The STAIRS!!!

These stairs actually need some work done to them...For one, they are sooo noisy!  I almost dread walking up and down them for this reason.  In order to fix that problem, we may need to take the steps apart, apply wood glue, and nail them back down.  I'm not sure if that's the "correct" way of going about fixing that problem, but it sounded pretty good, eh?  ha ha
They also need sanded down, and then stain reapplied, and some sort of protector...I think that's what the problem was...they were stained, but no protection coat was applied.
If you notice, there's also a banister missing!  ha ha
I also hate the design of these stairs, it just goes straight down, so steep, and I don't like the location...
At the top of the stairs, to the left is the Master Bedroom, and straight and to the right is the Playroom.  There's no hallway, so when the children are running from the playroom to the bedroom, they could easily step too close to the stairs, and fall down.  Actually, this has happened a few times, one of them being with my then one year old!  So yes, these stairs are a hazard, and NEED to go!
In other words, I'd rather just have these stairs ripped out, and would LOVE a spiral staircase!  Ah well, until then...the least I can do is fix them up a bit!
My original thought was to change out the wood banisters, and replace them with wrought iron banisters.  Since I'm planning on ripping the whole staircase out eventually anyways, there's no sense in me spending a lot of money to upgrade them.

Our entire Living Room has wooden walls (which I LOVE), and with the banisters also being wood (brown), it just blended in too much, or maybe it was just too much brown?? 

Before:

After: 

The top of the stairs:

Before:

After:

So on the To Do List for these stairs:

* Paint Banisters

* Repair stairs so they don't squeak anymore!

* Sand, Stain, and Protect!

* Replace missing banister.

* ...and eventually rip them all apart, and replace with a Spiral Staircase!  ha ha

So to get started...since I wasn't being too picky, I didn't even bother sanding the banisters first, nor did I even go out and buy specific paint.  I just used what I had on hand, which was:

Oil-Base Semi-Gloss Enamel

I DID google what Oil-Base paint could be used on though (I've been using it to paint the moulding around the house), and it said it could be used on Cabinets.  Well, my cabinets are exactly like my banisters, so without even thinking things through, I started painting!

Let me tell ya, that 1st brush stroke was a little nerve wreaking...like, "What did I just do?  Am I going to ruin these banisters?  Is it even going to look good up against all the wood that is throughout the Living Room?"

And guess what?  Not only does it look GREAT, but this paint did GREAT on these banisters!  I didn't even need to worry about making horizontal brush strokes, I kind of just brushed it on there every which way.  Once it dried, you couldn't even see brush strokes!  It blended into the wood sooo well!  The oil base is also a little thicker, and so I didn't have many issues with it leaking.  I didn't even need to tape anything down, I just kept a wet wipe handy.

I will say this, it has a strong-strong odor!  I had to give myself many breaks, because at times I'd start to feel loopy! 

And if you're wandering what I mean about all the wood work in the Living Room, here's a few pictures of what it looks like.  These haven't been taken recently, I'm just using pictures I have on file.  I'll update with a recent picture soon.

(pictures have been taken out, so no, I don't have black picture frames on my wall! ha ha)

Thanks for looking!!!  I'll keep ya updated as I start crossing off my To Do List!