Painted stairs and a toddler - is this a bad idea?

[MrsN11s]

We live in a typical 3 bed terraced house and would like to redecorate our hallway. I really like the photos on Pinterest of white painted stairs, but am just wondering how practical this is in reality? Are painted stairs and toddlers a bad idea in terms of noise, accidents and cleanliness. Hope someone can tell me no as I love the look. Thanks.

I'm not sure a bit of carpet or stair runner would make that much difference to a child falling down the stairs. We've clad our stairs with the same wood we've used on our floors so essentially a wooden staircase - it is a bit noisier, I'm sure, and I shine a white painted one would get quite grubby unless you have a shoes-off policy indoors. But use a decent paint and you can mop them down easily enough. If you like it, just do it, you can always recarpet if you change your mind.

sure not shine

all kids will go a over t downstairs at some point. The job is to teach safe techniques to minimise this, with the aid of stairgates.

Thanks Lala for the encouragement. You're right - I ought to just try and see. I am in the habit of overanalysing things!

I had bare wood in my last home and having watched my toddler lose her footing and go head over heels like a rag doll ... I wouldn't go there again

We moved into our new home when my daughter was almost four. It had White painted stairs. My daughter took the worst head over heels full length of stairs fall. It is still the worst day ever for me. She still has a mark/indent on her forehead 4 years later. She was just coming down the stairs, lost her footing and tumbled. Doing nothing "unsafe". We had the staircase carpeted almost immediately, as I couldn't risk her or her friends taking a tumble. The carpet does give the feet a bit more grip. For me, I wouldn't do it with a young child. I am with lelivre on this.

There's no way I'd do it, they would be just too slippery.

Floor paint shouldn't be slippery. Children are pretty resilient you know. My parents couldn't afford carpet and I survived many a tumble. You are over thinking.

We looked at this - neither painted stairs or carpet is inherently more dangerous, both have the same risks for kids as both can be slippery.

If you use paint then don't choose gloss, normal eggshell works fine and you can also get special "floor paint" which has a slightly grainy finish.

We have very steep and uneven stairs in an old cottage, and they are painted white with clear (nearly invisible) anti-slip tape just back from the front edge of the treads - it comes in various widths and also in designs like smileys or footprints. It works brilliantly in a house with toddlers, elderly people and a couple of clumsy permanently-in-a-hurry adults!

I bought it on the web from a company which specialises in products to stop slips, and I've used it both at home and at work (in locations where I need to minimise risk but which also need to look stunning).

It depends also on what the child has on its feet. We tend to wear socks all the time, which are slippier than bare feet or most slippers.

Yes both carpet and paint can be slippery. I think she tripped rather than slipped, tumbling 5 steps, she landed so hard on the wood and was quite hurt. My son at 20 months fell from the top to the bottom of the stairs in our current home, tumbled 12 steep steps, but was shaken up only. Here there's an extra thick underlay and as thick thick textured weave carpet and I was grateful for it. I love the look of painted stairs too but would not consider it myself whilst they are small.

We have white painted stairs and a toddler. Our house is victorian and the stairs are quite aged wood ie grooves etc so not as smooth as they might be - and while we sanded, we deliberately didn't perfect them as we wanted to keep ridges etc so they weren't too slippy. They're painted with Farrow and Ball floor paint which has a sheen but not glossy, and can be mopped. They don't get too filthy (except when the cat has been out in the rain...) They do show up dust. We had a dark grey runner painted up one section which helped but my partner repainted in white as he preferred the look. It does brighten our north facing hallway.

Ive never had carpet on the stairs,dd's are now adults and we never had any problems

We have painted stairs and young kids. They're not slippy. In fact I think carpet is slippier. We used farrow and ball floor paint and painted a grey runner up the middle. It does need redoing every couple of years as it gets a bit chipped but looks nice and bright. The treads get dusty but fine with a quick wipe. And I guess they are noisier but not really a problem.