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I Killed a Runner

OUR 2nd HOUSE

Not a pedestrian out for a casual jog…a carpet runner.  Seriously people.  My driving skills aren’t that bad.  And I do have the sense to not admit first degree murder on the internet.  Bringing death to fashion and other crimes are a totally different story.

So in our foyer there was always one thing that bothered me: our stairway carpet runner.  It was floral.  It was yellowish brown.  It was remarkably dirty.  And it smelled.  Yup.  I’m one of those carpet sniffers on my hands and knees with the tush in the air and nose on the ground… 

Even after I added frames up the stairway wall, the carpet was always bugging me.  I kept it a while…I justified that Will needed the extra padding on his little knees when he learned to climb the stairs.  And then when he learned to jump down three stairs at a time (while holding my hand), I figured his future soccer coach would appreciate his healthy non-jarred knees. 

But then one day….back in June…I got an itch.  It was a let’s-remove-the-carpet-while-Jeremy’s-at-work-itch. 

So I got to analyzing how I could actually tackle that size of a job with a semi-pregnant belly.  First, I knew I would have to remove the hardware…

Each step had a bar across it with two brackets on the ends.  The little finial was decorative.  I don’t know exactly what it is…but I always called it a pineapple.  This place has pineapples in the weirdest little places.  This is just another one.  Someone told me that they represent a happy home or hospitality…so I fully plan on replacing these little guys with another pineapple somewhere else in the house.  Kinda like upcycling or reincarnation…just with inanimate fruit.

The hardware wasn’t hard to get off….and took the first set of stairs from this:

to this:

Check out that dirt trapped behind the hardware…gross!

Three hours, three blisters, two screwdriver gashes, and thousands of staples later, I had the first set of steps runner free.

 Not too shabby. 

And then I decided to quit.  Yup.  Two months later, the first set of steps were carpet free and the rest of the stairway still had that runner. 

So one Sunday afternoon when Will was down for his nap, I talked Jer into helping me remove the rest of the carpet (I figured that I could do the staple removal if he was willing to pull all the carpet off which required a bit more brute strength).  Here’s some of what we learned while tackling it…

First – it helps to have a bunch of tools.  What worked for me wasn’t necessarily what Jeremy preferred…so it’s good to have some options.

All I had to do was unscrew the stair hardware to remove the cross bar.  It was super simple.

Then Jeremy started on the carpet.  It helps to start at the top and go down (silly me started on the bottom when I tackled the first set of steps and it took me twice as long and as twice as much energy than working with gravity instead of against it).  Find a corner, try to pry it off and then use short vigorous yanks to get the staples to release their hold on the wood. 

It helps a lot to roll the carpet as you go…just make sure the staples and nails are all facing inward.  Trust me…your palms will thank you…as will your upper arm when you aren’t sore from a tetnus shot. 

When you get to the risers, pull the carpet at an angle.  Again – short strong yanks will do better tn a steady pull. 

Underneath the carpet is the carpet pad, tack strips and thousands of staples.  You wanna tear up the carpet pad as much as you can with your gloved hands.  The tack strip is easily removed with a pry bar and hammer…or flathead and hammer…just go slow and steady with the tack strip rather than perpendicular to it.  The carpet pad will be stapled down…and there will be other staples (illustrated by the arrows) pretty much all over.

We found that the fastest way for us to remove all the staples was to have Jeremy take a flat head screwdriver and pry up just a little bit of them while I followed with a pair of needlenose pliers and twisted, pried and yanked up the rest.  Our stairs are definitely not perfect…they have tiny holes and scraps and even color discoloration now that the carpet is out…but in general, we like it SOOO much better than the carpet.  Not only is it cleaner (no yucky previous owners dirt trapped anywhere) but it’s actually better for me and Will (we used to slip alot on the carpet ending up with jammed toes and twisted ankles).   

