painting and staining stairs

[TorrieLou]

Hi can anyone tell me if they have painted and stained their stairs and if so have you got any tips, and have they worn well? I have decided to do the stairs to our loft conversion which are new stairs and then tackle our old stairs downstairs. I'm itching to get on with it but want to make sure I do a good job.

Yes I did mine 8 years ago and they've been great. I'm just thinking they could do with a touch up (which I'll do myself with a hand held sander and it won't take long). The only cons are that uncarpeted stairs are a bit unforgiving on bad knees, but the pros are that the cats can't use the stairs as a giant scatching post.

hi thanks for your reply our stairs have been used as cats scratching post hence this project!

Incidentally to make life easier for myself I stained the treads only and painted the vertical bits. I'm happy to show you the photo if you like.