How to Paint a Staircase
The staircase is an element that’s often not considered within a colour scheme. But painting your staircase is a great way to incorporate it into your hallway design, helping you achieve an all-encompassed, considered look.
This might mean contrasting neutral walls with a bright, bold hue that creates a strong focal point. You could also include your staircase within a colour-drenched or double-drenched scheme, or coordinate with wallpaper for a beautiful, all-over finish.
Read our step-by-step guide to painting a staircase using our hardwearing, water-based Intelligent Paints, with finishes for floors and woodwork.
Parts of a staircase
You don’t necessarily need to paint every surface of your staircase to achieve a sense of transformation. For a subtle update, consider introducing colour to a small area, such as the stair risers or spindles.
- Handrail – The top part of the staircase that you hold onto, also called the ‘banister’ or ‘balustrade’.
- Tread – The top part of each stair that you walk on. As the surface that receives most wear and tear, it requires a very tough and durable paint finish.
- Riser – The front part of each stair that you can see as you look directly at the staircase. The risers offer a great opportunity to draw the eye by introducing a vibrant accent colour.
- Nosing – The small, overhanging section of each stair. It can experience lots of knocks and bumps, so you’ll need to use a hardwearing paint finish.
- Spindles – The long, thin surfaces that connect the handrail to the stringers. Traditionally wooden, they can sometimes be quite decorative and in more contemporary homes, made of metal. The spindles are another place you could incorporate an unexpected colour highlight.
- Stringers – The bottom part of the staircase, on either side of the stairs. In a hallway, painting this in the same colour as your walls and woodwork can achieve beautiful continuity, giving your scheme a curated, cohesive look.
Material checklist
To paint your staircase, you will need:
- Sugar soap or degreaser
- Painter’s tape
- Medium-grade sandpaper
- Paint brushes and/or rollers
- Knotting Compound (for soft woods and knots)
- Intelligent All Surface Primer (tinted to your chosen shade)
- Intelligent Floor Paint (for stairs)
- Intelligent Eggshell, Satin or Gloss (for handrail, spindles and stringers)
The best finishes for a staircase
Our Intelligent Floor Paint is the best paint for a staircase. It has a water-based formula that dries within four hours, making projects very simple, with minimal disruption to your routine.
This versatile floor paint has a beautiful satin sheen of 30-40% and is available in all Little Greene colours. It’s designed with the busy family home in mind, offering fantastic durability with a completely washable formulation that’s also child safe.
For the other elements of your staircase (spindles, handrail, stringers), we recommend using Intelligent Eggshell, Satin or Gloss. These groundbreaking finishes combine a primer and paint in one tin. This means you can usually apply them straight onto both painted and unpainted woodwork and metalwork, without needing a separate primer. They also offer up to 15 times more durability than ordinary household paints, so you can use them with confidence in a high-traffic area like a staircase.
Paint a staircase: a step-by-step guide
1. Clean the staircase
You will first need to give your staircase a thorough clean all over, removing any dust, grease and debris. Use a degreaser such as sugar soap, then rinse every surface with clean water.
2. Prep the staircase
Before painting, it’s important to properly prepare the surface by sanding with a medium-grade sandpaper. This will allow you to create a key, improving adhesion and durability. If the wood has been stained, try to remove this as best as possible. Using an electric floor sander will make this step a lot easier.
When sanding, ensure to cover all corners, including the spindles and every surface of the stairs – treads, nosing and risers. Once sanded, you can wipe down with a cloth, then use painter’s tape to mask the edges ready for painting.
3. Prime the staircase
The primer you require depends on the surface you are painting, and the finish you are using. If you are painting soft or knotted wood, you first need to use a knotting compound to seal the knots and prevent any bleeding. You can apply this to both the stairs and woodwork.
If you are painting stairs without knots, we recommend applying one coat of Intelligent All Surface Primer. This will improve coverage and provide the best possible surface for painting, giving your staircase excellent durability and protection against everyday wear and tear.
For surfaces where you are using our self-priming Intelligent Paint finishes (Eggshell, Satin, Gloss), you usually don’t need a primer, unless you are completing a dramatic colour change, such as black to white.
4. Paint the staircase
Once you have primed each surface with the appropriate primer or undercoat, you can go ahead with your chosen finishes. If you have used a knotting compound rather than ASP, consider thinning down the first coat with 10% water to improve coverage. Then apply a full coat of paint, waiting four hours for this to dry.
5. Apply a second coat of paint
We recommend applying two coats to achieve beautiful, long-lasting colour. Once the final coat is dry, avoid heavy foot traffic on the staircase for 24 hours. After this point, the staircase is ready to use!
Shop paint by colour, finish or collection to begin your staircase painting project.