 

Of course, with any renovation – even small ones like ripping out carpet, there are some snafoos.  We learned that the runner installers used regular nails to keep the tack strips down…as well as roofing nails.  Seriously.  Most of the time we got them out…but there are a few that the heads broke off and we had to hammer the rest back into the steps.  Whenever we have future floor refinishing, we’ll have to pound them all the way through and fill with wood filler to hide em. 

So now that we have our runner completely in the grave, our stairway looks sooo much better. 

Isn’t it so much cleaner and look so much better?  Maybe it’s just me. 

I can’t wait till the day comes when we paint all our creamy tan trim to a bright white and the risers will get a good coat or two of that too.   And then I want to put numbers on each step…just so Will can finally learn to count.  Right now he thinks counting is 1-3-W.  I’m not kidding.

And now for our before & after side by side…

Not too shabby for just a little editing.  The little nook art and decor helps too…but really the removal of the stair carpet was key.

So you guys rip anything out lately?  Any carpet removal or carpet installation that changed the entire look of a space?  Perhaps you ripped something else outta your house that changed your life?  A light fixture, old cabinetry, a kid or a husband?  🙂

Update : Looking for more info on something you see in our house?  We have a Shop the Bower House page with paint colors and links to accessories, furniture and decor!

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Comments

  1. It looks awesome Katie!!! So much cleaner, more modern, AND the stairs even feel wider. I assume they do in person too 🙂 I frequently take on projects while the hubby is away too- like if I get it started, then we have to finish, no arguments- it’s already been decided. Then I get fussed at the entire time while we finish it, but then he loves it in the end. Always.
    I thought I was the only one who slipped down carpeted stairs!! If I didn’t think our dogs would tumble into the wall, I’d be following your example and ripping the carpet off our stairs too! Looks fabulous!
    xo Cat

  3. looks very nice. but, just to let you know, my brother has the same stairs like you guys…my mother and sister visted and fell down their stairs since they were so slippery. my mother said she almost fell a second time the next time she visited. his wife fell down a little while after. so, after this, he bought carpet treads and that solved the problem. so, just be aware of that.

    they have 2 small children and realized holding them down the stairs without treads was too dangerous so that’s why they put them on.

  6. It looks so much cleaner and more modern. Also, I love the idea of numbering the stairs. My little man is a little younger than Will and when people show off their child’s counting skills I always say “That’s awesome, Hunter can count 1 to no.” 😉

  7. I feel this post, in pulling off carpet from our stairs I’ve averaged 1 stair per hour. It goes so slow. Are your stairs slippery now? My husband is concerned that in winter (with socks) the kids will slip

  8. The stairs look great! I feel your pain too. I’m 28 weeks pregnant and we are installing all new flooring in every room in our home (besides bathrooms). We had to rip out tile and parquet wood flooring that was hideous along with removing all the baseboard with drywall so weak I could poke my finger through it. Not fun, but it will be so worth it once our new floors are in.

  9. We don’t really wear socks lot…we are more barefoot ppl but I can imagine that it could get slippery. You’d have to make it work for your own footwear preference I guess 🙂
    xo kb

  10. I guess I hadn’t really noticed the runner before, but it looks SOOO much better without it. I really don’t get why you would put a runner up the middle of a gorgeous wood staircase, but maybe that’s just me. Glad you got Jeremy’s help to rip the rest off!

  11. Wowza! That looks SOOO much better. It’s amazing how the smallest things can make such a huge difference.

    I admire you for having the ambition to tackle that on your own and while having a little baby growing….I think that would have just fallen on my “honey-do” list. Glad Jeremy helped out, you have a winner!

  12. Wow!! Such a difference!

    I also have the stanky cream-colored trim in my house and want to switch to white. When you paint yours, are you painting all of your doors, too? That’s been my biggest issue. It seems like a pain in the rear but may be worth it in the long run

  13. Soooooo much better! We have a strip of carpeting in our hallway that will be disappearring very soon….I just need to finish repainting the hallway. I left it there so I wouldn’t drip paint on the hardwood.

