Black handrail and post, white spindles.

Hi....I redid my staircase and had the same questions about color. I also had a golden oak stain; yours reminds me of mine. Including your floors and staircase form. I did remove,the carpet.While the black and white looks fabulous....You may want to consider going with a stain that matches the deepest darkest brown in your floor. Because stain affects wood differently and depending on what you decide to stain, you may just get the dramatic rich look,you want. Good luck.

Wow, Pa P, what a difference with the carpet gone. Can you include a photo of how you restarted with the carpet at the top stair? I am worried what may lay beneath our carpet!

I like the black rails with high gloss.

I have added another photo of the ugly wood. There is also a wood rail so to speak that the spindles go into at the bottom, that sits on the carpet. Would that be black or white?

I left the carpet flap free and it sits tucked into,the back,without any staples,etc. The carpet continues uninterrupted on the floor.

I think this would look great

Pa P...we are also considering doing similar. Did you strip the treads and stain, or did you scuff up and use a gel stain? Just trying to figure out the best and easiest way to go about this - both for the treads and the railing & posts as we want to stain them all the same. Thanks!

Hi limivadyshop.... No Gel stain anywhere. True stain, custom. Your paint and stain expert can do this for you...my expert came from Sherwin Williams.

When I ripped up the carpet from my treads I found disgusting exterior grade and heavily scratched plywood treads. The risers were a soft pine and ok. The treads had something of a curved bullnose but being plywood, all of the plywood layers were uneven and rough. I rebuilt and reshaped the "bullnose" with wood filler. I used the same stain on the treads, balusters and railing. Heavy sanding on the treads...but they still have solid grip to them even with 4 coats of high gloss water based varathane. Love the high gloss look, and my cats do not slip down them nor do we with socks.. You will need to apply the stain heavily and evenly in order to mask the condition of the plywood. Between the varathane coats, I accentuated some of the stubborn scratches, grains, knots and flaws so that they look great. Used paint for this...actuAlly dollar store acrylic umber in deep brown. People think they are cherry wood. High gloss is FAB.
I stripped down the railing and balusters, sanded, stained and varathaned them with 3 coats.
The plywood, balusters and railing accepted the stain differently and this is the result.
Note.... Do not varathane under the bullnose. Paint it flat.

Pa P, thank you for your response! While I anticipate a surprise or two when we do rip off the carpeting, I know we don't just have plywood as the carpeting now reveals some of the treads at the side (not a true runner, but similar). I have 5 newel posts as part of my staircase and the thought of proper stripping of all that detail work is not only daunting for me to do, it's cost-prohibitive for a painter to do. How did you go about it on yours?

it was my project. It seems more daunting than it really is. You could forgo the stripping and apply a great gel stain. ...they are excellent. I decided against it because I originally wanted to stain the spindles lighter and that meant getting down to serious bare wood. The posts were part of it. I also wanted to avoid any paint...... As it was I ended up painting the spindles, but staining the posts. LOST TIME and extra work for "rien".
You can save loads of time and costs by re staining with gel stain. You will need to go darker than the existing stain. If I am wrong, anyone will correct me....there are some great how-to "you tube "videos out there.

I would find out what your treads are. When I first peaked at mine from the carpet...it was a tiny peak, I thought I had pressed particle board...so you never know....I was happy to discover the plywood, and would,have been thrilled if it was pine or a hard wood.

If you have someone come in to do the work, ask detailed questions about sanding, coats and expectations. You will save $$$$$$' by ripping out the carpet, removing the staples...buy a stapler remover . There is a great one out there for under $20 and you can do this in one day or less.
Best

The thought of stripping down our entire staircase and restaining makes we want to buy another house all together.

Lol. Don't strip. ....Gel stain is fab. Or,paint them.. SAve time, costs, head aches and etc. You will LOVE your staircase...think no more carpet....I just could not stand the color or carpet any longer and it was an exorcism ! Lol

Can I join in the discussion and also ask for advise. I have the same exact staircase, however, the post are attached to a wood base. Should the base be white?

Paint the base white but you could also start a new discussion to get more help focused on your project

I love the black and white look on the stairs! We are thinking about taking our carpet off the stairs too and painting them. I'm just a little concerned with doing that with kids, afraid it will be too slippery!

So, for those of you who are taking off the carpet on the stairs, are you replacing whatever wood (product) you find there and painting or staining, or working with what is there (plywood for example) ? Is that even an option?

