The Best Paint Trick For Preventing Fingerprints On Your Stairwells

Stairwells can really set the tone for your home, especially because they are often the first thing you see when you enter a home. But you may find that even after following all the guides on how to decorate your staircase wall, it has a dingy vibe. If you're not sure why, just watch your child or pet go up the stairs, and it will become clear very quickly. Little ones tend to use the walls to keep their balance, leaving a haze of sticky fingerprints on the wall, and pets like cats and dogs leave their signature traces behind as well. These aren't things you can exactly stop your household members from doing, and you can try to clean the area more frequently, but you certainly don't want that to be your full-time job. Plus, wiping down the area in order to remove stains from your walls can damage the paint over time. 

So what are you to do? One clever workaround is using a glossy coat of paint on the bottom half of the wall, and paint in the same shade but a matte finish on the top. Although it's nontraditional to use two finishes of the same paint color on the same wall, this works aesthetically and functionally. 

A lot of folks opt for matte paint on all of their walls because matte finishes typically conceal imperfections such as scratches and dents. However, as mentioned above, it's incredibly difficult to clean, which is why you should avoid using them in areas with significant foot traffic. Luckily, this really only applies to the bottom half of your stairwell, which is why it's one of the best places to use gloss paint in your home. Glossy paints reflect light and are very resistant to staining caused by oily fingerprints, as well as tracked in messes on shoes, and it can be wiped down without damaging the paint finish, so you don't have to worry every time you need to give the stairwell a deep clean. 

Some may hesitate to try something as bold as a wall with two different finishes but trust us, this adds a ton of character and charm to the space, especially when you use the same color for both finishes. Glossy paint colors tend to read a bit more vibrant because of their reflective qualities, and matte reads as a softer, more flat version of the color. The combo makes for a bit of visual intrigue without overwhelming the interior space. As a bonus, the light-reflective quality of glossy paints can help make your stairwell seem brighter even if you don't have a ton of natural light coming in.