How to Paint Stairs and Get on With Your Day While the Paint Dries

by Amy Ellis @ StowandTellU

I've never painted stairs before, but when we went to paint our basement stairs, I suddenly realized that I didn't want to get stuck in the basement while the paint dried. How do the professionals do it? I had no idea, and didn't have time to research. Since it was only our basement stairs, and not a professional stair painting project, the idea of only painting half the stair at a time made sense to me.

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We were painting the basement floor at the same time, so it was going to be a long weekend and being trapped in the basement was not an option.

We started out with carpet covered stairs. The carpet was grungy and gross. I pulled up the carpet and scrubbed the stairs to make sure the paint would adhere.

Next I ran a piece of 1-1/2" blue painters tape down the center of the stairs from top to bottom.

Using a paint roller, I painted one side of the stairs from top to bottom.

I pulled up the painters tape right away and we made sure only to walk on the unpainted side -which goes without saying ;D But meanwhile, I was able to tackle the task of painting the basement floor.

The next day, I painted the other side of the stairs, overlapping slightly onto the painted portion. By then we were able to walk only on the dry side.

All the while, we could go up and down the stairs and get on with our day as the paint dried.

Thank you so much for checking this out.

To see how the stairs and the basement turned out you can find the details on the blog in the link below.

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3 of 6 questions

Barb Struppa Visage on Aug 08, 2018

We have dogs, any ideas?!

2
Pat Hubbard on Nov 14, 2018

Would taping off half the stairs work if you were staining and applying polyurethane to your stairs? Just wondering if it would blend or be noticeable.

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Dee on Dec 24, 2021

If you use painters tape do you still get that middle ridge?

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2 of 72 comments

Dfm on Feb 14, 2019

I second the every other step method.

3 Reply
Man68307718 on Jul 13, 2022

Or, just paint up the stairs instead of down them. Professionals paint themselves out of a room.

1 Reply