I will admit that the thought of black stairs made my eyes widen, as alarm bells went off inside my head. :-) I live in a relatively hot climate, though, so black *anything* retains far too much heat. Which part of the world do you live in? Would having black stairs be helpful to melt snow?

That's a fair question. And you're right about black, not the right color for steps. I am located close to the desert of Canada, in British Columbia. We have a dry heat summer and this week our forcast is 95F. During winter there is some snow.
I found a gritty textured concrete floor paint (for steps) and a plain concrete white paint for sides of stairs.
Then, I was thinking of painting the garden boxes (currently yellow) all black and then add horizontal black strips of wood. I'll post a pic

slats like this for yellow areas and then paint all black

I would not go so contrast with black but cement gray.

Thanks Celerygirl! I'm going to take a look at other concrete t xtured paints and see if I can find a cement look. we're just limited with what's available during this covid. Tons of products are out of stock

What if you do the stenciling along the sides and a greyish color for the steps? Black is too hot and I'd be afraid of the stencil design getting rubbed off from wear right away and looking dingy. Whereas if you did something solid it could easily be touched up. Make sure it isn't too glossy that it's slippery in the rain.