Paint Your Stairs: Six Original Ideas

We have six original ideas for you to paint your staircase. Become inspired and create a unique design in your home.
Paint Your Stairs: Six Original Ideas

Last update: 29 March, 2022

To paint your stairs in an original way you’ll need to leave any traditional ideas behind. You no longer need to think about using the same color on the floor as on the railings and walls because it’s time to get original!

Originality will make your stairs striking, colorful, and beautiful with the support of some extra details. After implementing our ideas, you’re going to love walking up and down your stairs and will want a reason to do it over and over again!

Original ideas to paint your stairs

Before learning about our ideas to paint your stairs, please take a minute to analyze yours. Stand in front of your staircase to recognize its shape and consider if it’s straight, in an “L” shape, or if they’re spiral. These aspects will greatly influence your choice and will open your mind to originality.

The goal is for you to find inspiration that’ll lead you to develop a unique design with your personal stamp. Ready?

1. Color gradient

We’re going to start this list of original ideas to paint your stairs with something simple, but beautiful. Choose a single color; this can be your favorite color. Then, you need to decide if you want an ascending or descending gradient.

To get down to work, buy a pot of paint in the color you’ve chosen along with a pot of white paint. The first stair must have the color you’ve chosen and the second stair must be in a lighter tone–and for this, you’ll lean on white.

The third stair should be lighter still and so on until the last stair is reached. Now, you can also do this the other way around and take the gradient from light to dark.

2. Mix white with your chosen single color

We’ll continue with the quietest of options. Choose a single color of your preference and paint each stair on either the treads or risers only. It’s your decision which of the two parts of the staircase you want to paint in your chosen color. Leave the area you discarded the same color as the ground, to maintain uniformity.

3. Paint your stairs like a rainbow

Rainbow colors.

If you have children at home, this idea is going to enchant them! It involves painting each stair in a different color and making a rainbow. You have different ways of doing this. The first is to paint the entire step (tread and riser). The second way is to only paint the tread, and the third way is to only paint the riser.

Remember that the rainbow only has seven colors. So it’s really important that before you begin painting you count the number of steps you have. This way you’ll be able to work out whether to apply each color to one, two, or three steps, depending on the extension of your staircase. If you have a lot of steps, you also have the option to repeat.

4. Use your stairs as a blank canvas

This is one of the most beautiful ideas because it’s about seeing your stairs as a blank canvas where your imagination can run free. That’s right! From a landscape to a beautiful sunset or a drawing of your choice.

Of course, this idea absolutely requires your artistic skills or even hiring a professional illustrator to help you bring your idea to life.

5. Using abstract figures or patterns to paint your stairs

Another idea on how to paint your stairs has to do with abstract figures or patterns. In this case you also have the option of painting these designs on the treads or the risers. In fact, you can use one pattern on the tread and a completely different one on the riser.

6. Inspirational phrases

Phrases on the stairs.

The use of inspirational phrases is very fashionable nowadays and these can be displayed in different spaces of the home. These phrases are printed on adhesive vinyl and, as the name implies, they adhere to most surfaces with ease. Templates are also available for you to paint yourself.

The goal is to paint the risers of your stairs in the color you want. You can even use some of the color ideas that we’ve already given you and then place one word of the phrase over the top of the color. The idea is that you divide the phrase into one or two words over each step. Before reaching the top you can read the last words of your inspirational phrase.

Which idea to paint your stairs did you like the most?

In this article, we’ve given you six original ideas to paint your stairs. You can choose the one you like the most or mix them up. The objective is that you feel motivated and encouraged to move away from the traditional and add a little originality to this space.