Craftsman entry hall and stairs

The brief

The owners had just moved into a 1912 Craftsman. The entry hall was the first thing visitors saw and the last room anyone wanted to stand in: yellowed walls, chipped baseboards and a staircase spindle run thick with old gloss.

What we did

We stripped the spindles back to bare wood, patched and sanded every crack, and skim-coated two walls where the plaster was crazed. Walls went to Harbor Blue in a washable matte, trim to a white satin that won’t yellow.

The family kept using the stairs throughout. We worked one flight at a time and cleaned up every evening.