I would stay withe same wood if possible and I think the handrail a bit darker will look great.

Absolutely I would stay with the Hickory treads, you do not want to change species in flooring when it is a continuation throughout the home. Secondly, staining your handrails and posts a few shades darker is absolutely the right thing to do. This will give you a beautiful contrast to your flooring and at the same time make your white spindles pop.

You would be safe going with Oak for the handrail and newel post with the same darker stain as your mantle. The black railing would look great too as suggested by egee above with the carpet runner tying it all together.

Here is an observation: You have the flooring (beautiful but multi-toned), and the fireplace & surrounding cabinets in white, the darker stained oak cabinet tops--and don't forget that you have multi-toned tile(?) hearth. There is already a lot going on here. I would think you should maybe stick with one of the hickory tones so that it doesn't just get too busy.

Thanks for all of the comments. ferrshi, thanks for posting the picture - your post is stunning! We've decided to go with hickory treads (natural), and a slightly darker stain on the handrail and posts. We haven't settled on a wood species for the rail and posts - waiting on input from our stair manufacturer regarding what they would recommend. I know some woods don't accept stain evenly so if they feel hickory falls into that category we will consider doing the rail and posts in oak.

Definitely try to stay with hickory or a similar grained wood for the railing in a deeper tone such as the top of your mantle and built-ins or the deepest tone of the natural hickory floors. Oak will work but the stair rail and posts have more visual impact than the shelves. White spindles would relate well to the fireplace wall and break up all of the wood tones. The runner idea is good to soften it all; it will cut down on sound transfer and it is safer. Please post photos when you have it finished!

In choosing your stain color, keep in mind that your hickory will darken somewhat in time.

Unless your want a country look, I would go with a clear material for handrail. If you do decide to go with a different species of wood from flooring to railing I would break up the two materials with a painted post, and do the post cap to match railing.

I like select maple because the grain pattern is similar, there is a concern with staining maple, perhaps do a sample.

I have a question for you.... i love your tile you used for your firplace ...what is it ? Tile or Slate or what ? Awesome...i just redid my fireplace and built a mantel... need to still do the hearth...

You did the right thing by going with the hickory for your treads. Doing so keeps the flow throughout the home. As far as the rail and post, you already used oak in your living room for the accent woods, why not do the same for your hall way. It certainly won't look out of place. Hickory has so many varying colors you could go with so many different stains as long as it's the same tones as in the hickory, but if you like how the living room oak looks, I would use the same stain to tie it all together.

Liz MacGillis, I'm sorry for the late reply. The fireplace hearth is tiled in porcelain tile from a company called Unicom. It is the Natural colour. http://www.ceramictileworksmn.com/Natural

We love this tile and used the "Autumn" colour in our front foyer area. We plan on using Autumn in the mudroom (which will be part of an addition we are planning). There is a picture here on Houzz of a kitchen tiled in the Autumn colour as well:

Transitional Kitchen · More Info

My inlaw's used the "Winter" colour in their ensuite. It has a bit of pink running in and out of it, and I'm not fond of the pink-ishness.