Mum transformed her plain, dull staircase into a monochrome space for £20 and people can’t believe how good it looks
HAVING a chic and stunning staircase is often an expensive investment in your home.
But one nifty DIYer managed to turn her stairs from dull to delightful and only spent £20.
Alison Worsfold, 39, from Chichester created a stunning monochrome hall space on a very tight budget.
Speaking to money-saving community , she said: "We had to re-carpet the whole of upstairs, so I began coming up with ideas to make my hallway and stairs look more exciting."
The mum-of-two, who shares her updates on Instagram with the handle , continued: "I had been browsing Instagram posts and liked the idea of painting my stairs then adding a stair runner, as I had seen other people doing it.
"I saw someone else’s stairs in a dark colour just before I was going to buy paint in a different colour, and that inspired me to switch to my current colour scheme.
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"After seeing plenty of people having success with Frenchic paint I decided to browse their range. In the end I decided to go for the shade Smudge on the bannister and Dazzle Me on the stairs to create a striking monochrome effect.
"These two paint shades came from the Al Fresco range and cost £19.95 per tin.
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"To prepare the stairs, I removed the carpeting first. A lot of nails and staples had to come out before I could begin painting.
"I then dusted and cleaned them, before lightly sanding them with my mouse electric sander.
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"You can get this tool for just £15 from Argos, B&Q or Amazon. I also prepared the bannister by sanding the area with sandpaper.
"That being said, the space was by no means smooth before I painted it - the house is a million years old!
"After that, I dusted and cleaned again, before getting started on the painting.
"This step of the process took time - the Smudge shade on the bannister needed two coats, so I targeted that area first.
"I tried to use the glove-in-sock method, which I had seen on social media, but it wasn’t applying the paint thickly enough.
"In the end, I got the best coverage using the old fashioned method of a paintbrush!
"After the bannister I went to the stairs, and applied three coats of Dazzle Me.
"I could have done a fourth coat if I’d had the energy, but the coverage was good when I stopped.
"I left a gap in the middle for the stair runner to avoid wasting paint.
";The next step was applying the carpet runner. This had been made at the carpet shop where I live, and they applied edging.
"I received a quote for the overall carpet job, including the upstairs rooms, but I would estimate it didn’t cost more than £150 to make and apply the stair runner.
"I also saved money by painting the stairs myself instead of getting a professional to do it.
"The main challenges with this project were sanding the bannister, and trying to paint inside very small gaps.
"If I was to do this again, I would do a better job of sanding the stairs to make them smoother.
"That being said, painting does hide all manner of sins if you buy matte paint!
"Overall we are very happy with the results and the hallway looks much better now.";
Tom Church, Co-Founder of , said: "Frenchic is a popular paint brand amongst deal hunters.
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"Many people tend to think they’ve made a huge mistake when they first apply Frenchic, as it doesn’t look great after the first coat and you start wondering how on earth you’re going to cover it up.
"However, my advice is to just keep going as once you’ve done two or three coats you see the great results everyone is talking about!"