway point is that it took FOREVER to dry. But it did eventually, after major panicking. And, no, didn't sand all the spindles. Maybe just a rub with sandpaper to give some roughness for the paint to grab onto, but definitely not a real sanding.

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    2. Thank you so much! Funny...when I went to your March post and saw the pictures, THEN I remembered reading it originally. Just hadn't moved to my new house with the honey oak that I'm dying to cover up. :) Thanks, again!

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  6. This is so SO impressive! I love the after pictures and i LOVE the whole tale. Way to go you!

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  7. Amazeballs. Prolly you could've broken another finger and even a toe and it would've been worth it.

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  8. Katie, wonderful job! You are brave btw.
    Did you change the big window above the entry door?
    Sophie

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    1. Ah, I forgot about that. Good eye! My window had a weird, cheap, fakey divider thing that I just popped out. Then I painted all the trim glossy white. Oh, and I dusted away all the dead bugs. That helped, too.

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  9. Damn, that's a great foyer! Nice work!

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  10. I.LOVE.IT.
    Your original gel staining railing post is what inspired me to re-do my baby cradle with gel stain. Best decision I made during the nursery furnishing/building process. It is satisfyingly beautiful.

    Your stairs. Gorgeous. I wish I could convince my husband to let me rip out the carpet on the stairs but I've already slipped on the carpet once and I have a feeling that stairs without carpet would be a lot more slick.
    Love the tile. gosh oh geez, I'm coveting it. Maybe once my rugrat has learned to crawl and has mastered stairs...gah.
    {I have to tell myself on a weekly basis that this isn't my dream house and to stop doing improvements as if it were...since we're moving in less than 3 years}

    Want to come to Kansas and makeover my fireplace? Do you have one of those in your arsenal?

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  11. "Befoyer," "onion blossom," "Rain Man," you are a hilarious remodeling GENIUS. The yellow door is so perfect, and the tile work is also an inspiration. When I saw the before picture, I thought, "There's nothing you can do with this... what is she possibly going to do?" It looks amazing. Sorry about the finger, but I agree: so worth it!

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  12. Wow very impressed! And totally understand the whole "I wanna do it myself" thing except that you really did it! Congrats and it looks mahhhh-velous!

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