Interior painting and trim restoration in New Rochelle, NY — this project centered on a staircase that had seen decades of wear, with paint peeling badly off the curved skirt boards and moldings at the base of the stairs. The damage wasn't superficial; the paint was lifting in large flakes, exposing raw wood beneath, and the original decorative millwork had lost its crispness under layers of failed finish. The repair process started with thorough surface prep — scraping back all the loose and peeling paint, then applying wood filler to stabilize and rebuild the damaged areas on the curved stair skirt boards before any new paint went down. Once the substrate was sound, the stringers, risers, and surrounding trim were primed and repainted to a clean, consistent white finish. Doors in the same area received the same treatment, bringing the entire entry zone into one cohesive look. One of the more careful parts of this job in New Rochelle was handling the original brass mortise-lock door hardware. The ornate backplates and knobs — the kind of period detail you don't find in modern hardware catalogs — were removed intact before painting began, cleaned up, and reinstalled once the doors were finished. Protecting that hardware rather than painting over it or swapping it out was the right call; it gives the restored woodwork an authentic character that new hardware simply wouldn't match. The staircase, which serves as the first thing you see entering the home, now reads as intentional and well-maintained — the curved millwork clean and sharp, the original brass hardware seated properly against freshly painted doors.