I love street art and murals in Los Angeles. One of the most unique ways to see this in the city is by visiting painted stairs. By visiting the painted stairs in Silver Lake you can get a workout, if you choose to walk to all of them, and take some great photos. Each set of stairs is unique and worth checking out. While we focus on the painted stairs in this post, the music box steps from the Laurel and Hardy sketch are close by and also worth a visit.
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On Episode 35 of the LA Dreaming Podcast, I spoke with Chris from See LA in a Day about the painted stairs in Silver Lake. Chris also shares some other stairs and fun facts. You can listen to the podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, or Podbean.
Micheltorena Stairs
The Micheltorena Stairs, also known as stair candy, were painted by Australian artist Carla O’Brien. This was not the first painted stairs in Silver Lake but it has arguably become the most famous. It was so great to see the stairs looking so nice in 2023. When I first saw them in 2018 they were looking a bit rough. There is another set of stairs above this set that is painted green and black.
Address: 3324 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Stair Tempo
I love that the piano stairs are simple but so pretty. There are 90 steps that make this so close to being the perfect amount of keys for a piano that has 88 keys. The artist behind this set of stairs is Corrine Carey
3229 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Swan Stairs
The swan stairs is a three-part staircase painted by Evelyn Leigh. The first part is the color Pantone stairs.
Address: 2958 Swan Place at Westerly Terrace.
If you walk up the 77 steps of the pantone stairs you’ll find yourselves at this staircase.
If you walk up another 110 steps you’ll get to the last one which says I love you LA in French.
There is a newly painted staircase that is white with red hearts. I have not been able to see it for myself in person yet. So far I am struggling to pinpoint the exact coordinates for these stairs known as the Hamilton-Murray stairway.
There is also the Hummingbird Stairs located at 1809 N Easterly Terrace. It is about 107 steps.
Our podcast guest Chris also encouraged people to check out the Lemoyne Street stairs in Echo Park.
If you want to explore stairs on your own you can get a book called Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles.
