We nearly left this £77 Dunelm bargain behind – now it’s transformed our staircase

Committed home renovators David and Andrew Harrison-Colley (better known on Instagram as The Home Boys) are part of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing their thoughts on making a home together and living through the tricky parts. See the rest of their articles here.

There's a particular kind of restraint required to walk past a clearance section without checking what's on it, and we don't have it. Which is how we came home with a wool-and-cotton-blend runner from Dunelm, measuring 60cm wide by eight metres long.

It had been reduced from £129.50 to £77.70 because the line had been discontinued. We hadn't been looking for a stair runner that week – and initially weren't entirely sure what we would do with eight metres of it – but we couldn't quite bring ourselves to leave it there.

The runner was suitable for both floors and stairs and, as it turned out, was ideal for covering the eight straight treads on the lower section of our staircase, with a generous length left over for another project.

Why we skipped the underlay

Because the runner was designed to work on either floors or stairs, it had the same finish on both sides and no separate latex-style backing to grip against the surface.

It wasn't constructed like a conventional fitted stair carpet, so we decided against the usual gripper-and-underlay approach and fitted it directly onto the bare treads and risers instead.

This was simply the method we chose for our particular runner and staircase – not a one-size-fits-all approach.

How we fitted it

We began at the bottom of the staircase so that the runner's neat, factory-finished edge could sit along the bottom riser. From there, we worked our way upwards one tread at a time, regularly checking that the runner was sitting straight and centrally on the stairs.

We used spray contact adhesive to help position the runner and prevent it from shifting while we worked. The main fixing came from stapling the runner where each tread meets the riser, using a ROKTOR 32mm electric nail gun and stapler.

Rather than using the staples supplied with the tool, we fitted it with Tacwise 91 Series 18-gauge, 15mm staples, which were better suited to this particular job. The entire straight section took us around an hour to complete, and that includes the time we spent double-checking measurements and arguing over whether it was straight.

Our staircase is fairly straightforward, so this approach won't suit every installation. Ours is a simple run of eight straight treads, and this is what worked for us. Different stair shapes, runner constructions and surfaces may require a completely different approach.

Where we stopped – and why

Our staircase changes direction above the straight section, so we decided not to try to continue the runner around the turn or across the landing.

We briefly considered taking it round the corner, but decided against it. It looked much neater ending after the straight section. The landing will eventually be carpeted separately in a coordinating neutral carpet. We're not attempting to match the two exactly; we'd rather choose something that complements the colour and texture of the runner.

The fixing line we're not loving yet

If you look closely, you can see the staples along the line where each tread meets the riser. It isn't a dealbreaker, but they aren't completely invisible either – and it's the one part of the installation we'd still describe as unfinished.

Our plan is to add decorative brass stair rods along the same line. They won't be needed to hold the runner in place, but they should help disguise the staples while giving the staircase a more finished and considered look. That's very much a future job rather than something we've already completed – the rods, like the offcut in the garage, are next on the list.

What we're doing with the leftover runner

Eight metres was considerably more than we needed for eight treads, so there's now a substantial offcut sitting in the garage with the potential to become a separate floor runner elsewhere in the house.

The cut edge will need to be professionally whipped or bound to prevent it from fraying. That isn't something we feel confident attempting ourselves, so we're planning to find someone who can finish it properly rather than risk ruining the remaining length with an enthusiastic DIY experiment.

More on that once it actually makes it out of the garage.

A few things we'd do again

• Check how the runner is constructed before deciding how to fit it. A reversible runner without a separate backing may behave differently from a conventional fitted stair carpet.
• Plan where the finished edges will sit. Starting at the bottom allowed us to place the runner's neat factory edge against the bottom riser before working upwards.
• Use adhesive carefully. For our installation, it helped keep the runner straight and stopped it shifting while we added the staples.
• Check that your staples are suitable for both the tool and the job. The staples supplied with our nail gun weren't the ones we ultimately used.
• Know where to stop. We were much happier finishing the runner neatly after the straight section than trying to force it around a turn.
• Consider the final details before beginning. We knew the staples might remain slightly visible, so decorative stair rods were always part of the longer-term plan.

Would we do it again?

Yes – although we'd phrase that as, "We'd do this again on stairs like ours."

The runner itself cost less than £80, the installation was relatively quick and it hasn't shifted since we fitted it. But the method worked because we adapted it to the construction of the runner and the straightforward shape of this section of staircase.

It isn't completely finished, but it has made an enormous difference to what was previously a very plain, unfinished, flight of stairs.

The clearance bargain got us started. The staple gun got us most of the way there. The brass rods will be what finally lets us call it finished.