Painting a Wooden Staircase - Suggestions Please

[Russet Grange]

Hello all.

Our 1970s bungalow has an open tread staircase made from what I assume is teak or mahogany. I'd like it to be entirely black to match the doors I am hanging.

I've done some test staining with sandolin but it doesn't seem to get truly black, even after a few coats, and those coats take a long time to dry.

I'm therefore looking at painting it instead, so some comments/suggestions would be appreciated. Note that it rarely gets used, and even then just with me or Mrs Grange wearing slippers, so the finish doesn't need to be particularly hard wearing. I would like that finish to be matt though.

The good news is that it is all screwed together, so I can strip it down, paint in the garage and reassemble, meaning that accessing everything is easy and I don't have to worry about paint fumes in the house.

Cheers all.

[Huzzah]

How about spraying it? Perhaps one of those companies that do kitchens.

[Herbs]

We spoke to our decorator about this earlier this year as will be doing our stairs black soon. He recommended using an enamel paint (they do satin as well) which should do what you need.

[39sl]

I painted our stairs earlier this year. It was white over white so I didn’t have your particular problem but spraying indoors didn’t appeal and using a brush was going to be a long task.

Friend suggested I try a tanning mitten and amazingly it worked well.
I didn’t know tanning mittens existed but Amazon to the rescue.
Put protective gloves on then the mitten and brushed paint onto the mitten and then ‘painted’ with the mitten. The coverage was good but this was white on white so it certainly sped up the process and was very clean but black will show up any gaps … but maybe two coats with mitten ?

Feel free to roll your eyes and ignore me

[RGG]

I would take a look at Bedec Multi Surface Paint.
It comes in matt.

It would be easy to make a test sample on a wood panel and do an accelerated wear test, stepping multiple times to assess the wear rate to simulate your anticipated actual usage.

[andy43]

39sl said:

I painted our stairs earlier this year. It was white over white so I didn t have your particular problem but spraying indoors didn t appeal and using a brush was going to be a long task.

Friend suggested I try a tanning mitten and amazingly it worked well.
I didn t know tanning mittens existed but Amazon to the rescue.
Put protective gloves on then the mitten and brushed paint onto the mitten and then painted with the mitten. The coverage was good but this was white on white so it certainly sped up the process and was very clean but black will show up any gaps but maybe two coats with mitten ?

Feel free to roll your eyes and ignore me

Tanning mitt or a sock is supposed to work really well.
Wash the sock first

[mart 63]

A light sand, then a coat of supergrip primer. Then put what you want on, preferably an ebony opaque woodstain if you want black.

[Mr_J]

Mylands Downing Street No10 floor paint.

We have it on our hall floor so it gets a fair amount of abuse. It's held up pretty well for 3 years. The floor boards had been sanded badly by a previous owner. I prepped them with my hand sander (never again) and 2, maybe 3 coats of paint. It's water based so is dry enough to walk on reasonably quickly.

[psi310398]

Bradite One Can might be worth a look. I painted some furniture in daily use and it’s holding up well.

[Russet Grange]

Thanks to everyone.

Seems like painting it is perfectly viable, and the wear on it will be very light. We don't use the stairs much, upstairs is just two spare bedrooms and some storage. (It's a bungalow with a big loft conversion)

[CTO]

Not sure if it’s any help or not, but we had our stairs panted black..

Looks quite snazzy I think



Cheers