How To DIY Your Landing With Stair Treads

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Creating a DIY Landing with Stair Treads is the way to go if you want all your wood to match perfectly. With some thoughtful planning and a few supplies, you can easily create the landing of your dreams! 

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When redoing our stairs, I knew I wanted to do the middle landing where our stairs turn from one direction to another with the same treads I used on the stairs themselves. I am going to tell you how I did it and then tell you that is not the easiest or best way to do it. I’ll talk through how I should have done it below so you can learn from our mistakes! 

When we started our landing, we added the first tread closest to the bottom of our staircase first, which made us have to piece the other pieces together. This worked okay, but gave me more work later as I had to re-sand, use wood filler and re-paintwash. It all worked out and ended up looking nice, but I wish I had just done it the other way to start with! Let me walk you through that. 

DIY Landing With Stair Treads

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  1. As with all these stair projects, the first step is to sand your wood. I know it’s not fun, but this is going to make your project look so much better in the end. And it honestly doesn’t take that much sanding.
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  1. When your boards are ready, you’re going to want to prepare them like your stair tread boards. I stained mine with Minwax Simply White, then paint washed them, then sealed them with 3 layers of polycrylic. This is the same process I did on all the stair treads. 
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  1. This is where I hope you learn from my mistakes! I recommend you piece your stair treads together and glue them into one big piece before you add them to your landing. Since you will be piecing multiple treads together for the landing, you’ll need to rip off the bullnose edge from each tread except for the first tread that will mimic your stairs. That way the treads sit flush together. Depending on the size of your landing, you may need to rip the last board of the landing down a bit more than the others to fit. Lay them out on your landing to ensure a good fit, then move them elsewhere and attach them together. This is the best option because it allows your pieces to be completely flush and level and eliminates the need to add wood filler between the seams of the pieces. 
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  1. Once your big landing piece is entirely together, add it to your landing. You can secure it with glue, wood dowels, and/or nails. This way, your landing will be completely flush and level and a perfect fit! 

Tips and Tricks

  • Sanding is a pain but it really does make the difference. You’re going to want a nice even grain and sanding makes your stain or paintwash go on much more evenly. 
  • If you need to cut out any piece of your stair tread to go around corners, do that before you attach all your boards together. It will be much easier to navigate one board than all the boards glued together. 
  • Add weights, clamps, or stacks of books to your boards while the glue is drying to help the glue adhere and your boards remain straight and level. 

What can I use for a stair landing? 

I thought that using the stair tread was so easy! The wood matches perfectly with the exact grain, and I knew that the paint wash is going to match because it was the same wood. I also loved that they were already ripped and level for me. You can absolutely use different wood, though, if you’d like. You can piece together any size wood to make a landing. Using smaller pieces would make a more patchwork look, and you could use wider wood for more of the look we achieved. Either way, it’s sure to be beautiful! 

There you have it! If you decide to create your landing with stair treads, we’d love to see how it turns out! Be sure to use #howwedoandyoucantoo on Instagram so we can see your beautiful space.

PS If you have carpet to remove before you begin your stair renovation, check out this helpful guide!

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