Could you forego carpet and just have wood stairs? None of our stairs are carpeted. I would not change your baluster to those.

Thanks for the suggestion--we want to keep it carpeted because we have a child and have all taken a tumble down the stairs. Safety over looks I guess!

Paint them the same color as the walls.. they’ll blend in, now they sort of stand in the way of the view coming down the stairs..

Ok i like that suggestion--something felt off about the black balusters but I couldn't tell if it was me or not. I agree it should lighten things up both in weight and color.

This is easy enough to do....already have the paint!

Thank you!!

If you're trying to lighten a dark room I would not choose a dark teal carpet. Choose something lighter. The new polypropylenes are great and clean so easily. I'd paint the trim and balusters white. Any black is going to suck the light out of the space.

Have you considered adding carpet and padding only to the steps themselves -- perhaps you could paint the vertical part of each step white or even consider mirrored tiles for the verticals.

Your balusters are definitely NOT to code and in addition it appears you do not have a handrail on the other wall - also not to code and very dangerous. Since you mention all having taken a tumble on the stair, put in the correct safety features. As for lightening things up, your first recourse should be to actually have adequate lighting on the stairs themselves and it doesn't appear that you do. I looks like there is good light from the landing up but not from the landing going down. That in itself may go a long way to eliminating those tumbles.

As you said above, safety over looks.

It's not to code, and it just makes sense that people are falling because there is no handrail. Both an adult or child can be badly hurt falling down a carpeted stair.

The issue with balusters greater than 4" apart (which is code) is that a child can get through them and fall, or that they can get their body through but their head gets stuck and they strangle. Looks like falling right through is more likely in your case.

Thanks for the safety comments @partim and other writer. We moved here about three years ago and every turn we seem to discover another thing that is not to code...I think the son did a lot in his own home that we are now cleaning up and fixing.

The good news is that we haven't taken a tumble down these stairs but our other stairs that are only wood. Def willing to make some safety improvements though so this doesn't happen.

I feel like a hand rail is easy enough but could you suggest an easy fix for the balusters? Maybe just add a skinny rail in between each of the thick ones? Is this something I can get from a big box hardware store or would i need to special order? Any advice highly appreciated--willing to learn but not the most experienced with this stuff!