I would agree! My parents have painted ones and they are beautiful, but they are a pain. She had to repaint them recently to put their house on the market and it took her forever. I think yours look really nice as is, but understand if you are wanting a change.

Painted risers are definitely more maintenance, but really lighten the space. Painting them in a rubbed older finish with stencils would be really pretty and wouldn't show use . If that works with your decor, search for tile stencils on Houzz and you can see what I mean.

Painted stair risers would open the space. You can help the scuffing by also adding a runner on the stairs.

Not sure if you have considered a runner (whether you leave the risers as is or paint them). I would also paint the lower trim and four spindles white. It may be the picture, but the bannister on the right looks darker than the railing and if so, I would stain it to match. With the stairs being so prominent in your entryway, I would bump them up visually, no matter how you decide to do so.

How about some funky tile instead of paint?

We have 2 sets of white painted risers and have not found them to be a pain at all. We don't wear our shoes much in the house so that probably helps. But, even when we do, it's not an issue. I go around the whole house every 6 months or so touching up any areas that need paint, and have occasionally needed to touch up the risers. It only takes a few minutes.

I absolutely love your stairs as they are. I would change the hand rail. A beautiful iron rail maybe?

Thank you, we are planning to have the lower trim and spindles painted white when we get the next round of painting done.

We didn't think we should add a runner because we were told to take up all of our area rugs before putting the house on the market so prospective buyers can see the state of the wood. I took this to apply to the stairs too.

The only rug we have remaining is my Mom's oriental because all of the colors in the room are build around it.

Thanks so much!

If you are putting up on the market, I would paint the trim and spindles and leave the rest..as you said so the potential buyer can see the stairs' condition, but it will also save you the time/money and they may want a blank slate instead.

My painted risers are not a problem, but like some above we do not generally wear shoes in the house. I did have to touch them up twice, after new wood floors were installed upstairs - the installers ran up and down the stairs countless times.

My risers were not beautiful like yours are - I might not have painted them if they were.