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How to Make Marimekko Wallpapered Stairs

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How I Marimekko Wallpapered My Stairs

The first thing you see when you open my front door are the steep victorian stairs. These stairs have been crying out for a transformation. I finally I got rid of the boring beige carpet that was just a dust and dirt magnet and brightened them up with a touch of Marimekko.
 
Everytime I open the front now, I can’t help but smile at my lovely cheery stairs. Even my teenage sons who don’t normally notice anything round the house, have told me without prompting how much they love the new stairs.
 
My Marimekko stairs were achieved by wallpapering the risers in Marimekko wallpaper. Other wallpapers are available but I do have a bit of a thing about Marimekko.
 
In the past I have Marimekko’d shoes, a bench, and even a giant papermache cactus.
 
These stairs were transformed with Marimekko Unikko wallpaper. Full tutorial on how to remove old carpet from stairs and how to wallpaper them for a more striking cleaner look.
 
 
This post contains amazon affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to see my disclosure policy.
 
 

Preparing carpeted stairs for wallpapering

Tools & Materials Used

 
 

  1. The first thing I did was to remove the old carpet.
     
    As these were the only stairs in the house and I live in a busy household with people constantly going up and down the stairs, I decided to remove the the carpet one stair at a time. I don’t know if you have lifted the carpet off your stairs before, but what is underneath are lethal carpet grippers and nails.
     
    Stepping on one of those grippers is going to hurt. Using a Stanley knife I cut the carpet off each stair one by one, removing the grippers and nails before moving on to the next step.

    2.  

  2. Once all the carpet was finally removed I then used the heat gun to strip any residual paint on the stairs. The stairs in my house are over a hundred years old and had been obviously been painted before. As I was going to be wallpapering the risers, I only needed to remove the paint on the top of each step.
     
    How to transform your stairs with wallpaper step by step tutorial

    3.  
     

    Varnishing the stairs..

  3. The stairs were then sanded with an electrical hand sander before varnishing. Varnishing the stairs proved tricky as I didn’t have the option of making them out of bounds for a few hours. Also being old victorian stairs they were too steep to varnish every other step and then just use every other step until dry.
     
    How to transform your stairs with wallpaper step by step tutorial.

    4.  

  4. I ended up varnishing the stairs in 2 halves, so everyone could walk down one side of the stairs while the varnish dried on the other side. I applied 2 coats of varnish on the stairs one in the morning and another last thing at night, so this took a couple of days one for each side.
     
    How to remove carpet and transform your stairs.

    5.  

  5. The banister and railings were also given a new coat of paint. The banister was painted a dark blue to match my chosen wallpaper. I had noticed that my white banister had got very grubby over the years and I was hoping that a blue banister would fair better.

 

How to wallpaper your stairs

What you need to wallpaper stairs.

 
 

How to wallpaper stairs.

I could have wallpapered the stairs on my own but decided to rope in the help of my friend Wendy, who is an expert at upcycling with wallpaper.
 

  1. To make sure that the wallpaper will stick to your stairs well, key them first. I did this by applying a coat of wallpaper paste to each stair riser and letting it dry thoroughly.

    2.  

  2. Measure the width and length of each step riser. It may be awkward to get an accurate measurement, it’s always better to measure too big, then too short as you can trim later.

    3.  

  3. Using a rotary cutter and a cutting mat cut your wallpaper for each step. You will have to think how best your chosen wallpaper pattern will work. I was lucky as the Marimekko pattern I chose worked either way up so I was able to cut my wallpaper to the length of my stairs and thus avoided any joins.

    4.  

  4. Paste up your paper well with wallpaper paste and then place carefully on each step, positioning from the bottom up. When in place, go over the top with a damp sponge pushing the wallpaper into any grooves.

    5.  

  5. Continue until all the stairs are finished leave to dry thoroughly. Even though the wallpaper is washable to protect it further apply a coat of varnish to each step.

 
How to wallpaper stairs full step by step tutorial
 
 

The finished stairs..

 
I love it now when I open my front door and see my lovely Marimekko stairs.
 
Transform your stairs with wallpaper full step by step tutorial for Marimekko Stairs
 
 
Marimekko Stairs - Transform you stairs with wallpaper step by step tutorial
 
 
Since publishing this post I have now covered the lampshades in my hall way to match my Marimekko stairs, you can check out how to wallpaper lampshades here.
 
How to wallpaper lampshades so that it matches your decor
 
 
If the Marimekko stairs are a bit bold for you or if you love Marimekko, how about moving the Marimekko into the garden with these gorgeous upcycled Marimekko decorative tin can planters.
 
Marimekko decorative tin can planters
 
For even more fantastic wallpaper ideas check out my awesome creative wallpaper ideas and brillaint ideas for upcycling with wallpaper.
 
For more home improvemnt ideas visit diyideacenter.com
 
 


 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lisa

    if I did, I’d do exactly what you have done. They are so fun and such a great pop of color against the white walls. And if you get bored, you can just rip it off and start over! Visiting from Redo It Yourself Inspiration party.

    Reply

  4. 499Lake

    A very clever way to use wallpaper. None-the-less, the blue on the stair railing and the navy blue in the wallpaper are discordant, one is greenish blue and the other is black blue. It would have been better if you repeated the navy on stair railing or painted it a color with less contrast.

