Welcome to another new series! I have been thinking a lot about slow decorating and how many rooms and outdoor spaces at our house have evolved since we bought our house in August 2021. First up — our entryway and staircase!

When we bought the house, most of the wood was orange. I love orange. My 2010 wedding color was orange. My cats are orange. California poppies are orange! But I didn’t love the orange toned wood and was excited to change it.

Before we moved in, in July 2022, we had the flooring redone. In places where it was already wood, we just refinished it a darker color. Where there was ceramic tile, we tore it out and installed matching wood. When they were staining the floors, I had them stain the treads of the stairs to match.

For the first few months, we lived with dark brown treads, orange risers and orange balusters and railing. It was chaos, but everything about that time of my life was chaos. I vividly remember going to the store to buy white primer and thinking “I can calm one thing visually.” I started with the trim and then it took me and my dad a few weeks to get the risers, stringers and balusters primed and then painted white (the cats helped a lot).