Remove the carpet as the install is very dated looking what with the rug between spindles and wrapping the side. It will be a pain if you want to paint.

If you want carpet, install a runner.

Yeah Ideally that would be the best but there is crappy wood steps below that would have to be replaced and to do that you'd have to do remove the spindles. In that case it would make the project 10 times the cost to upgrade the steps, risers, spindles, bannister and add flooring to the hallway upstairs. Bit too much for our budget at this time.

Yes the painting would be hard but I could deal with that with lots of painter's tape.