Step Up the Playfulness in Your Decor: Washi Tape Stair DIY
January 14, 2015
Post by Danielle Kurtz, Creative Director at The Land of Nod
Some of my favorite design elements are those that show up in unexpected places. Most people don’t think twice about the risers on their stairs, but they’re really just begging to be adorned. I’ve seen them painted in a rainbow or wallpapered in a playful pattern, and I LOVE those ideas. But, we thought we’d try something a little less permanent, which requires a lot less investment of time and money when it came to the staircase decor in the Nod Family Home. So enters one of our favorite decorating materials…washi tape!
For our stair DIY we used washi tape on this staircase to write out a beautiful quote by e.e. cummings. Look for inspiring words in your favorite book, poem or even a song. It can be sentimental and sweet, like the one we chose, or witty and fun. Choose a quote that’s length matches your number of stairs, you don’t want a whole paragraph, but want at least one word per step. Write out your number of steps and write your quote from the bottom step up.
For our “font” we decided to embrace the squared off nature of the tape and did a faceted style type. It’s imperfect, which we think is just perfect.
Use a box or block of wood to determine the baseline for your text, and settle on a general height for your tallest letter. And, you’re off. We decided to vary the color on each step in rainbow order. But, you can use all one color, vary colors by letter, whatever feels right to you. The beauty of washi tape is if you make a mistake, you can remove it and try again. Also, it’s super easy to remove down the road if you decide to try something different.Not feeling the quote idea for your stair DIY? Try making patterns on the risers. Think dots, x’s, +’s, stripes. The possibilities are endless!Danielle is the Creative Director at Nod and an over-protective mother of two. She’s also completely obsessed with Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and her Kindle, but not necessarily in that order. Danielle loves to craft, sew and crochet. Her current craft of choice is weaving tiny wall tapestries.