    Reply

  5. LynneWebb

    Not my choice of colors but it’s a great improvement. I can’t understand why someone (and I suspect it was a previous owner) covered those beautiful oak treads with carpet to begin with. That’s a stunning feature and certainly not cheap. I suppose if it was me I’d mimic another similar re-do I saw. I’d use wallpaper that looked like birch trees on the risers or even bricks or stones. But, it’s clear your choice of color is blue and it looks great.

    Reply

    • Claire Armstrong

      Thank you! I agree that it is a great improvement and I know my choice of wallpaper is a bit too bold for some people’s taste. I do like your idea of birch tree or stone wallpaper I think they would look great too.

      Reply

  8. Cynthia

    This is an absolutely spectacular project. I love how it turned out. I really need to speak up, though, about using the heat gun on the paint in your old Victorian home. Statistically your home is covered with lead based paint and using a heat gun on lead-based paint releases a dangerous amount of lead for you and your family. I work for the Cincinnati health department childhood lead poisoning prevention program and I would be happy to give you more information. Or you can just Google it and you’ll find information from the EPA and from HUD. Best of luck! I look forward to seeing more of your projects. Perhaps your local health department has the ability to check paint for you before you continue on a project.

    Reply

  9. Wendy

    Okay Claire… This project completely blows me away! I’m also a Marimekko fan, and recently I’ve been in my Orla Kiely phase!
    Wendy

    Reply

  11. Emma

    Wow, this looks fantastic. You’ve done a great job. Don’t know if I’m brave enough to do it on my stairs but I love the Marimekko pattern. Pinning for the future when I’m feeling a little braver 🙂

    Reply

  12. Leslie

    Wow! That is such a gorgeous transformation! I love the bold color and pattern, and you blended the stain beautifully considering you had to do each side separately.

    Reply

  13. Emily

    Wow!! What a transformation! I love the pop of color and pattern from the Merimekko paper! Thanks for sharing with Merry Monday last week 🙂

    Reply

  14. Elina

    I followed a link from link up party and checked what other things you do and then I saw Marimekko print on these photos, print that I know quite well as I’m from the country of Marimekko’s. I have seen it in many different colours and almost everywhere but seeing it in a blog that isn’t Finnish was a surprise. 😀 Great job with the stairs!

    Reply

    • Claire Armstrong

      Thank you ! I love Marimekko prints and have used them for other projects on my blog, like a bench and a giant paper mache cactus. My husbands family is from Norway so share a border with FInland. I have been to the Merimekko shop in Oslo (very small), but would like to visit the one in Helsinki one day.

      Reply

  15. Mistie

    So Gorgeous!! I love that you used wallpaper, and what beautiful wallpaper. I have never redone stairs, and that looks like some work doing the prep, but your finished project looks like it was worth every second. That would make me smile too seeing it everyday. Great work and great tutorial.

    Reply

  18. Gina

    This looks like a completely different staircase! I love the way it turned out! It looks like a lot of work to me though. I’d find it a bit daunting to take this on. But, bravo to you!

    Reply

  19. Linda

    The transformation is fabulous! It looks like decorative tile. It looks like a lot of work, but you pulled it off. Thanks for sharing this delightful project at DI&DI.

    Reply

  20. Chloe Crabtree

    What a fun makeover…well, the result is fun, it doesn’t look like the process was fun at all! Your hard work was all worth it, though, as the outcome is fun and certainly an improvement over the carpet! What a bright and fun welcome you get when you open your front door now! Thanks so much for sharing over at the Celebrate Your Story! link party! Hopefully this will inspire some more folks to take on their staircases. I live in a one story now, so no more stairs for me!

    Reply

  24. sahana

    Wow, it looks amazing!!Great transformation. Thank you for sharing with us at #HomeMattersParty .We would love to have you again next week.

    Reply

  25. Lynn

    I couldn’t have been more excited about seeing your Stair Project! My stairs are sort of tucked away but I’ve been wanting to do a redo on them for some time. Yours look amazing and add such character and a personality to your stairs. I’m totally inspired. Thank you for sharing over at the Happiness is Homemade Link Party!

    Reply

  28. DebraShoppeno5

    I don’t have stairs but I love to see the creative ways people redo them over from the carpet. Your transformation is so attractive. It adds such cheerfulness to the stairway.

    Reply

  30. Laura

    Oh my goodness- this is amazing.
    Not only is it clever and creative and colorful, but you executed the process so well.
    I am afraid I would have created a big hot mess!
    Thank you for being at TOHOT!

    Reply

  34. Stacey

    Claire, this is pretty darn brilliant! The pattern you chose is fun and definitely beckons people to go upstairs. Now you come remove the carpet from mine?

    Happy Thoughts of Home. 🙂

    Reply

  39. Victoria @DazzleWhileFrazzled

    I don’t have stairs in my home but if I did, I’d do exactly what you have done. They are so fun and such a great pop of color against the white walls. And if you get bored, you can just rip it off and start over! Visiting from Redo It Yourself Inspiration party.

    Reply

    • Claire Armstrong

      Thank You ! That’s what I thought if I don’t love it I can just strip the wallpaper and choose a different one. Lucky for me not only do I love it but my husband and boys do so it will be staying for awhile.

      Reply

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