In September of last year, I completed on my first home after seven years of renting a tiny flat in Toxteth.
Being a renter for so long meant I wasn’t allowed to decorate, so spent years injecting colour into my home with an eclectic mix of soft furnishings and accessories. When I got the keys to my little two bedroom terrace, I couldn’t wait to decorate and put my own stamp on the place.
Thankfully, my boyfriend couldn’t care less about interiors so I was able to have free rein. The ground floor consists of an open plan living room and diner, with the kitchen stretching off the back of the dining area - small but plenty of space to play around with.
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The staircase is in the middle of the living space and was exposed with - shock, horror - no handy storage cupboard underneath it. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to make it more of a feature and revamp it. I enlisted a local joiner to whip up a Shaker-style cupboard underneath the staircase so there was somewhere to hide my obnoxious shoe collection, as well as space for unattractive household necessities like the vacuum cleaner, mop bucket and an embarrassingly large collection of bags for life.
I took on the job of transforming the banister and spindles myself. It’s no exaggeration to say they were caked in at least seven layers of lumpy paint but I thought, ‘how hard can it be? I’ll just strip it.’ Oh, how wrong I was.
I love interior design and regularly trawl Instagram looking at home transformations. I’ve seen a number of people who’ve stripped their entire staircases with seemingly little fuss. As I’m saving up for a new carpet to replace the ancient monstrosity currently adorning my steps, I thought I’d have a much simpler task on my hands. After all, it was just the banister and spindles - silly, silly, naive Jess.
The first layer, a far too glossy, lumpy white that had developed a yellowish hue, lulled me into a false sense of security, peeling off in long, satisfying strips. The spindles were awkward from the off, given their intricate detailing, so it felt hard to get into a rhythm of making any clear progress.
After managing to remove the first layer with my bare hands and a scraper, I applied Bartoline TX10 Paint and Varnish Stripper, described as “for use by novice DIYers and serious professionals”. Unequivocally falling into the first camp, I assumed it would get the job done in no time. The ease of the first layer also tricked me into thinking I was some kind of DIY natural, able to totally transform my home in a matter of hours after work.
The paint bubbled and raised, as I expected after watching a few helpful YouTube videos, though it’s not for the faint of heart. It leaves scraps of gloopy paint all over the place but I thought it’d only be a one off job and clean up. I was able to scrape a few layers away and this is when I realised I’d possibly bitten off more than I could chew.
Underneath what I thought was only going to be, at most, three coats of paint, was several further layers the stripper had had zero effect on. I won’t lie, several expletives not suitable for print left my lips.
I decided a heat gun would maybe do the trick. I bought a Seekone Professional 2000W Hot Air Gun Kit and set to work. It was very effective but so time consuming, I managed to watch the entire second series of Emily in Paris (yes, I’m basic), as well as a full rewatch of the first five seasons of (in my opinion) the greatest show of all time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and was still only seeing visible wood on certain parts of the banister and spindles. There’s 100 40 minute episodes across the first five seasons of Buffy - you do the maths.
It seems the previous owners, over the years, thought it would be tremendous fun to apply each layer of paint with a mix of cement, treacle and Gorilla Glue. There’s no other logical conclusion I can think of as to why an entire tub of paint stripper and a heat gun - used for hours and hours on end - couldn’t get through a few layers of paint.
Eventually, the banister was stripped and the spindles were around 95% free of paint. I’d gained a few heat gun injuries (an impossibly clumsy person using an insanely hot tool isn’t the best mix) and the skin on my thumbs is still cracked and rough from the constant handling of sandpaper and a medley of stripping tools, but the end was finally in sight.
The paint on a few spindles absolutely wasn’t budging, and an unattractive wood-effect varnish had to be tackled on the stringer board (the panel housing the steps - I had no clue that was its name and had to Google diagrams of staircases while writing this).
For the final stages, I decided to bring in the big guns and bought Nitromors All Purpose Paint & Varnish Remover, which is apparently the best in the business. It removed the varnish and the vast majority of the paint but still, some remained. I wanted to scream.
The varnish had also hidden a number of cracks and holes on the stringer board, which needed to be filled with wood filler. I’m a bit of a neat freak and like everything to be perfect but I was at the end of my tether. I slapped the filler on, sanded down any obvious lumps and bumps and smoothed any remaining paint, and decided that was as good as I was going to be able to get it.
When the cupboard was installed, I started to feel excited. I primed it and painted it in the same peachy pink paint from Instagram-favourite paint company Lick that I’d chosen for the walls (Pink 02), bringing the colour up to the spindles. I then painted the banister and spindles in Black 02, also from Lick. After I’d finished, I sat and stared at it in awe. It was finally over.
The cupboard (thanks to Phil's Joinery and Cabinets ) looks amazing and the banister looks great - even if I do say so myself - its new appearance has really transformed the room. In all honesty, I can’t say I ever got that rewarding sense of accomplishment and achievement I’d been expecting to make the hassle all worthwhile. Working full time meant monopolising a few precious evening hours each week, as well as part of multiple weekends, and I was worn out pretty quick. I’m happy with the way it looks but adding up the amount of hours it took me makes me wince.
In the future, I’ll be saving up and hiring a professional, like I did with the cupboard. Life’s too short and I’m certainly no DIY whizz.
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