If you follow me on instagram, you already saw, but we got a STAIR RUNNER! I just love it so much. When we first moved into our home, I thought we’d be okay with just the hardwood floors. After a couple near death experiences, we knew some skid-proofing would be necessary. Truthfully, I would have added one anyway! The staircase is the first thing you see when you come to our home. It is like a big welcome mat that sets the tone for your whole visit.
We went ahead and refinished our stairs when we did the hardwood on the main floor. They are so much lighter and I love them! While we absolutely loved our striped stair runner we had, it needed to be removed for the refinishing and a perfect chance to mix up the vibe presented itself! Did you know that any runner can become a stair runner? We used two and a half of these runners for our stairway.
How to Measure for a stair runner:
- Measure the tread (the part of the stair you walk on) and the height of the riser ( the part of the stair you see when you look straight on.. in my case, the rise is white). Add those numbers together.
- Count the number of stairs you have.
- Multiply the number of stairs by the tread+riser to have the runner length.
TIP: As a general rule, you should have about 4″ of bare stair on either side of the stair runner, but stairs are not all universal, so you may not be able to achieve that gap, or you may have more. Try running painter’s tap along the stairs at the width of the runner before you make the purchase.
TIP: We will use the leftover half of the third runner as a accent rug! you can take that piece and have it bound at most local carpet shops.
We didn’t install our own stair runner, but we have before, read why we hire this project out here. This is a project someone could do on their own, though, I have seen several tutorials for it!
I hung a wall sconce above some frames, it adds dimension to the wall and feels custom. (I have that sconce and others linked HERE). Also the frames we have are all really old, I painted them all the same color- Silver Celadon from Behr.
STEAM MOP- In other exciting news, our steam mop continues to be one of our favorite toys. Yes, as a grown up, these are often the things we get pumped about, let’s embrace it. It makes cleaning and sanitizing our floors such a painless chore! Our kids even like to help. When I shared this Steam mop, I had several people reach out asking if it was a good idea to use this on hardwood floors. My answer: it depends. We did three coats of topcoat over our refinished floors, so it is okay! My brother-in-law had a hardwood floor business for years and he always used a Steam Mop, but he was the installer so he knew how the floors were sealed.
I add a small amount of Thieves household cleaner to the water reservoir for extra cleaning power and the amazing smell! See how I clean my entire house with one bottle of cleaner here.
Pressure Washer- Speaking of cleaning, we have continued to love our pressure washer as well. It has been a life saver during the backyard construction! I gave this as a gift to Kevin for Father’s Day last year and I added this attachment this Spring. It makes a great gift!
Salmon- Kevin made salmon the other night and I had a lot of questions asking how we made it! Such a quick and yummy Summer meal.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup honey
4 tbs butter
2 tbs dill
1 tbs parsley
1tsp salt
2 lbs Salmon
Recipe:
Bring first five ingredients to a boil. Let it cool, slightly and then pour over the raw salmon. After several minutes, add the salmon to an already hot pan. Cook for 6-8 minutes on each side at medium-high. You can also broil it in an oven. This salmon pairs nicely with my favorite smashed sweet potatoes.
It was the last day of school for our kids this past week. Who knew on that first day how the end of the year would end up! So incredibly thankful for teachers!!!!! If you are a teacher, THANK YOU! And thank you for supporting and looking out for the kids who don’t have a lot of support. You are a gift and deserve a lot more.
PS- Lots asked about the girls clothes. We actually got their outfits from Shein. Very affordable and actually great quality from everything we got!
Hope you have a great weekend! We are going to be working in our yard the surf board above just showed up that we ordered a couple weeks ago to use as our outdoor shower backdrop! Can’t wait to share!
