DIY Stair Slide, or How to Add a Slide to Your Stairs

There are so many ways to update stairs -- take up the carpet, use a runner, paint, restain, replace the railing, build a new banister/newel post, add fabric, to name a few -- but not all of them are FUN like Erin's stairs are now. For kids or kids at heart... just add a slide to your stairs!

Read below for the details of Erin's simple DIY stair slide, and consider adding these other kid-fun features to your home too... they're only little for a little while, so make it FUN!

bunkbed playhouse, Remodelaholic

indoor treehouse play loft, I Am Hardware on Remodelaholic

playhouse under the stairs, Joy2Journey on Remodelaholic

DIY indoor swing, The Rozy Home for Remodelaholic

See more fun basement rec room and play room ideas here -- and here's Erin with the details of her stair slide:

DIY Stair Slide

by Erin of Decor Allure

Note from Remodelaholic: As with any tutorial here on Remodelaholic, this post is for entertainment purposes only. All projects performed following instructions on this site are done at your own risk. Please consult a professional before attempting any project of which you are unsure. Take all necessary safety precautions. Neither Remodelaholic nor Decor Allure are responsible for any injury or damage sustained while attempting to duplicate projects or tutorials. So remember: be smart, be safe!

Hello, DIYers! My name is Erin from Decor Allure. I'm a full-time mom of six kids, active in my church's women's group, avid decorator and world's worst blogger ( I really just do it to share our projects with friends, family and any curious diy-ers like us.) My amazing and handy engineer husband loves to help me find ways to make our home beautiful, but totally unique.

One of the fun projects we did together in our last house in Chicago, was finishing our basement (with a crazy tube slide) HERE. We also recently finished off an attic space in our current Houston home that includes a two-story climbing passage HERE. We also added a built-in bench in our eating nook HERE that I've always wanted to do on one of our homes and this one was the perfect set up for one!

Today, I want to share how we added a slide to our stairs (since everyone was so sad to leave the slide in our last house!) It was actually a pretty easy project. We dreamed up all kinds of different ways we could do it, but ended up with just doing a fairly simple, but sturdy design. Our stairs were wider than usual so we knew we had room to add the slide and still have room to walk up and down the stairs (there is still 27? next to the slide.) We also didn't have a wall right in front of you when you get to the bottom of the stairs (we have 5 feet of space before that corner! There is more space for landing than the pictures show.) Finally, we wanted it to be easily removable for when we needed to move furniture.

How We Made Our Stair Slide:

1. After we decided on a width of 18? for our slide, we cut 3/4? sanded plywood into 2 lengths. We needed almost 9 feet in length. Plywood is only 8feett long, so ours required a seam.

2. We attached the two lengths with 3 metal mending plates. The seam was placed between two stairs, about a 1/4 of the way down, so that the plates didn't make the slide sit up on the stair edges (you want all of the slide to sit on the stair edges to give it support all the way down.)

3. We sanded not only the seam smooth, but the beginning and end edges to get rid of any sharp edges (it also makes it lower-profile to prevent tripping.) The triangular supports were also sanded smooth so it didn't cut into the carpet much.

4. Triangular supports were cut to the depth and height or our stairs and attached in four places on each side by screws from the top and L brackets underneath.

5. From underneath, we screwed on a low-profile handrail (similar to this) directly on the top of the right side of the slide.

6. Flush mounting brackets (we got larger ones from Rockler Woodworking) were attached on the wall and the triangular supports. We ended up only using two sets to make it easier to align when taking on and off. They're really only needed to assure that the slide doesn't move forward as the kids go down (all the weight is on the stair edges and the supports.) These mountings allow for the slide to be right up to the wall, not leaving a gap where little fingers could be caught.

7. Finally, we painted with a good enamel paint (I used Sherwin Williams) in a gloss finish and white to match our home's molding. The slide was super fast without the paint, so I'm glad the paint slowed it down. I still insist on a cushion at the bottom.

It is an absolute hit with both the kids and the adults! We're so glad we did it! Thanks for letting us share it with you!

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Erin, this is SO fun! Thank you so much for sharing!

Remodelaholics, Erin might call herself the world's worst blogger, but I guarantee you are going to want to check out her stuff at Decor Allure! Amazing projects, like her previous basement remodel with the other slide she mentioned, plus this cool built-in bookshelf and a swing! And this attic playroom which has a climbing platform tower to get to it -- enclosed in an empty wall in the entryway. Seriously so cool!

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