3 Ideas for Stair Flair

Some people live in houses built with dramatic Gone-With-The-Wind staircases or modern, cantilevered, glass steps. Most of us, though, live with standard-issue stairways that are — yes! — a great decorating opportunity. Step this way and turn standard into stellar ...  

1. Add color!
Bold color, shiny lacquer color, or just a band of color like a faux runner. 

2. Customize the details.
Nautical hardware and rope spindles will transport you to your yacht or beach house
or lobster boat (you choose) every time you climb the stairs.

3. Decorate the risers.
The sky's the limit. Maybe words, maybe numbers, waves,  dots, or rows of decoupaged apples or a little puppy running up.  I'm not sure how well it would stick, but you could also try adhering
strips of left-over wallpaper.



[Photo credits: Top: yasminelizabeth instagram.com. Middle: prettystuff.tumblr.com.
Bottom: imgfave.com. Thank you!]

DIY: Paper-Bag Spring Wreath

My place needed some Spring spice and thanks to maryjanesandgaloshes.com, I found the perfect crafty solution. I love the fact that this wreath is made from paper lunch bags. It makes me grin every time I see the wreath.

To start, I nixed the suggested foam wreath form and made my own from cardboard. Then I glued on flowers made from circles of paper lunch bags. (This took forever, I must admit. Lots of time to think about all the bag lunches I ate in elementary school.) To finish, I cut out and glued on blue and yellow butterflies — plus some I cut from sheet music I printed.

Flower technique: Put the eraser end of a pencil in the center of a paper circle and gather the sides of the circle up around the pencil to make a flower. Glue each flower onto the cardboard back. Go to maryjanesandgolashes.com for more details.