  16. It looks 600% better in there! What a huuuuuge difference.

    And seriously, that carpet was gross. Napoleon obviously wasn’t a fan of the vacuum.

  17. It could also be a pine cone- a pine cone (or La Pigna), is a traditional Italian symbol of welcome, abundance, and quality.

    Although I have also heard of the pineapple being a symbol of hospitality so who knows!

  18. Looks so much better! Good work, Bowers! And, I think it’s cute that Will counts 1-3-W. It probably makes much more sense, somehow, I’m sure. I used to babysit a little boy, and when he was about Will’s age he liked to count “1-W-circle!” (W was his favorite letter, and circle his favorite shape). I would much rather count that way myself!

  19. What a HUGE improvement! It looks a million times more modern in there now (and cleaner too!). I was vacuuming our stairs yesterday and really just wanted to rip all the carpet up off them. It’s in rough shape and needs to be replaced. Ugh.

  21. OMGoodness!!!

    Thank you for doing this. I have been showing my hubs your blog and saying, “see, Katie’s are only partial carpet, can’t we do that or no carpet at all?” He was all “3 boys and slippery stairs…” But I am all “I don’t care if we put some color matching tread on them.” or , like you, we do bare feet a lot.

    I saw this… didn’t even start to read the post, and sent hubs and email with the line “SEE… Katie did it too!!!”

    Love it Katie. Looks great 🙂

  23. It looks sooo much better! Love those naked stairs. You sure do get a lot of work done for a pregnant lady…actually, you get a lot of work done for a non-pregnant lady, too! 🙂

  24. Ugh the dreaded carpet removal. We had burgundy color carpet on the entire staircase and I ripped the darn thing off all by myself. It sucked! Staples, nails, tack strips. I still need to paint the damn things and put up a railing. Looks so much better!

  26. Looks great! I decided at 37 weeks pregnant to rip up the carpet on our stairs. We had old gross carpet and after living with it for 2 months, I decided to take the plunge while my husband was at work. It took us 2 days to remove the carpet, sand, stain and install treads, but it looked great!

  28. The nails and staples left holes but for the most part they are presentable. One day we will refinish but for now they are fine!
    xo kb

  29. What a big difference! It looks so great now – I really love the wood/white stair look.

    And painting numbers on our stairs is how Isaac learned to count to 14 (the number of stairs we have). And no joke, he had it down in like a week. Will will catch on quickly. 🙂

  30. That looks so much better! I know you are loving it! We recently ripped out our bedroom carpet. Right now we still have the subfloor exposed but we are going to be putting something new down soon. My allergies have been so much better! I don’t even care that there isn’t actual flooring!

    Oh, and I totally do projects like you do…when my hubby is at work and he can’t tell me no or how to do it. I like feeling rebellious from time to time. 😉

  32. I tackled the removal of carpet from the stairs last year maybe? We have actually removed carpet from the whole house. Just a few weeks ago we finally removed the carpet from the hall at the top of the stairs. Our stairs definitely need refinishing. There are tons of staple holes. Their is a definite color difference where there must have been a runner at some point. The house is about 90 years old. It looks better than the teal green carpet that didnt match anything. I have had your stair railing tutorial in the back of my mind forever, and I cant wait to restain the rail and paint the risers and rungs white. Everything is all one color- brown. There is just too much brown in here with all the hardwood floors and dark wood trim (which I believe I am taking the plunge and painting white eventually too). I really need area rugs. Hopefully will work on getting some soon.

