Hi, here is a thread for you!! Look and see what he did with his staircase. Hope it gives you some inspiration. (love your wall color).

Link: Gel stain staircase

Thank you, Olychick. He did a fabulous job with his stairs and I love the look of the darker handrails and trim. I'm wondering about the hardwood in my dining room, which you can see a little on the left side of the third picture. Would it be weird to have such drastically different color stains? Would it be even weirder to paint the handrails and trim black instead of using stain? I'm such a newbie at any kind of redecorating!

I am certainly no expert on this and will defer to any who are that show up to comment! But, if you are leaving the black and white floor, I would think you could incorporate black into the stairway. What you'd have to consider is how the trim meets up with your light trim and how you would manage a transition from the black- depending on what you would do black. Will you redo your steps or remove/change the carpet on them?

Here are some pics that might give you some ideas.

I like this one with just a bit of black. I think with your two toned floor and two colored wall, simple will be better. I might think about painting your walls and wainscoting the same color, or maybe do the bottom part in the color of the white trim...there's a lot going on in that space.

This one keeps the trim on the wall side white:

This looks like they did the treads and the banister black:

I know this is a very different space, but it shows all black with the b&w floor - probably too dramatic for a smaller space.

I would not go as far as changing the balusters for a clean and modern look if you are going to leave the chair rail and the complex crown molding.

I would leave the balusters if everything else stays and do a more modern look with paint, or gel stain on the stained parts, and a simpler paint treatment on the walls.

I know you didn't ask about those elements but the other details are currently traditional like the stair balusters and changing just the stairs (while leaving all the other elements) to create a cleaner more modern look will just make the the stairs look different than the rest of the entryway. You can achieve a more contemporary look just by removing the carpet and simplifying the paint treatments.

Oh, that carpet is definitely going to come out! I just don't know what's under it so we don't have a plan for what will replace it yet.

Thanks so much for the pictures! I love that first one, especially! Yes, I see now that it is a bit busy in the foyer with the different paint colors, etc. My skill at decorating does not extend beyond matching colors. LOL!

Thank you both for the input. Palimpsest, I welcome the comments on the things I didn't ask about. I'll definitely take all the help I can get!

I noticed you said the carpet would be replaced. I would absolutely not put carpet on the stairs, Im not a fan of that look.

They aren't solid treads. If you look at the edge of the carpet you can see that the tread has an edge where it stops. The carpet is probably over plywood or subfloor type material so the treads would have to be replaced or filled in if not recarpeted.

I did black in my staircase a couple of houses ago....

Before:

After:

I'd paint the stair rails black - shiny, grand piano black. If the steps are not solid wood, you will have to either replace them (very costly) or carpet again. My daughter used sisal that was bound with twill on both sides, for her stairs. Yes, it HAS held up well! She did this over 18 years ago and this is a house with two boys, now almost 15 and 17, and a SAHH, who is less than careful. It still looks very good.

If you paint rather than stain the treads you may be able to just patch in the middles of the lower treads (There are probably no finished treads beyond where the wall starts.

Thank you, everyone! I'm sorry I haven't checked in sooner. It's been crazy.

Boopadaboo, your black and white staircase is beautiful! Very dramatic!

Palimpsest, that makes sense about the edge indicating no solid treads. I didn't even notice that. You say if we paint, we MAY be able to patch the lower treads. What would determine that? Then, for the higher treads where it is all carpet now, would we just paint the plywood or whatever is under the carpet, or would we need to put something else (hardwood?) on top of that subflooring?

Another question - the carpet currently extends all the way up the stairs onto the second floor landing/hallway and into all the bedrooms. All the carpet will be removed, but I do like carpet in bedrooms so we would put new carpet in them. If we decided not to do new carpet on the stairs themselves, where should the painted wood stop? Does that make sense? Would we do hardwood on the stairs, then new carpet starting at the landing at the top and extending into the bedrooms? The landing/hallways are very small and just functional...nothing grand at all.

I hope I'm being clear enough. Thanks again for all the ideas, suggestions, pictures and expert eyes!

For me, I think the staircase should be part of the scheme of the rest of the foyer. Are you keeping the black/white tile? Blue Walls? White trim? I have a black hand rail and white rails and it does look crisp and nice. I prefer a runner on stairs - they get so dusty. I like a patterned runner or sisal rug runner.

As far as the hardwood on the stairs and hallway question, I would either do hardwood in the hallway up to the doors of the bedroom or I'd do carpet in the hallway up to the edge of the stairs. If you choose the same carpet for all areas it should look nice. I like the idea of hardwood for the upstairs hallway. But if everyone is suggesting black stair treads, and you don't have any other hardwood in the area, I'm not sure if I would like a brown stained wood with the black stair treads - and I don't think I would like black hardwood in my hallway - but that's just me. I think you have a lot going on flooring wise already - with the black and white tiles in the foyer. If you were to replace those tiles with hardwood floors, I'd do the floors in the foyer and the upstairs hallway the same wood/color.

That's exactly what I was thinking about the carpet upstairs. Thanks! And good point about the stairs getting dusty.

I love the marble flooring and wall colors and my husband loves the trim so those will probably all stay. We're just in the very beginning stages of planning this so we aren't entirely sure about anything yet.