Staircase makeover with wood look stair riser decals

If you are looking to give your staircase a makeover, stair riser decals are one of the easiest ways to do it without paint or carpet. In this post, I am sharing how I made my own DIY wood look stair riser decals using self-adhesive vinyl, including a free downloadable pattern. And if you would rather buy stair riser decals ready-made, I have a roundup of my favorite options further down in the post.

DIY stair riser decals

In my last stair post, I mentioned that I was sad about having to cover up the wood grain of the stair treads because they were in bad shape, and that I really wanted to incorporate wood grain again somehow.

Once again, if you are new to my blog, then you can find part 1: removing carpet from stairs and part 2: how to refinish stairs that were carpeted, as shown in the photo below.

Stair riser decal instructions

It really is as easy as just making a pattern on a piece of paper, tracing it on the back of the vinyl, which has a paper backed side that gets peeled off and then cutting it out with a crafting knife on the cutting mat. You’ll just have to keep repeating that for the amount of your risers.

If you don’t want to have a more intricate pattern then you could just use some squares and triangles which are easy to cut out. I used some of them on my risers to show you.

Step 1: Measure your stair risers

Make sure you measure your stair risers and design your pattern accordingly to size. Or you just adjust my downloadable pattern file to fit your stair riser size.

Measuring and sizing accordingly is really important!

Step 3: Attach the pattern to transfer tape

Once your pattern is cut, attach it to the sticky side of the transfer paper.

Once my pattern was cut I attached it to the sticky side of the transfer paper so I could place in the center of my stair risers that I marked on each one of them.

Step 4: Apply the decal to the riser

Mark the center of each riser with a pencil first so you have a guide to work from.

Here you can see the small triangles and how I placed them. The nice thing with this vinyl is that I was able to reposition it if it was a little off. I’m however not sure if it is transferable again after being stuck to a surface for a while. We’ll see about that.,

All you have to do is peel the transfer paper off and press the vinyl down again.

Here is a simple square and you can see that I aligned the grain of the wood pattern with the square. I just didn’t want it to be too random.

Step 5: Repeat for all risers

Keep repeating the process for the number of risers you have. Make sure to align the wood grain the same direction on each one so it does not look too random.

Photos of finished stairs with stair riser decals

Maya matches the stairs too. Love the rolls on her tummy! All she cares about is food.

Now when you look down from the top where we have the grey bamboo flooring, you can see the grey treads but when you look up from the bottom, you can see the maple wood grain of the decals.

I was definitely inspired by my little tribal drum that I found at HomeGoods a couple of years ago which also has some other great patterns that could be used for a decal pattern. For example if you look closely you can see the star pattern that is assembled out of 6 diamonds. Diamonds are super easy to just cut out with a crafting knife.

I really couldn’t help myself again with Willy and had to photograph him. He was being such a model and loving his time in front of the camera. Just look at our ferocious little beast!

Check out my leather tassel tutorial and my DIY giant tassel tutorial.

And it all ties in really great with my living room since the pattern of the stairs is similar to my favorite throw and pillows on the couch. It might be too much pattern mixing for some folks, but not for me because I love it.

UPDATE: I have since removed the decals and written a blog post about how to install carpet runner on stairs. I love this updated look so much.

Where to buy stair riser decals

Not everyone has a cutting machine, and honestly, the options you can buy ready-made have gotten really good. Etsy, in particular, has a huge variety of stair riser decals that I love in every style imaginable. There are also more budget-friendly options from larger retailers, but I like supporting small businesses on Etsy instead. I have rounded up some of my favorites below.

I have so many more ideas for what you could use this wood-look vinyl for, and this was most likely not my last project with this amazing stuff.

Tschüß,