I Used This Tool to Paint My Walls and I Will Never Go Back to the Old One.
For some reason, I’ve painted a lot of stairs in my life. Exterior, interior—I’ve painted more stairs than I ever thought possible. But sometimes painting stairs is the easiest way to transform them. When my wife and I moved into our house, the stairs were covered in hideous green carpet. We took it down almost immediately, and I decided to just paint the stairs as a temporary solution. But we ended up actually liking the paint, so we just left it as is.
The staircase was showing a bit of wear, so it was time for a paint refresh. We decided to change things up a bit by painting the risers a lighter color for contrast (we’re such a luxury kind of guy). This gave me the opportunity to use one of my favorite painting hacks: a stair riser protector. I can’t remember who showed me this, but it speeds up the whole process significantly. Previously, painting a staircase with all those corners and curves meant a ton of masking tape and wrist pain from using a thin brush. (Now I’m pretty good with a thin brush and often skip the taping, but the stairs still present a challenge.) But using a riser protector eliminates the need for tape and significantly reduces wrist strain.
Everything you need to paint a staircase
Here you can see what the staircase looked like before the work began – it obviously needed some repairs.
I collected the necessary supplies:
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I bought this paint roller at Shur-Line . The 7-inch size is perfect for the stair treads, and it has a swivel roller holder that locks at the right angle. I also bought a spare roller , just in case.
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A tube of paint sealant to fill in all the cracks that have formed over the years.
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Just in case – even the best painting trick can sometimes lead to problems.
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Some were brushed for the same reason – these are old steps that haven’t seen a 90 degree angle in years, so I anticipated that brushing might be necessary in some areas.
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Primer and paint tray – the paint color will match the color of the walls.
Armed with everything I needed, I got to work.
How to Paint Stair Treads with Edge Strip
I didn’t tape the tread down—I simply filled the tray with primer and grabbed the sander. The black button in the middle locks the sander at the desired angle; it’s easy to press with your thumb to adjust the angle on the fly. You can remove the sander (and insert a new one) by pressing the locking tab in the middle. Then, dip the sander into the paint/primer and press down lightly to remove any excess paint.
Once the pad is not dripping paint and you have applied a moderate amount of paint to them that you can control, simply place it on the stair riser and move it horizontally:
Because the pad is rectangular, it allows you to achieve a straight, clean line without the need for tape or trimming, and it doesn’t leave as many marks as a brush. And because it’s flat and designed for working along edges (and painting stair treads essentially involves working all the edges), you can get right to the edge, which is impossible with a roller. Sometimes it’s helpful to remove the pad from its holder and use it by hand, as the pad is more flexible and elastic, allowing for better control in hard-to-reach areas.
It takes a little practice to get the hang of it, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to tackle these risers in no time. If you want to cut down on the time it takes to prep and paint your stairs, use an underlay like this to finish the edges. Here’s my final result:
The staircase is old, and there’s not a single straight line left, but the risers turned out quite neat—and all without masking tape. I probably saved myself about an hour of painting time this way.