I'm sorry, I'm a little confuse so others may be as well. When I was reading your post I had the impression that you are going to have the treads on the stairs stained to match the flooring? Or is that just the railing?

In our former house, we used solid beige frieze carpeting upstairs and downstairs. We had a beautiful stained staircase with a landing in the middle.
On the stairs, we did a patterned frieze carpet of the same beige background but with a design of darker beige acanthus leaves.
The edge of the stained treads showed and it appeared to be a runner.
We received a lot of compliments.

Thanks for the replies. I'll try to do abetter job of my question this time :)

We DEFINITELY are replacing our stair rails and ballisters, and the wood will be stained to match the hardwoods downstairs ( red oak in both instances, stain minwax Golden Pecan ).

Several of our steps, though, are exposed on one end and currently there is carpet on every step. The ends now have that carpet over the edge look and the ballisters ( current ones ) go through the carpet. Just is not the most appealing look and hard to vacuum.

Upstairs, we have carpet.. the entire upstairs save for the room over the garage is carpeted with the same carpet ( 4 years old ). The carpet is in near new condition but has been discontinued making it impossible to buy new carpet to replace it.

The problem is when one comes up the stairs and onto the landing/hallway, there is carpet there. If we replace the treads and have the ends stained ot match the floors downstairs we will need to have new carpet on the stairs ( we have dogs and besides I find wood steps to be slippery and somwhat dangerous ).

Is there any way to add carpet to the stairs ( each side of the treads exposed showing stained wood ) such that the mismatch between the stairs carpet and the upstairs carpet won't loko like garbage? Very curious as I have not yet located any photos shwoing a set up like this. We have rule dout rpelacing all of the upstairs carpet.

Hope this is making sense :) Links to photos are appreciated.

Thank you for clarifying. Are you firm on keeping carpet on the stairs? I'm just asking because if you're going to the expense of redoing the other pieces, why not leave the carpet off the stairs all together? It's easier to clean, and has such a timeless look?

I can't go with bare steps. I have 2 dogs, and also a 13 year old son and can't/won't risk injury due to slippage. I've had the misfortune personally of slipping down wooden stairs before, and know dogs do NOT do well on them, especially as they get older. Keeping carpet on either the full steps or partial steps is mostly for traction.

It becomes a matter if it is possible to have a different type of carpet on the steps/stairs than what one has at the top of the landing, and for it to lok acceptable. My gut feels says it probably is not but then decorating is NOT m forte in life! If not, we'll just leave the carpet on the steps and will not rpelace the treads until we decide to rpelace the entire carpet upstairs. Thx for the answer :)

OK, you would like to have new carpet on the stairs after they are stained, because uncarpeted stairs can be slippery (and noisy in my IMO), but are concerned about the carpeting not matching the carpet already installed on the second floor.

You could consider having the second floor carpet cut back from the top stair a couple of feet & the flooring where the carpet is cut back stained to match the stairs. You could also have the new stair carpet laid just to the second from the top stair. If you chose a patterned stair carpet with a background color of the second floor carpet that would help tie them together.

BTW, any decent carpet store can & will cut & bind your existing stair carpet, which would alleviate the problem with the upstairs carpet, & could be less expensive. :)

Let us know what you do. Good luck.

Thx.. discussed using the existing carpet with a reputable carpet place this morning and was left with the impression it would be difficult at best to remove and reuse due to the high number of staples used presently, etc etc. Would be a high risk decision to some degree if it does not work out and then have to live with bare stairs for a while. May ask another place for a second opinion. Sounds like going to a Dr for surgery :)

Carpet place recommended having a nosepiece installed on the top step to be stained to match the other wood to provide a bit of separation between the upstairs carpet and the stairs carpet.

When my Home CEO gets home I will see if this appeals to her and will try to find examples of where this has been done so she can see a real life example. This to me seems to be the best option other than ust keeping the stairs as they are and only redoing the handrails and the ballisters.

Thx for the help with this one. I'm good at many things but home design is NOT one of them. Besides in truth I have 49% at most of the vote here!

Home CEO has been out of town all week and thus no chance to discuss ideas with the contractor/installer. The idea o fusing a different carpet/runner on the stairs from what is in the hallway at top of stairs is not giving my othe rhalf a great deal of confidence ( she asked on phone today what type of carpet we'd want to do the entire upstairs... current carpet is 4.5 years old and NOT ready to be replaced ). if anyone has a photo of stairs done like this I would greatly appreciate seeing them. Thanks.

confused as well, no offense, but that said, I see no problem with having it change up on top. Have you thought about doing a pattern in the stair carpet that will blend with both? Like an oriental or floral?

Thanks :) I'm just the conduit as this began as a simple change out the hand railing new balusters project ( ie minimal involvement for me ). ALong the way she decided she wanted to re do the treads and at that time I figured we'd just replace the existing carpe tio the stairs with new carpet to match since the stairs run directly into the carpet upstairs. In addition, the stairs turn 180 degres in the middle.. thus when snding upstairs in the hallway you can see the entire stairs. Alas, the carpet has been discontinued. Now, she is having toruble thinking the stairs will look good with a different carpet, even if it has patterns or colors to draw upon the existing carpet. She is good with many things but visualizing something unseen is not one of them. I'm trying to locate a homoe in the local area or at least a photo where this has been done, using a nosepiece at the top step to provide a break. I think it will look fine but I'm probably the last person I would trust with home decorating in mind. Our stairway is somewhat unique in that you see al of it form above as well as the entire hallway above ( very open to below ). Anyway, thanks for asking... I do appreciate the help offered so far and now it will be time for her to decide what she wants to do though again a photo of complimenting stair carpet would be helpful!

You might want to look on the gallery side of this forum. Oceana posted staircase photos. There are a lot of images both at the beginning and end of the thread. A couple appear to have patterned carpet on the stairs and solid carpet at the top or bottom of the stairs. There are also examples of carpeted stairs with wooden floors on top bottom, wooden floors painted to look like carpet, etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: Staircase Eye Candy Blowout!

Check out the link below for another idea. A carpet repair business should be able to take your existing carpet off the stairs, cut out the best sections and bind them to cover your stairs as shown in the pics.

Scroll about half way down the page and look for the title 'North York Location - Great Experience'.
There are 2 pics.

Also, check local listings for 'carpet installation & repair' vs carpet sales.

Here is a link that might be useful: Idea for carpet

Follow up.. I did find one place willing to pull the existing carpet up, bind it and replace it. Cost estimate was $480. At this point we are probably going to put down new carpet. The price difference is not that great and i'm concerned about how well the existing carpet will lok once it is redone. Time to find something that will match. The stair job is scheduled to be done in december and will take 4 or so days to cmplete, then the carpet needs to be put down. I'll keep thing sposted and once done will hopefully post some before and after photos!