It's so hard to tell the color on my screen. But if it were me, I'd have painted the staircase black or white, and then put a carpet runner, as I've learned about myself that I prefer my slips and falls to land on carpet, rather than wood.

I think it really needs to be what you like.

IE it either is the same color (which as your finding is very difficult) or a complimentary contrasting color, that you like, obviously.

what the heck!? you had that beautiful oak, guy in pic 2 ruined the hell out if, so you sanded it back down to pic 1? or you just painted over pic 2?

Pic 1 would have been pretty easy to get to match the new flooring. ( a white wash stain mixed with a gray/weathered gray gel stain)

At the very least you could have kept the treads a darker color stain, and painted the risers the color they are now, or a regular white.

sorry, but I don't care for pic 3 at all.

Who were these 'experts' you hired???

Guy who did pic 2 had absolutely no clue when he stained those risers. absolutely none. oak takes stain beautifully, if you know what you're doing. Those either were not completely stripped down to raw wood (and to completely strip them, you need a stripping agent. merely sanding them will NOT remove the prior stain/finish from the grain) or he failed to condition the wood prior. I'm betting it was both. Another thing that can happen when sanding is 'burnishing' the surface. when you do that you basically seal off the pores and the stain won't absorb. you never want to sand oak past 150-200 if you're going to apply stain.

So you now have painted wood stairs and rail but what you wanted was a stained wood look in pic 2? Your flooring is a taupe color ? Looks like you'll have to sand again and have a professional woodworker make up a custom stain that let's the wood grain show through. Also, I think black will be too harsh with taupe and white won't look good either, go with creamy off white painted wood balusters or bronze (not too dark) metal balusters. my opinion.

What a mess. You have been ill advised for sure. You have a fall hazard right now with what looks like semi gloss paint (slippery), so you have two terrible choices. More paint, or more paint and stain removal and restaining. This also looks like very steep steps?! The paint color is horrible. Stairs don’t need to match the the flooring either. Just be compatible. Nightmare. So sorry. Very expensive and time consuming project. I pray you haven’t paid for this up front?

Wow that is a mess. At this point I would do what Mrs. S suggested, repainting the risers and railings and carpet the steps. The steps are steep as someone else pointed out, carpeting would be best. Unfortunately now you have layers and layers of paint that will have to be sanded down again.

Curiosity sake. Is this a fairly old home? The stairs do look compact, i.e. short treads tall risers. I thought initially it looked like a distorted picture angle.

With any smooth surface, stain or paint, those stairs are going to be a hazard. You will definitely need a runner or treads no matter what you decide.

Thank you all for your comments, here are some comments/answers

1. Agreed on the point that the stairs are missing the beautiful oak look and I have no problem starting from scratch, as long as the final results not only looks good but it is also something I like.

2. The first guy did a great job by totally sanding the stairs (pic1) but did a terrible job when staining them (pic2), it looks like he missed some steps in the process, like mentioned above conditioning the wood, reason why there are some blotches and the stain was not even.

3.. From there the stain was totally removed with a stripping agent, I would not put a blame on the second guy, he painted the stairs the color I gave him. I got the "matching" stain from Sherwin Williams and I thought it was only a stain but as you can see in pic3, it was not only stain but also color... my bad, it looked good on the sample piece (same wood), but unfortunately terrible on my stairs

4. I added a pic of the floor (pic4), I know the pics are not that great but believe me with this staircase color, you will need to see it in person to get a better idea, I would say it looks like a dark salmon color which I dislike and want totally removed.

5. The house is less than 20y old, the risers are 7-inch tall.

6. At this point I am planning on redoing the whole staircase again, stripping them down to raw wood and as suggested here, apply a mix of white wash + weathered gray, I like this option better than the others.

I forgot to ask, what is the tread depth, where your foot lands?

Is this your primary staircase, or is this a secondary staircase ?

I'm just curious, as its so steep and being only a 20 year old structure, frankly, it would never meet code where I am. If your willing to divulge what state this is in, that would be nice to know for a "hmm", factor.

Or is this in England based on your name.

Depth is 9 1/4 inches, primary staircase, it is the standard here in Ontario, Canada for houses this old, this is something I checked before starting the project, one of my options was to replace the whole stairs but it was too expensive.

You can buy stair tread overlays. They are quite common in re-modal renovations. If you take the rail and spindles off, maybe just better to cover whats there with fresh new wood treads and risers.

I would completely start over, stripping the steps, landing, and handrail. I would paint the skirt and stringer white to match your trim- it will be far easier, adds some pop, and will help disguise the fact that the color match from pre finished floors to site finished will never be exact. Make sure they do stain samples ON THE STAIRS. Not on oak you bought, not on some random piece of wood.