decorating advise needed

[misdee]

ok heres the situation. i live in a masionette which has two flights of stairs. the first lead from the entrance to the main living area, the 2nd from main living to the bedrooms. downstairs doesnt get much light as in front of the door is the bin store cupboards and a wall, and it gets freezing down there. we currently have a cream carpet running from the front door to the upstairs landing. the first lot of stairs the carpet is trashed, but the 2nd is pertty much ok. would it be weird to replace just the first lot of stair carpet and not the 2nd. also would it be weird to decorate the 2 staircase differently. i just dont really have much idea on what to do.

I wouldn't change both lots of carpet unnecessarily, I would change the first stairs to something neutral but hardwearing - probably hessian coloured. I am assuming that the stairs continue on from each other so I would keep the current carpet on the first landing and just take the new up to that point. Re, the different colours - I think it as long as the colours blend together then there shouldn't be a problem - is there an obvious break? If not do a wavy line join to make it an effect. The only other idea would be to have colour 1 on stairs one with a few squares of colour two plus a co-ordinating colour, then have colour 2 on stairs 2 with squares of colour 1 and same or different co-ordinating colour - does that make sense. Pale aqua and cream look good like this with a co-ordinating darker aqua.

How about taking up the carpet on the first flight and stripping and varnishing the stairs, or just painting them. It will wear much better than carpet. If you do decide to redo them with carpet, your best bet is to do something totally different than what is on the 2nd flight both with the carpet and the decorating. If you do them sort of the same it will look like you tried to match them and made a mistake. If you do them totally different, then it will look like you did it on purpose and it will be absolutely fine.

the carpet on the first flight will have to be replaced/removed. i have no idea what the state of the staircase underneath is like, i did think about painting them but will have to see what they are like when i lift the carpet. i'm dreading decoaring the 2nd part as the wall runs from floor to ceiling in parts and i hate heights. might just start work on the first part and then see how i go. but that carpet is going, its one that was left here by previous occupants.

Don't climb too high on a ladder - you can get extension poles that you can fix to the end of a roller to paint high walls, and I just strapped a broom handle to a brush to do the edges in my hall. The edges might not be the most perfect anyone has ever seen - but they're very high so you can't really tell!

i have to strip the horrible textured wallpaper off first. so might have to venture up a ladder.

Oh no!