Curious what it would look like to rip up the carpet, have hardwood stairs, keep the stained wood trim on the banister and paint the spindles black. It might look too much like a bar code, or it could work.

Or, perhaps rip up the carpet, have hardwood stairs with a nice farmhouse looking runner on the stairs. Keep the banister as is.

The stairs are not a problem - it will depend on ow you do up the entire space. If you can afford it, it is pretty to have wood treads. There might be some under the carpet, but sometimes there is only plywood.

Your rails are not on the steps as in the pics, but that actually will make it easier to do wood treads should you go that route. Your stairs will work even with carpet if you style the decor right. The pics also have some extra millwork - beadboard or batten board - a nice touch.

My stairs had pine treads underneath the carpet - a ton of work to make them pretty, but not expensive DIY.

My pics -work in progress: · More Info

Thanks everyone. It is all plywood underneath the carpet :( Our floor is a grey wood colour and walls are similar to BM pale oak. All doors, baseboards and trims are simply white with black hardware. So the house is very much greige, white and black.

The carpet is new and needs to stay for a few more years.

I had thought of painting the spindles a nice clean white with black hand rail. But my contractor just told me the height isn’t up to code. So it looks like we may have to do some tearing apart. I have been looking for a company in our area who does wooden stairs, but everyone seems to be going towards metal or glass and I think I would like to keep it wood.

We are currently renovating so everything is covered, but here is an idea of our colours. Sorry it is dark, the sun has yet to rise over here.

The wood spindles are more timeless if not trendy. Wrought iron has also been around a long time so I think that would be OK too. The cable running horizontally concerns me because of the possibility of a child climbing them so I think they may be more trend then timeless.

I may be totally wrong, but I don't think you need to bring your stairs up to code unless you start messing with them. Once you do work on the stairs, you need to possibly pull permits and then they will need to be up to code. Often older things in homes are "grandfathered" as to codes - depends on how dangerous the situation - meaning if it is not a real danger, just not what is wanted now, and is original to the home, it doesn't have to be brought up to code. You would need to check that out with your local building inspector.

Stairs don't look bad as is ... just not a fan of carpet.

If the rails are sturdy (and since you've indicated that the carpet must stay), wouldn't do anything that would require you comply w/newer code and end up needing to rip out the railing. Instead, just paint the spindles either your wall color or your trim color or paint them black, depending upon personal preference and other decorative decisions, leaving the real wood railing showing as is.

If you were to add a gallery of black framed pics/art to the wall above the stairway, painting the spindles black should work well.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/76139049924000744/?lp=true