Making our staircase grand

Since our house was new construction, pretty much everything is white, tan, and cream until we decide to paint ourselves. So far, the only room we've painted is the kitchen and that was such a disaster that we ended up having to hire someone to come over and fix it. Needless to say we have been afraid to get back on the proverbial horse.

I have so many plans for different rooms, but the stairwell is too tall/high for us to ever consider painting so I knew if we were going to take it out of bland vanilla-ville then we'd have to paint the banisters. So, we were off to Lowes and looked at a bunch of swatches and ended up going with Dark Granite by Olympic.

Then we came home and got to work and were pleasantly surprised that it was coming out MUCH better than the kitchen disaster of 2012. 

Halfway through:

As we slaved away, someone snoozed in the corner:

*Rough life*

Before pic:

After pic:

I love how it came out and am so proud of us for not needing to hire someone to come over and fix it! Score one for us!