The icing on the cake

Remember how I pulled the ugly white carpet off my stairs and landing and refinished them here?  Well, after doing so, I decided I needed to dress up the wall at the top of the stairs to finish the project off.  I went to Home Depot and bought two five foot strips of lattice board. 

I painted them the same color white as the wall (simply white by Benjamin Moore),  lined them up vertically, and then nailed them to the studs.  (okay, my husband helped with this part!)  Then I painted a piece of moulding (also in simply white) that was given to me by an extremely generous friend.  I  nailed it up above the lattice boards to create a tall chairrail.

I filled in the nail holes with wood filler, sanded them, and then repainted.

While out thrifting one day, I stopped at Salvation Army and found this beautiful antique bookshelf for $30!  I snatched it up right away and brought it home.

I love the beautiful woodwork!

I found that it fit perfectly at the top of the stairs!  It's not a very deep bookshelf, which is great because I don't have a very deep landing.

Then I painted above the chairrail in a robins egg blue color (raindrop by sherwin williams), and decorated the shelf.

The lamp used to be peach!  I spray painted it "catalina mist" by Krylon.  The lamp shade came from Walmart ($10).  I painted the painting of the sheep and the peony, and put the silk peony in a glass tumbler with rocks and clear acrylic solution.  The vintage clocks, vases and bowl are from thrift stores.

I love the fact that I can now not just look at my beautiful "new" stairs, but what is at the top of them as well.  Because I created a taller chairrail and painted above it, the ceiling looks much taller, and the space looks much bigger.  Here is the before...

and after

I'm linking today  to The House in the Roses and Between Naps on the Porch!