How to Easily Paint Ceilings and Stairwells Without Ladders or Scaffolding

This post is sponsored by HomeRight. All opinions are my own.

If you’ve been following my progress at Magnolia Cottage, then you know that I’ve done a TON of painting since we moved here in July. Every room has been painted, with the exception of the kitchen and laundry room (and I’m not ruling them out!), plus I’ve painted the steps, the front porch floor, several ceilings, the mailbox, and the porch swing.

I was hoping to avoid painting the stairwell and upstairs hallway because the gray-green color is a very pretty neutral (it’s a custom mix so I don’t have the exact color); however, the original paint color was flat and the patch paint was eggshell. The difference in sheen made every area that had been patched and repainted glaringly obvious, so I knew I was going to have to repaint (I did use the same color, though).

| Stairwell “before” |

My PaintStick gets a workout; I’ve used it to paint every room and it makes ceilings SO easy (don’t forget to use the spatter shield to protect your floors and your hair). I knew it would be the perfect tool to help me get out over the steps without falling down the steps!

The PaintStick couldn’t be easier to use (learn more here | purchase here). Simply use the filler tube to draw paint directly from the can. When the handle is full, it extends to 54”, which enabled me to reach the wall above the stairs without even needing to lean over the railing.

I was even able to roll from the side to cut in the edges at the ceiling. The whole process was so fast and easy!

Clean up is fast. I toss my roller covers, although you can certainly wash them and reuse them if you want to. Then the fun part: decorating!

I’m using eucalyptus garland this year on the stair railing (find it HERE) and decided it works just as well for Thanksgiving as it does for Christmas, so I hung it up a little early. I think it looks great with the silver-gray on the walls (sources are at the end of the post).

My little vintage sewing cabinet was orange when I bought it, then it spent a few years painted pink (see the orange to pink transformation here). Now it’s white with gold knobs and it holds all of our spare charging cords and cables.

I’ll often have a Bible verse or other inspirational quote on the gold-framed chalkboard. It was a painting with a great frame that I snagged at the thrift shop, then I painted over it with chalkboard paint.

The gold wall mirror is where I do a final check before I go downstairs to face the day.

I also printed some 16 x 20 photos from our last family photo session and hung them over the stairs; honestly, that was harder than painting because I had to try to get them level while leaning out over the railing to hammer in the nails.

While obviously there wasn’t a dramatic color difference in this space since I stuck to the original palette, just having the walls covered in a flat paint without years of unpatched nail holes makes it all look so much cleaner and better. I was dreading painting the stairwell because I knew everything would be so hard to reach, and I’m so pleased that it was easier than I thought it would be–that hardly ever happens when it comes to DIY’ing!

See our other HomeRight posts HERE and my other Magnolia Cottage posts HERE.

How I painted the stairs (post here)

Gold full-length mirror-thrifted, similar HERE

Gold framed chalkboard-thrifted (buy a piece of artwork at the thrift store and spray paint the photo with chalkboard paint), or buy similar HERE

White Martha Washington sewing cabinet-thrifted, similar HERE or HERE

Eucalyptus Garland

Black and white ribbon; see our tutorial on how to tie a floral bow HERE

16 x 20 family photos (print your own for only $10.79 each HERE); gold frames-thrifted

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