DIY Refinishing Old Pine Farmhouse Stairs by Hand

Sharing all the DIY tips & tricks we learned refinishing our pine wood farmhouse stairs by hand on a budget that used to be carpeted with pictures.

It has been a few years coming but we finally got around to refinishing our pine wood farmhouse stairs. 

When we moved into our farmhouse 3 years ago our whole upstairs was covered in old & mismatched wall to wall carpet. 

We were disappointed to discover that under most of the carpet was either plywood or hardwood floors in terrible shape. 

So we started adding wide pine floors room by room.  First with the master bedroom & then with the boys rooms.

DIY Refinishing Pine Farmhouse Stairs by Hand

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Instructions for How to Refinish Pine Farmhouse Stairs

Farmhouse Stairs Before – Old, Dirty & Mismatched Carpet

Thankfully, there was old pine stairs under the carpet. 

Taking out the Old Carpet & Staples

So first things first, we pulled up the old carpet & carpet pads in hallway & stairs & took out the carpet staples. 

Moose is always around to help. 🙂

And the stairs stayed that way for two years while we tackled other DIY projects. 

Yikes!

The idea of painting & sanding this tall stairway was a little overwhelming to us, until now!

Painting our Farmhouse Stairway Walls

First, we painted the walls our favorite neutral, SW Kestral white. 

We also took down the shutters to let more natural light in the windows. 

Installing Wide Pine Flooring to Our Farmhouse Stairs Hallway

Jason added wide pine boards over the plywood floors to our farmhouse stairs hallway.

You can read all the tips & ideas for how to install & refinish wide pine flooring in this DIY blog post (HERE)

Sanding Tips for our Original Pine Farmhouse Stairs

Then over Christmas break Jason took on the gigantic & very messy task of sanding down these stairs. 

He used his trusty 15 year old orbital sander to tackle the original pine stairs. 

This is the sander we have, DEWALT DWE6423K Variable Speed Random Orbit Sander, 5″

Staining & Adding Polyurethane to our Pine Farmhouse Stairs

After lots of vacuuming & dusting we stained the stairs Summer Oak by Varathane to match the wide pine floors upstairs & oak floors downstairs.

Then we followed up the stain with 5 coats of Satin polyurethane. 

Lastly I taped off the stairs & painted the trim SW semi gloss extra white.

You can still see where the carpet staples were originally but all the imperfections give the stairs so much character!

SO MUCH BETTER than the ugly dirty carpet that was here when we moved in just a few years ago.

I need Jason’s help hanging up the mirror at the top of the landing on the steps.

My grandparents house had a large built in mirror at top of their stairway landing & I wanted to recreate that here. 

The wide pine floors we put down go well with the our newly refinished pine stairs.

Looking down the steps you can see our old door turned coat rack. 

Still the perfect spot to hang our coats & bags when we get home. 🙂

Although there is still so much to do the house seems a lot more finished now.

Jason is trying to talk me into adding a carpet runner to our refinished farmhouse stairs but for now I am just excited about how pretty they look.

I hope this inspire you & answers all the questions you have about refinishing pine farmhouse stairs.

by Tara Lehman

Don’t forget to save & pin our Farmhouse Stairs!

Before & After Farmhouse Fixer Upper

Old Door Turned Coat Rack

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