  33. Makes a huge diff for sure…
    Can u plz suggest a good electric/cordless screwdriver. Will be buying one soon. So who better to ask than pro- diy’s like u!
    Thanks

  34. OMG this brings back memories of last year – When we ripped all the carpet off our stairs I cried – there were so many staples that it took me several days to get them all up (the stairs were fully carpeted) and then we had to rebuild a few stairs, stain, paint, etc. etc.. But the before and after picture of that project is one of my favorites and just looking at those gorgeous wood stairs makes me happy (even though I slip on the wood all time now and the dogs are terrified to go up and down the stairs).

  36. What a nice update! Re: Will counting – I love that! It took Jack (almost three now) a full year to achnowledge that the number five even existed. Still not sure what poor old five ever did to him!

    Ive been debating whether or not to check what is under the awful carpet on our stairs….Im guess its just as awful, so Im hesitant! Id love to find a nice surprise under there though!

  37. Looks great as it is–just wanted to let you know the current Martha Stewart magazine has a great stairway project where she wallpapers the back of the wall part of the stairs. (sorry if there’s a technical term for this–the rise?) Anyway, might be a cute project for you now that the gross carpet’s gone! 🙂

  38. Oh! The stairs look SO MUCH better without the runner! And congratulations… That work [removing the carpet] doesn’t look like it was much fun.

  39. Lools great! I love our hardwood steps too. We had fully carpeted steps when we moved in and completely transformed them with replacement treads and white risers. I also put numbers on my steps and everyone loves them! And our 2 year old knows his numbers (mostly) because of them. We just used the sticky vinyl and cut the numbers out with a crucut machine. Easy and super removable!

  40. Oooh! So pretty! I recommend you keep the pineapple hardware stuff (I’m sure it has a proper name) in case you ever want to go back to carpeting because the brass hardware you have is pretty nice (and quite expensive). I bet you could sell them if you are 100% sure you never want to go back to carpeting.

  43. As for the numbers… we used some really great, simple multicolored flashcards and some poster putty. They’ve been on for two years, wont budge. Our son loves them – as does everyone who comes through the front door (the staircase is the first thing they see).

  44. Wow, that really does look a ton better. I didn’t really notice it before, but I really like the after photos. And the idea to number the stairs is genius! Great for kids!

  46. Love it Katie, looks great! I have carpet on my stairs but just plywood underneath–I would love to someday have the wood steps!

  50. When we were on a home tour in Charleston they gave us the scoop in the pineapple/welcome thing. During the Civil War, women weren’t allowed to have visitors when their husbands were away. When the husbands got back from battle, they would place a pineapple on the gate to signify that they were accepting visitors. But they also said, if you put the pineapple in a different area, the stopp I think, it signified that your husband was still gone and you were accepting a different kind of visitor…..wink wink. I thought that was interesting.

  52. Instead of numbers, have you considered stenciling some pineapples on the step risers?

    Looks SO much better. The dirt alone would have been enough to make me tear those things out as fast as possible.

  54. I don’t think I’ll stencil anything. I’m kinda digging some metal numbers…but in a classic font. Nothing too childish. Don’t want people to know a kid lives here (as they trip on the Powerwheels as they come in the door!).
    xo – kb

  56. We are gonna paint all our doors…but spray them. We got the paint sprayer with that project in mind. I’m not dedicated enough to do all of them by hand 🙂
    xo – kb

  58. The carpet and hardware had such an old-fashioned look to – this bare look is so much more modern and clean looking. For the numbers, you could use some of those nifty vinyl decals – then after the babies learn their numbers, you could replace with something else – like colors 😉

  59. Looks great! I love how much difference it makes & best of all, it cost nothing for an instant face lift!

  60. Way better!
    And funny…I started pulling up the carpet on our fully carpeted stairs (original 1880 hardwood underneath) about a year ago. The carpet was stapled down so well that by the time I got halfway up, I had to pull so hard that I was afraid of falling down the stairs when it finally came loose. So I asked hubby to help when he got home from work. The upper half of the staircase is still carpeted. One year later. 🙂

  62. We have a dewalt drill and love it! It’s cordless and has served us well for the past six years. Just recently has it been on the fritz but we put that thing through the ringer – using it way way way more than the average joe.
    xo – kb

  64. While remodeling our upstairs, we ripped up the carpet runner. It was in bad shape and needed it. However, I am now left with semi-stained stairs. The treads all were stained on the “do what’s seen only” basis from the previous homeowner. So now I have to go back and do them all over again. Joy! I wish mine looked as good as yours do!

