I Used This Wall Edger to Paint My Stairs, and I’ll Never Go Back

For some reason, I’ve painted a lot of stairs in my time. Exterior, interior—I’ve painted more stairs than I thought I would. But sometimes, painting the stairs is the easiest way to transform them. When my wife and I moved into our house, the stairs were covered in a truly hideous green carpet. We broke it almost immediately, and I thought I’d paint the stairs as a short-term solution. But we actually liked the paint and left it there.

However, it’s getting a little worn, so it’s time to refresh the paint job, and we thought it would be a good idea to change things up by painting the risers a lighter color, for contrast (we love it). This gave me a chance to use one of my favorite little painting hacks: a wall edging pad on the stair riser. I forget who showed me this, but it makes the whole process much faster. In the past, painting something like stairs with all those angles and corners meant stiff wrists from using a metric ton of painter’s tape and cut-off brushes. (I’m pretty good with cut brushes these days and skip a lot of taping, but stairs still present a challenge.) But using wall edging pads means I can skip all the tape and save a lot of strain on my wrists.

Everything you need to paint stairs

Shur-Line 2006649 7-Inch Premium Pad Painter

buy now

Shur-Line 2006645 7-Inch Premium Pad Painter Refill

buy now

DAP Alex Ultra Advanced Latex Sealant, White, 10.1 oz (7079818200)

$7.98
on amazon

$9.46
Save $1.48

buy now

buy now

$7.98
on amazon

$9.46
Save $1.48

FrogTape Advanced Painters Tape, 2-inch-wide (1.88-inch x 45-yard) Multi-Surface Tape with Paintblock, Conforms to Curves and Contours, Tear-Free Removal, 1 Roll, Green

buy now

Purdy Clearcut Glide Paint Brush, 2-1/2 in. 144152125

$14.98
on amazon

$16.25
Save $1.27

buy now

buy now

$14.98
on amazon

$16.25
Save $1.27

Rust-Oleum 1 Qt Zinsser 271009 White Zinsser, Bin Advanced Synthetic Shellac Primer Pack of 1

buy now

Bates- 9 Inch Paint Tray, 3 Pack, Black Plastic Paint Roller Tray 9 Inch, Deep Capacity, Textured Ridge

buy now

See 4 more

You can see here what the stairs looked like before I started – obviously, they needed a little attention.

First.
Credit: Jeff Somers

I gathered my supplies:

• I purchased this pad painter from Shur-Line. The 7-inch size is perfect for stair climbers, and it has a swivel pad holder that locks into your required angle. I also picked up a refill pad, just in case.

• A tube of painter’s caulk so I can fill any gaps that have opened up over the years.

• Some painter’s tape, just to be safe—even the best painting tricks run into trouble sometimes.

• Some people cut brush for the same reason – these are old stairs that haven’t seen a 90° angle in years, so I guessed a few spots where a brush might be needed.

• Primer and a paint tray—the actual paint color will match the walls.

Armed with everything, I got to work.

How to Paint Your Stair Risers with Edging Pads

I didn’t bother putting tape on the threads- I just filled the pan with primer and grabbed the pad. The black button in the middle locks the pad at whatever angle you need; It’s easy to press it with your thumb for quick adjustment. You can slide the pad out (and a new one in) by pressing the lock tab in the middle. You then dip the pad into the paint/primer and press it slightly to get rid of excess paint:

Loading paint pad.
Credit: Jeff Somers

When the pad isn’t dripping, and you’ve got enough paint on it that you can control, simply place it against the stair riser and rotate it horizontally:

Painting the risers with a paint pad.
Credit: Jeff Somers

Since the pad is rectangular, it creates a straight, sharp line without taping or cutting and doesn’t have as many lines as a brush. And since it’s flat and designed to be used as an edger (and painting stair risers is essentially working on all the edges), you can get straight to the edge, which you can’t do when using a roller. Sometimes it’s useful to slide the pad out of the holder and use it manually, as the pad is more flexible and bendable, so you can get a little more control in tight corners.

It takes a little practice to get it right, but once you get the hang of it, you can get through those risers much faster. If you want to reduce your prep and painting time on stairs, using an edger pad is the way to go. Here is my final product:

Later!
Credit: Jeff Somers

The stairs are old and have no straight lines left, but the risers are very neat – all without tape. I probably saved about an hour of time painting these stairs this way.