Before and After: The Banister

We have been in our new house almost a year and I still can't believe that I'm not finished decorating it. Now for those of you who have been to our house you know what a daunting task that is! The house is big. I'm not bragging, just letting you know. Large. Many rooms. Infinite possibilities. Limited budget. Short on time. I'm hoping to get the whole house most of the house done by the end of the year but until then here are a few pictures of my favorite project so far.

We bought the house brand new so everything was builder white! I hated the color of the railing and seriously thought twice about whether or not it was a deal breaker. Come on, it's HUGE plus it was u.g.l.y.!

View from the entryway

From the upstairs...don't mind the builder's plastic, we've removed it since then!

I told myself that if we did indeed buy the house that was the first thing we would change! And boy, did we. Now I don't have any pictures during the process but I will just tell you that it was a BIG task. Not as big as it could have been, but BIG nonetheless. I think I tried to quit a few times during the sanding process but thanks to my awesome hubby, we pushed through.

First we sanded the darn thing. I hear they make these awesome electric hand sanders but we're old school and we used good 'ol elbow grease! Then you must clean the awful mess it makes so as not to get any of the dust in your stain. Next comes the staining. This was the scariest part for me. I mean, it's not like you can just "undo" in case you mess up. Anyway, we used Minwax Wood Finish in Jacobean.

Nice mess!

A couple of coats and touch-ups later, our railing/stairway/banister (really, what's it called?!) looks like this:

Isn't it SOOO much better? I ♥ it!

My ultimate goal is to rip up the carpet and do the stairs and landing. Oooh won't that just be gorgeous?! *Ouch* I think my wallet just cringed. First things first. That room straight ahead in the above picture is the baby's room. Stay tuned for its transformation!