  73. 500 times better, sister. i want to yank up the carpet on our steps, but… i think that i might just be lazy and leave it for the next owner.. plus, it doesn’t have burgundy flowers 😉

  74. I think it looks much better, but are you worried about it being slippery at all? Especially with little boy(s!) running around in socks? Or has it not been too slippery?

  75. We are definitely not sock people. I like to joke that our whole family is barefoot and pregnant 🙂 Actually with bare feet, it’s definitely less slippery than the carpet. The carpet was SLICK. I imagine that if we ever had a kid that loved socks we would come up with a way to add some grip to em.
    xo – kb

  76. Are you guys moving? Did I miss something? Or are you just saying that it’ll never be that important because it ain’t got ugly on my gorgeous carpet runner? Fingers crossed that it’s just that 🙂
    xo – kb

  78. Your stairs look gorgeous but this post made me CRINGE. When we bought our house last year, the entire staircase was carpeted with this striped tan and turquoise rug that had to go (for obvious reasons). Ripping that baby off of the stairs was so tedious and ended up in a lot of blisters, scrapes and cuts from the tack strips. Like you, we’re so glad we did it because the hardwood looks so much better but I still can’t bring myself to pick up the needlenose pliers…

  79. Ok, so maybe I grew up under a rock but I’ve never seen carpet with HARDWARE!!!??? Seriously, how did you not stub your toe on that every. single. day??? The stairs look amazing now, like they had a total makeover. Great job!

  80. Just catching up on your posts; as always, your efforts look great! I’m much older than you, so I’m very familiar w/both the pineapple being used as a symbol of hospitality and the stair carpeting hardware! That hardware was once very popular in traditional homes, but only wealthier families could afford it! Another generational difference — I’ve wanted to ADD an animal print runner to ‘update/modernize’ our c1921 pine steps! Love your spirit & your blog!

  81. we’re considering ripping up the carpet on our stairs, our main concern is slippery-ish-ness. –our puggle may not gain enough traction to climb and descend safely–Did you encounter any slippery-ish-ness after the improvement that wasn’t insurmountable?

  82. It’s hard to say how a puggle might do…we are barefoot people and rarely wear socks alone or socks & shoes in the house. Not a rule or anything but it just happens that way. We haven’t had any slipping issues (I actually did slip more with the carpet) so I prefer the no-carpet…also, Will was jumping on the steps (because the carpet was padding under his little toes) and now that it’s firm, he stopped…which I like because I was always afraid of him falling. Maybe there is a friend that you have that has no carpet and you could test your puggle’s little feet 🙂
    xo – kb

  83. This post makes me laugh because I did the exact same thing, except I wasn’t pregnant! I decided to rip off the stair carpet one early Saturday morning while my hubby was asleep. Although I have to say your stairs look a thousand times better than mine without carpet. They are super old and creaky and it looks like at some point in time someone GLUED a runner down!

  84. Wow, it’s much much better than before. The runner seemed little bit dirty and too old. Without that, your home and stairways look more brighter and beautiful. Also I like your wall color and decorations 🙂

  85. We’re going the other way. Having the wall-to-wall removed, new wood steps and risers installed over the plywood, and an oriental runner with brass hardware. Wish I had your old hardware!

  87. Hi Katie,

    How does Bear do on the stairs? Our doodle scares me sometimes with how fast he barrels down them. We tore our carpet out and put pine treads down. I wish we would have spent more and gone with oak. They are scratched horribly from his nails. Are yours holding up to doggie nails?

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