DIY Stairs Makeover From Carpet to Hardwood Stairs

Learn how to turn ugly stairs into beautiful hardwood stairs with this DIY Stairs Makeover From Carpet to Hardwood Stairs.

Once you own a home, DIY Projects are never ending. Especially if you are obsessed with HGTV, you’ll always find something to improve or change in your home.

One of our first projects in our first home was the basement stairs. The carpet was stained and dingy. So, we decided to do a DIY Stairs Makeover From Carpet to Hardwood Stairs.

The project had some challenges, but the transformation turned out better than imagined. We now have beautiful stained hardwood stairs that truly transformed the space to feel like a new house.

DIY stairs makeover from carpet to hardwood stairs

We originally thought it would be an easy DIY stairs makeover done in a weekend, but refinishing the basement stairs took longer than expected. We thought all we had to was paint the walls, rip up the carpet, and refinish the stair treads.

After we ripped up the carpet, we discovered a minor hiccup, which caused the project take longer than expected. We had plywood under the carpet, so we had to install Stair treads and rises

SUPPLIES

STEP 1 – Paint the Walls and Ceilings so you don’t need to worry about paint drips on the stairs after you finish them.

STEP 2 – Remove the Carpet, padding, and tack strips and throw them away.

We were hoping to have stair treads under the carpet so we could refinish them, but we didn’t. We had plywood, which meant we had to install Stair Treads.

So, we didn’t have to worry about removing the staples but we did have to worry about installing Stair Treads. This set our DIY Stairs Makeover From Carpet to Hardwood Stairs project back a week.

STEP 3 – We decided to sand and stain the stair treads before we installed them. First we sanded them outside and cleaned all the dust and debris off of them.

Since we just moved in to the house and didn’t have a dining room table yet, we lined the dining room with plastic and laid out all the sanded stairs treads.

Step 4 – Apply Wood Conditioner to each stair tread and then apply stain with a clean rag. Allow to stain to dry per can instructions.

STEP 5 – Once the Stair Tread is dry, remove the existing plywood. Next, measure and cut the stair thread and install with a nail gun.

STEP 6 – Apply Polyurethane using a clean synthetic brush and dry according to can instructions.

We did two coats of polyurethane.

STEP 7 – Install the Stair Risers with the nail gun and paint them.