restoring staircase

[divingmoose]

Hi,
I live in a victorian house with a staircase that at the moment is painted the normal white gloss. I am thinking about stripping it back to wood as i like the naural look. Whats the best way to do it, and will it look okay do you think?
When bits of pain have been knocked off the wood is really dark coloured, what type of wood was used in that period. Looking at the steps they also are this dark coloured wood.
I was thinking if i dont strip it then possibly having oak cladding put on the steps and have the newel posts etc replaced with oak as think it looks stunning.
Thanks Lee

 

[Symptoms]

Lee - unless it's a rather grand Victorian house the staircase is likely to have been made from softwood (pine). The dark colour you refer to may be the timber's natural (aged) colour ... close-grained quality timber readily available then and not the cheap 'white' stuff we see now) ... or a painted surface popular in the old days known as scumble.

Anyway - what to do. Spend many hours 'stripping' the paint layers off with a blowlamp or hot air gun, remove the spindles and send them off for 'dipping'. Reassemble, spend many hours (days, weeks) rubbing down before applying layers of finish (varnish maybe) to protect the 'natural' wood look. All a waste of time IMO. Unless it's all made from hardwood (grand house) then it was originally meant to be painted ... you'll also discover stripped Victorian stuff then waxed/varnished looks terribly passé.

A better plan would be to repair, prepare and paint it eggshell white, a bit like this:

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• Symptoms
• 12 Jan 2009
• 3

Untitled

• Symptoms
• 12 Jan 2009
• 3

Untitled

• Symptoms
• 12 Jan 2009
• 3