Happy Monday! Or should I say “May the 4th Be With You”? In all honesty I’ve never been that into Star Wars even though growing up the rest of my family was, and by not being that into Star Wars I mean I don’t even know which of the movies I’ve seen or how many there even are. Don’t judge. The good news is now that I have a 6 year old son it seems to be some sort of a requirement that I become a fan, you know since he’s slowly becoming a fan. He’s super into Baby Yoda right now and I will say he’s pretty darn cute and his cuteness is almost tempting enough to make me sit down and watch from the beginning. But enough about that. I wanted to share another project I finally checked off my never-ending home improvement to-do list. Anyone else have one of those?
I shared a picture of our painted stairs on my Instagram account a while back and I was totally digging the dark blue color we ended up painting them, but after leaving them like that for a couple months I decided something was missing. They needed some sort of a “pop” (as if dark blue stairs don’t “pop” enough). I agonized, as I do best, over installing a stair runner or stair treads or painting the risers a different color, but I decided I wanted something a little more unique, like something with a pattern on the risers, but I also knew I wasn’t about to stencil anything … insert removable stair riser decals that look like tiles. Who knew there was such a thing?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QTXHLQF/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apip_ePkF1ypLDY1HJ
I decided to start with every other stair to make sure I liked the look. These came 12 decals to a pack with each decal measuring 8 inches by 8 inches. I ended up ordering 4 packs since after measuring I figured I’d need about 6 decals per stair and I was doing a total of 8 stairs. After taking close to forever to get here, I was so excited to get them on the stairs. I figured I’d just slap them on and be done with it. That was before I realized each of our stairs was a different length and a different height. So there was a little (or a lot) of cutting involved and a few (or several) do-overs, but after a good bit longer than expected I was finally done and I have to say I was pretty happy with the outcome.
A few things to keep in mind during this project:
- Clean your stairs really well before applying (and let them dry completely)
- Start where you feel most comfortable – I started at the left side of each stair and worked my way over. These decals can be moved several times and still stick so no freaking out required if you don’t get them on straight the first time
- A razor blade is super handy to have for the cutting (cut gently so you don’t gouge the stairs). I ended up having to cut the tops all the way across & the side of the last one on each stair.
- After applying the decals, run a cloth over the surface to apply pressure & get out any air bubbles
- Applying heat helps to activate the glue so run a hair dryer over each step at the end. I originally skipped this step and the corners started peeling after a few days, so I’d definitely recommend not skipping
If you like patterns and pops of design as much as me, this is an awesome and super inexpensive way (like less than $100) to liven up your stairs. I even decided I liked the look of just doing every other stair so I can now say this project is officially completed! Enjoy your Monday and may the 4th be with you 🙂