Painters may not know how to work a stain (wipe-on, wipe-off grasshopper). Which means it is possible they let the stain "sit" for too long; or they didn't wipe off ENOUGH of the stain; or they applied several COATS of stain....or....or...or... You get the idea. I would say the painter was trying to 'paint' the stairs rather than stain them. If I'm right, you have too much stain on your stairs which means there could be (read: probably will be) adhesion issues with the finish.

And then the obvious question is: are the treads a SPECIES match to your floor? Usually not. Red oak is a favourite for stairs. It is cheap and readily available. If your flooring is WHITE oak, then it is more likely (than not) you have a mis-match of species. And therefore the stain will be different on the stairs.

It takes a professional stain 'artist' to deal with two different species and a stain 'match'. A painter certainly will not be up to the task (unless of course s/he is an old flooring professional who decided to take on easier work by becoming a painter).

Talk to the painter to find out EXACTLY how this stuff was put down....and then *plan for a full sand and refinish. The likelihood that this was done "properly" is very low.

Does it have finish on it yet? If not, finish will alter the color, though probably not enough to match the sample.

is it possible to lift the stain if there is no finish on it?

Some hot solvents like lacquer thinner can. I don't know what brand of stain you have but DuraSeal has a product called Renovator that will dissolve their stain somewhat and it can be color keyed with a different stain. If might be worth a try.

If I used the color of my walls and tried something to this effect, any ideas on how to achieve this look?

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Probably not without sanding. I'd think it would be hard to get the darker stain out of the deep grain. The Renovator is worth trying, straight out of the can.

The floor you picture is probably White Oak and the treads are probably Red Oak. I'd likely start with Minwax/DuraSeal Golden Oak stain to get close.

thank you all - he lightly sanded the stairs. he applied more of a red stain on top. it's still darker than I'd like, but better. thank GOODness I plan on a runner. disappointing for sure, but at least I have a true professional on the floors. this far into the project I'm not about to pick a fight of skill.