You know the drill, go to Pinterest, find a great inspiring photo and make it happen.

Boom, here it is!

While redoing our 4302 project, the plan was to create a kitchen in a small space, with a great layout and have access to the family room at the back of the house. The original staircase to the kitchen was from the basement access and had you entering the room right where the refrigerator wanted to be. So with the same spirit one would use to move mountains, we moved the staircase. Once we had the precise kitchen layout completed, and measuring about 100 times to be sure it would work, we cut the opening from the kitchen to the back room.  We did have to do a cut out in the ceiling too, into the attic space, so you didn’t hit your head when descending the stairs. Big bonus while reconfiguring the space was to find and expose the original shiplap, which was hidden under the 70’s paneling, and make it a feature wall.

So here are the other details of what we used to make this happen. We purchased premade stair stringers and treads from Lowes in lumber department. We also bought wood to be used for the risers so they were closed. The risers and all the trim in the room were painted with Sherwin Williams SW 7069 Iron Ore. The Newel posts were from the deck department and made of Cypress wood. The other wood accents were finished in a light clear poly, including the shiplap, so as to bring out the natural variances in the woods.

The railings were fashioned from black plumbers piping. Honestly I was not sure what would be needed to make it fit so I just bought a bunch of pieces and parts and created one perfect handrail. Once we had the perfect handrail we returned what we didn’t use and bought enough parts for 3 more identical rails. I love the way there is an upper and a lower rail, which is perfect for little ones too.

One of the many details I love about how this turned out was to reuse a pair of old corbels that were removed from an 1870’s building and slated for the dumpster. These look like they have always belonged at the top of the door trim, holding up the ceiling. I think they add a subtle, vintage, old world charm, to the whole look.