Way back in December while in Minnesota for family Christmas, Ben worked on a not so little project at my sister’s house.  You see, she has an open staircase, similar to the Brady Bunch set, with slightly better safety features.

Brady-inspired stairs + over spaced balusters = safer than Brady stairs.

Where am I going with this?  Well, Ashley wanted bookshelves under her staircase.  Ben gets bored in Minnesota, so he offered to help her. Before he could make bookshelves that tie in to the stairs, he had to rework the treads.  He started by ripping the carpet off.

Then, Ben used L steel to build support brackets, cutting a long piece of steel into many 10 inch pieces.

Ben made a template and drilled holes through each bracket, screwing the supports in place.

Originally, Ben and Ashley agreed to plane down the original treads to reuse.  One tread later, the planer belt broke and they couldn’t find a replacement.  On to plan B.  Ben proposed joining two 2 by 12 boards together to make one thick and beefy stair tread.

Ashley told Ben to do whatever he would, so he bought enough wood to finish the stairs.  Careful cutting, lots of glue, and screws later, the new treads were ready for install.  Ash, the boys, and I left and came back to see this:

Oooh, ahhh.  Luckily, we still had a day left in Minnesota, leaving time for Ben to build some bookshelves.  He used the same process for building the stair treads to make the shelves.

Fast forward several months because Ashley and Arik have finished staining and sealing.

Isn’t that awesome?!?  All that storage and I love that it’s a small reading nook.  What do you think?  Do you have a fun staircase?  How about a little reading nook?