The back of our first floor boasts one of the most enviable spaces in our house - a spacious and open butlers pantry (with a laundry room and powder room, to boot) 
The cabinets in this room are wonderful, but once you get over the *idea* of the pantry, it doesn't do much else to shine. 
A few months ago I was invited to a house party by a friend of the host. While I think my house is awesome, it was built as a middle class home and didn't come with many bells and whistles. This other house, however, was built around the same time as mine and has many similar features but was clearly built to be a show stopper over 100 years ago. From gorgeous, hand poured stained glass windows to intricately etched stair rails, this house was a stunner! 
I tried to peep at as much of the house as possible without looking like a total creep. Unclear if I succeeded in the second part. But I did notice that they also had a pantry/mudroom/powder room just behind their kitchen. Among other highlights of this surprisingly beautiful, yet highly functional space was a large scale checkerboard floor. As soon as I saw it I knew that my pantry was getting a facelift. A floor lift?

My hands down favorite place in the whole house is our finished attic - also referred to as our game room.

It has a high ceiling, exposed beams, light filled windows on three sides and gorgeous wood floors. We've put a giant old table up there so I never have to put puzzles, painting or board games away, Jeff has set up his sewing machine and gaming systems and we're in the process of turning two twin beds into a cozy sectional sofa. (Just waiting on Ikea's supply line for the items we need!) 

But the stairs leading up to this magical place? Well they looked like stairs heading up to an attic. I mean - thats what they are, of course, but something needed to be done about these grungy, neglected steps.

Also - I really wanted a reason to get a
heat gun.


I live by a maxim of asking whats the worst that can happen and in this case it wasn't going to get much worse than this. So these steps became a training ground for me to learn a thing or two about paint stripping, staining and where my very basic skills stopped. 

The stairs were painted this offensively neutral beige that invites you to turn around and not make the climb. The trim was painted with a reddish brown that I believe was created by someone who had had wood described to him but never actually seen any himself but thought he could make a paint color to look like wood, anyways. (I've been seeing this on fences and decks in the past few years and I would like for this to stop. Please. You're not fooling anyone that you've just painted wood. So pick a better color.)

The trim paint came off like a dream. Seriously - this was so satisfying and exactly what I was hoping to achieve when I decided that I must have a heat gun. Its hard to tell from this photo but this is the same area - before and after stripping.