Painting And Finishing My Studio Steps

At that point, the steps looked like this…

I was pleased with the overall look, but they still weren’t finished. First, I had to figure out how to deal with this last row of pavers on the top step. My math didn’t work out perfectly (shocking, I know! 😀 ), so these pavers were about 3/8″ higher than the threshold of the door. Obvioulsy, that wouldn’t work because it would be a tripping hazard for anyone coming out of that door.

So while I was trying still trying to figure out the issue with the last row of pavers, I went ahead and painted the risers. For these, I used the very same paint and color that I used on our house — Sherwin Williams Duration exterior paint in a satin sheen in the color Mindful Gray. Since half of the front of our house is stone, and this paint has held up amazingly well on that stone over the years, I was confident that it would work well on these retaining wall blocks as well. You can see the gray painted risers compared to the original color here…

I used an old paint brush to apply the paint since I knew these retaining wall blocks were so rough that they would destroy a nice brush. And when I first applied the paint, it kind of sat on top and looked a bit funky, but as it dried, it soaked into the rough surface and dried with a much more natural look. In other words, it didn’t have that plastic-coated look that latex paint can often give a painted surface. Maybe you can see what I’m talking about in the photo below. When I took this picture, I had just finished painting the block on the side of the middle row at the front of the steps (i.e., the furthest from the house). You can see how the wet paint looks more like it’s sitting on top of the stone, but if you compare it to the row above, you can see how it soaks in as it dries, giving it a more natural look.

By the time I finished painting the risers, I knew how I wanted to solve the issue of the last row of pavers. I started by cutting them all to fit the space, using a combination of my wet tile saw and my handheld grinder with a concrete cutting disc so that the pavers would fit around the siding, trim, and threshold of the door. But to eliminate the tripping hazard, I used a concrete grinding disc on my handheld grinder to round over the edge. You’ll also see that I left about a 1/4″ space between the pavers and the edge of the door threshold. While I caulked the cracks where the pavers met the siding and trim, I left this space open where the pavers met the threshold.

This is the grinding disc that I used to create that round over on the pavers, and it made very quick work of shaping those pavers. I bought this at Home Depot.

Since I want water to be able to escape rather than getting caught inside the steps, I didn’t caulk or seal any of the pavers inside the structure. But I caulk the cracks between the pavers on any portion of the steps that show. For this, I used my go-to latex caulk — DAP Alex Fast Dry — and wiped all of the excess off with a wet rag. This process was kind of like grouting tile, but with caulk instead of grout.

Again, I only caulked the pavers that show on the finished steps, and I didn’t caulk the cracks between the blocks that I used for the risers because I want water to be able to escape rather than being trapped inside when it rains.

Once the pavers were caulked and dry, I primed the steps using my favorite primer — Zinsser shellac-based primer. And I just used a paint brush to apply the primer so that I could be sure to get the primer into all of the rough areas.

I agonized over the decision of what products to use to paint these pavers. I made three separate trips to Home Depot to buy products, and made two trips to return products, before I landed on my final decision. I’ll tell you about all of that once I get the steps painted, and I’ll tell you why I landed on the products that I finally decided on. But for now, this is the progress. I only have one more step in this whole process to go before these are finished finished. And while the final steps won’t be white, I have to admit, I kind of like the white. When I got them all primed and stood back to look at them, I actually wondered if I should have chosen white for my final color. But I think it would be a nightmare to keep white steps looking clean, so I’ll stick with my paint color decision.

But like I said, I’ll share the products (and color) that I finally decided on with you when I get these steps painted and finished, and I’ll tell you why I ended up choosing these products over the others (i.e., the ones I made two trips to Home Depot to return). But finally, here’s a look at the top step with the rounded over edge from the doorway of my studio.

Hopefully, I can get these steps painted today so that I can show you the completely finished steps tomorrow.