We Need a Stair Runner

Hey there stranger.

Today I'd like to talk about how much we need a stair runner. We need one bad. We needed one, like, yesterday.

When we got the floors refinished on the 2nd floor of our home back in December, a huge chunk of the cost was getting the stair treads refinished as well. They sent two workers out to our house and one of them worked on the stairs alone for the whole week as they had to be done by hand.

I don't think I showed any pictures of the stairs so I'll show you a quick photo right now. The treads look awesome when you're looking at the stairs from the top.

However, the worker-dude kinda made a mess of the risers. I was actually pretty fuming mad but I've since come to terms with it. He chipped the heck out of the paint on the risers and slopped polyurethane all over them too.

So not impressed. I wish they would have told us so that we could have taped them. Alas they did not and now I have to go back and prime and paint all the stair treads. Booooo.

So, the reason we need a stair runner is because of this bad dog. Lexie.

Whenever she's upstairs and hears the littlest noise downstairs, she scrambles down the stairs as fast as she can (to investigate) and leaves a million and one scratches in her wake. 

{Insert tears here.}

A stair runner will help protect the wood from scratches. It will also help with the noise factor. See, when Lexie hears a noise and scrambles down the stairs, Roary always follows. It creates quite a bit of chaos.

Note: Yes, our dogs are very well-trained and well-behaved. :S

So, we went to a local carpet store a few weeks ago to check out some rug samples. I had this picture of a Pottery Barn rug that I was using for inspiration. I would show you but they've since discontinued that rug and I can't find a picture anywhere! It had kind of a two-tone look to it.

These are the samples that I'm currently looking at that remind me of the dreamy Pottery Barn picture. You'll just have to trust me that it was dreamy.

The one I like the best is in the second row, far left. However, I'm afraid that it's too light in colour and will get dirty too fast with the dogs and their muddy paw prints.

Question: WHY do the dogs insist on playing in the one spot of the yard where grass won't grow and it's just a pile of dirt?!? WHY!?!?!?!

So, we need to make a decision asap and we also need to paint those risers asap. Hmmmm, what to do, what to do.

Let's look at some inspiration pictures instead of making a decision. That sounds fun. I really love the stripes but we don't have anything like that locally. So, something natural fibre and neutral is what we're looking for.

Source: Pinterest
Original Source: Iroka

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Original Source: Houzz

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Original Source: Little House Blog

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Original Source: Country Living

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Original Source: Unknown

Source: Pinterest
Original Source: An Inspired Life

We've had that carpet sample for a few weeks now and the man from the carpet store has left two messages on our answering machine asking us to return it. He sounds kinda mad. Whoopsie!