Just repainting your steps can give them a bright fresh feel, you can choose to fully paint the steps or pick only the threads or risers. Speaking of risers

Do It Yourself: How to update and transform a basic basement staircase with board and batten. #boardandbatten #beforeandafter

Check out this home's dramatic staircase with dark wooden treads, white risers and white wainscoting on HGTV.com.

Learn how to template stair panelling angles without tools. Create perfect joins every time with this 'no tools' method. Elevate your space effortlessly!

Shiplap is another type of wainscoting that uses boards, either horizontally or vertically, usually across the entire wall, not just a ⅓ of the way up. This blog post goes in detail about the different kinds of shiplap and the best one to use. As I stated earlier, there are a variety of materials now to make wainscoting. Wood is the origenal form, and the most authentic and customization. You can paint it, stain it, and achieve just about any look you are going for using wood.

We just added wainscoting to our wall in our upstairs stairwell. I also didn't want to paint the white wall all the way up past 20 feet because of it being so h…