Painting stairs

I know lots of people think it's best to varnish stairs but we've finally decided to paint ours white - bannister, treads, the lot. We're using non-slip stair tread coverings from Micostep which will contrast nicely. I want to use a waterbased paint - I painted doorframes and skirting with Colortrend Soft Sheen and was very happy with it. I was wondering whether I could use an acrylic floor varnish over this paint on the treads to protect them from scuffing?

(We did consider staining and varnishing the handrail, newel posts and treads and painting the spindles, risers and side bits but this would be a much trickier project and take forever. My husbands' only concern about the white is that dirt will show in the corners of the treads.)

You will need at least two coats of a high grade floor varnish, such as Dulux Diamond Glaze. Normal floor varnish is not up to the job (here speaks the voice of experience...)

Off white is also a better bet than brilliant white. Or even better, a neutral buff or stone colour. You will never stop cleaning them if you paint them white!

Thanks for that useful advice Diziet. For some reason I thought Diamond Glaze was solvent based but now I see it isn't. And Colortrend do a nice buff colour called Natural Canvas which is definitely worth a tester pot.

Could I just confirm something - am I really OK to put Diamond glaze over the acrylic paint on the treads?

Do you not think a floor paint (International do a good selection) would be sufficient without the need for varnish? My own are actually varnished and I find the best thing for cleaning is simply a micro fibre cloth dampened with a few drops of washing up liquid.

You'll never go back to carpet!!!

Floor paints don't come is a great range of colours from what I remember.

Painting stairs is a pain (mostly because you need to let them dry so can't use them!). Acrylic based paint dries quicker but is nowhere near as hard wearing as oil based paint. If you can cope with the drying time probblem, I would suggest an oil based satinwood paint followed by at least two layers of floor varnish. Having gone to the trouble, you don't want to be repainting in a hurry!

I used acrylic satinwood followed by standard floor varnish and regretted it. I am about to repaint mine, once I work out how to stop the cat running on them while they are drying

cheers,
Diziet

i used a dark walnut staining on the threads while painting the risers in white gloss.... i love the different feature the stairs gives whether you are going up (you see white) or going down (you see dark brown).....