I have so many good suggestions now, let the sanding begin! This is a big job so it will be awhile but I will happily post pics during the process. At this point, I am already anticipating it will look better just sanded down! lol

If use plywood treads they will look like stained plywood it's best to install hardwood treads

Rcmommy are you going paint ?

I am definitely painting the spindles and banisters. Either all black or white and black like suggested. We are deciding what to do about the actual staircase. I would love to rip up that carpet and paint the stairs as well. I don't know what to do just yet though since we will be refinishing the wood floor on the main level at some point.

I just redid my rail and newel post. I took a poll on Houzz. Check it out. It started out blond like our hardwood. It started out with carpet. I love it now so much!

Hi again. So...you could paint spindles and risers white. That's what I did...and leave treads the way they are for now. Then if and when you redo flooring you can address treads. It would look great! Take a peak under carpet. That's what I did too...was lucky wood was beautiful. I love my light hardwood though so keep putting off replacing it w darker

I used high gloss impervo. A super durable product by Benj Moore.

coby0042 that looks fantastic! How much did you sand first? Did you sand lightly or go right to town?

Didnt have to sand too much. Started with a rougher paper, then a fine one. This paint is strong stuff. Have you had a peek yet?

Usually when prepping for paint you want to clean first with tsp and then sand maybe more more than scuff sanding but not going to town on it then dust off use a tack cloth or wet rag then proceed with priming use a quality oil base primer after it dries sand again to remove any imperfections then top coat with two coats of finish sanding in between coats if needed use a quality paint like advanced from Benjamin

Rockin is right. Yes to tsp. yes to sanding lightly between coats. Oops didnt mean to include this pic. Can't get it deleted. Haha. Oh well

Not sure we have tsp in Canada, but I will look. Others have rec. Stix or Kilz primers followed by BM Advanced.

tsp….Spic and Span.

Use Benjamin Moore's fresh start primer tsp is not a harsh product you should be able to find it

I had this done in a client's house…high gloss on the treads with a clear urethane over top. It came out so beautiful.

Oh Judyg!!! I LOVE that!!!! Maybe I'll try that for a change in the future!!

Yes we do have tsp. Home Depot or Rona has it. I also used fresh start oil based. ;)

Photo is of my guys and the great Canadian pastime ha

okay, excellent. I will look for it. I could attach a photo of us drinking Tim Horton's coffee- Canada's other fav pastime :)

That's FUNNY!! Or another, less known pastime...drinking wine!!! Ha ;) Where do you live? Maybe I can bring u the tsp. I'm in London.

With the right high build paint and bondo/fairing work you could go over the ply - but you might want to just consider new treads... I'm always a proponent of natural woods to make the stair a little more alive...

Sometimes just an interesting wood with a cool contrasting paint job can make a very bland staircase design something nice.

coby0042, we are in London as well. Small world

Yes it is. Let me know if you need help. Sorry, did you already say your treads are plywood?

We haven't looked yet but I am 95% positive it is.

Some of the nicer homes are simply replacing the spindles with black wrought iron. Very classy.

I think Pa P has the right idea. The dark brown stain will be as effective and chic as black, but less harsh, and it will coordinate more subtly with your existing carpet, furnishings, and overall style. Since you mentioned that replacing the carpet is not an option at this time, I think that solution will be very satisfying and economical.

We had a quote for the wrought iron staircase and it was upwards of $20,000. I would rather put in a pool!!

I am in the middle of re-staining our stairs and they are turning out fabulous. I made a custom stain by mixing Ebony and Dark Walnut as I didn't want it completely black. I will say that I preferred the color when more Ebony was added over the Dark Walnut. Our treads are pine and will be stained the same color as the rails and posts. They were a similar color to your stairs; however our spindles are painted white and will remain that way. I will also paint the risers white since they are currently stained as well. I am using a standard stain but used the gel stain last year on all our kitchen cabinets and for the cabinets in our three bathrooms. The gel stain is very easy to use. I pulled instructions off the internet from a blogger and I followed her directions. My kitchen and bathroom cabinets turned out really nice; it gave them the facelift they needed. Good luck!

Thank you guys for the post. I have a similar decisions to make. I have a closed staircase, small space and want to update the look. I've debated a white handrail, but the thought of wiping down every hand print daily .... Thus, the gloss black for then handrail, or keeping the handrail a natura colorl seems to call to me.

I just came across this thread I started way back and thought I would update. I painted black and white and love it! I am now redoing the stairs themselves. Painting them white and adding a Better than Sisal runner with black border.

Great job! Let us see the completion, please!

I love the look of the painted risers! Check out what some of our clients have done utilizing the NuStair system:

The stairs are finished!