A Stair Runner with a Tail

It's a good day when you can get a present for your two kids, one human, one furry and they both love it. How did we accomplish this? A rug runner for our stairs!

Here is what we started with:

These stairs have seen a lot of action in the 14 months we have lived here. Croix enjoys climbing up them (100 times a day) and Luke sadly was falling down them nearly as often :( Luke is 13 years old and was having an increasingly hard time managing his speed as he came down to the landing and then made the turn to continue down to the 1st floor. We figured a stair runner would give his paws something to grip on to, plus it would soften any falls Croix might have as he works to grasp the concept that you can't go down the stairs leading with your head.

We changed out the runner in our last house, and while we were super happy with it, I wanted to do something a bit more fun and special this time around. I'd run across an image of a "stair runner pool" a while ago on-line and knew instantly that's what I wanted to do. Once I got serious about pulling the trigger on this project I started trying to research other inspiration photos and found there really weren't a lot of them. I ran into the same road blocks when I tried to find a company that could do the decorative pool detail. Finally I found the great people at Underfoot Design and they made the whole thing seem extremely easy. Here's how it went down....a representative came to the house, took measurements and talked with me about my vision. Within a week I received a slew of samples to choose from.

Once I selected the material I wanted to go with I gave them a 50% deposit to order the material and they set up an install date. A two man crew arrived right on time and while one guy installed the runner on the stairs, the other worked on the detail at the tail. He started by drawing the design on paper and then cutting it out to play with the scale and size.

Once I was comfortable with the paper template he laid the template on the carpet and began cutting out the shape.

Next, he got everything nailed down and........

wah lah! 

Our stair runner has a tail!! Isn't it awesome!?!

Croix and I watched the whole thing so he was very excited to try it out as soon as the guys gave us the go ahead :)

We are so so happy with the results! Not only does our new stair runner serve us all well from a functional stand point but it looks so cool and really adds so much warmth and interest to the stairwell. Underfoot Design was great to work with and I would definitely recommend them if you are in the Atlanta area and are in the market for something fun!

All photos are my own.