Inspired by Stairs

About a month ago, while randomly searching for a new craft, I found the best. stairs. ever.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these stairs.  I pinned them, I thought about them, I wanted to redecorate my whole house to compliment them.

See - aren't they incredible?

You can read all about how she did it HERE. at Home with Heather.

As much as I adore her stairs, I'm just not ready to tear up the carpet on the stairs, buy the risers and the stairs, paint, sand, stain and then paint again.  So, I did what any "normal" crafty person would do.  I made my own version.

We had a playset in our backyard that was beyond dilapidated.  It had fallen over, been put back up and fell over again.  It was a beautiful mess of unused crafty material!  We tore it apart and I begged my husband to let me keep a tiny bit of the wood for my projects.  You see, we were trying to clean up the backyard - "not move the junk around" as he put it.  I huffily told him we would be saving so much money by letting me keep the wood because if he didn't I would just go out and buy it later.  I NEEDED that wood!  I could already see the finished stair project in my head.

The poor man rolled his eyes and agreed.

Of course, this was all before I started a blog so I went ahead and did the project with NO. PICTURES!!  I know, what was I thinking?  I hate when people put the finished project up without the 'How-to' pics.  I mean, how else can I copy what you are doing???

But, alas, here I am, writing my very first project blog post...without the 'How-to' pics.  Forgive me.

I started with a bridge.  It was the bridge that connected to playsets together.  It was the newest addition to the playset so it was in the best condition.  It was weathered and worn and absolutely perfect for the look I was going for.

Next, I cut our the letters from scrapbook paper using my Circut.  This was really the first time I had used it even though I had had it for over a year.  I varied the fonts and sizes.

Then, I laid the letters on the bridge and stood back to see how I liked it. I called Burger (my husband) in to see what he thought.  He had only been called in to give his opinion of how it was shaping up about 97 times by this time.  He said he couldn't see the letters that well and walked away.  

And I said, "WHAT???  After all that hard work???  You can't read it???  Of course you can - you're just being difficult!!!"...in my head.  I'm not dumb... I did ask for his opinion.

And so, off I went to find the perfect whitewash paint to make it better.  I used some leftover paint from the living room, added some water to it and painted away.  I have to admit, he was right.  It looked so much better.  Don't tell him though.  

Once the whitewash was dry, I used Mod Podge to put the letters on.  Since I wanted some variance in the letters, I used different papers and different colors for the sayings.  The silver looked great but, it doesn't show well when the sun isn't on it.  My middle son, the dear, suggested it needed glitter.  And so it did!

I glitter glued the silver letters and it was done!  

So far, I have only used materials that I already had around the house. 

The last part of the project isn't done yet.  I wanted hooks on the sides to use it as a coat/backpack hanger for the boys...instead of the currently used couch.

I found some great doorknobs at the Re-Store that will work perfectly!