The Steel Staircase and Wooden Planks

The decision to restore the staircase was a no brain er, but what color was really difficult for me. I bounced this off of many. After discussing with my brother John I decided to remove the wooden baby bumpers attached to the railing. Now that it is painted and restored to the original I still liked the bumpers, but glad I removed mine. I had to destroy them in the process, but left the original screw holes in case I decide to reinstall.

I also decided to remove the paint, no easy chore. Using many different products,  highly toxic, I preferred the orange citrus non toxic brand. Even my heat gun would not remove the many coats of paint. After removing all the paint I saw that black was the original color, which helped me make my final decision. The whole stair case is really a piece of sculpture! 

Stripping took weeks for me to complete. The wooden plank steps also had to be removed and sanded.  Just getting the screws out was an all day job for me. Luckily, I had the use of CCS's wood shop making at least the sanding a bit easier.  Once I was able to remove the steps, I discovered that at one point there was pink carpeting on the stairs. Pink carpet to go with the pink walls, all the walls both upstairs and down were painted pink. I found this when I removed the switch covers.

                    risers without the wooden planks, 1/8th in steel

uncovering the original paint.

still stripping.........