Awesome Staircase Makeover DIY with Newel Post on a Budget

Sharing how we transformed our entryway with an awesome staircase makeover DIY including a new newel post that blends beautifully with our century’s old farmhouse on a budget. Pictures included!

Awesome Staircase Makeover DIY

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Our Staircase Before

The entryway & main staircase of our farmhouse was not original to our home.

Over time the banister & railing had become loose & the pine stairs really began to creek & sag.

It was always striking to me that our old stairway never seemed like it fit our entryway.

I missed the character of an staircase like in our first home or the old newel post Jason added to our former split level.

I know now that it was not “beefy” enough for the tall ceilings & size of our home plus it lacked the character that it needed to match the rest of our farmhouse.

Cost of Staircase Makeover DIY

We were able to keep costs down to just a few hundred dollars for our staircase makeover DIY.

With wood prices on the rise these days, we kept our staircase makeover DIY on budget by reusing some materials.

For our new railings we used our old newel posts & railing, leftover black walnut wood for the wood accents & the vintage wood newel tops were recycled from old dock posts that were falling apart at my parents.

Never be afraid of reusing old construction materials, not only is it environmentally friendly it is also friendly on your wallet!

Staircase Makeover DIY Demo

We took down our old staircase & railings & replaced it with a solid half wall with a gorgeous stained recycled black walnut top.

Now we can stash things behind the wall & they are no longer seen from the front door!

The old pine stair treads were replaced with solid white oak ones from Home Depot & newly painted white stair risers.

The old pine stairs were never attached properly with is why they had started to creek & sag.

Jason reinforced them & they are very solid now even with 4 kids & Moose running up & down on them.

Staircase Makeover DIY Newel Post

Our wood newel post was created with a 2 by 4 base that was screwed into our stairs & half wall.

Our old newel post started on the first staircase but our new newel post starts on our terracotta tile floor.

Jason covered the 2 by 4’s with painted 1 by 6’s.

We topped the newel post base with 2 inches of black walnut & a rounded ball vintage newel top that we cut off the top of some very rotted dock posts that were from my parents house in the Pocono mountains of Pa.

We had wanted to use the entire old rounded ball dock posts but they were just too rotted that we were worried they wouldn’t last very long.

We painted the staircase white except for the staining the black walnut & former railing Jason cut to fit our new staircase makeover DIY.

Jason also added more character with additional trim painted white.

Staircase Makeover DIY After

We could not be happier with how our staircase makeover DIY turned out!!!

It gives so much more character to our farmhouse & really looks impressive in our entryway.

I had so much adding garland to it this Christmas!

Our entire entryway has been entirely transformed with our staircase makeover DIY & the new front door & vertical shiplap which I will sharing a blog post about later this week!

I hope our staircase makeover DIY inspires you to make over a staircase or build a new newel post at your home!

by Tara Lehman

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