Will the doors be replaced? if no, then it looks very traditional/ colonial and therefore a traditional wood railing with wood handrails (to match the floors) and painted white balusters would be appropriate. if you want more mid century modern / contemporary modern you will need to relace the doors to get that look.

@Stephanie is right about the doors. Here are some examples of stairs, going from transitional to modern. Whatever you do, keep it simple. Before doing horizontal rails, check your local code to see if they're allowed.

Transitional Metal & Wood Staircase · More Info

Family Basement Renovation · More Info

Military Road Renovation · More Info

Inspiration ideas from HENCE METAL · More Info

The doors will be replace to match the railing style depending of the materials, color, etc

Thank you :)

What year was the house built? Can you show a main room like the living room?

Hand-built by my husband & dad. Walnut hand-rails, oak posts, and SS rods.

sO first you will need to find out code for your area since in many places horizontaal railings on stairs are not to code .Soething like this is probably close to an original. The landing at the top looks very tiny maybe just a weird angle of the camers but I am curious BTW the doors are certainly not MCM I would probably go with this railing in the wood of ths treads and doors in the same wood but slab.

House was built 1965
Horizontal railings are allowed in my area,
I was thinking glass doors.

Lots of midcentury houses were more contemporary transitional than overtly midcentury modern. I would probably do something more delicate than massive, and vertical rather than horizontal.

These are from my real estate photo collection.

Zig zag seems to show up frequently, as I look through.

Am a bit confused by the photo. Is that a landing in front of the double doors on the upper level? It's possible the angle of the photo is throwing me off but, if that is a landing, is doesn't appear to be deep enough.

It's just photo distortion. The landing is probably pretty shallow it may not even be 36" but the upper doors are set back a few feet behind the door under the landing. The house is 57 years old. Obviously it has functioned.

Something like this might be appropriate. These are stock components so the fabrication can vary, the oval pickets set into the floor is a more expensive detail than setting it on a horizontal bottom rail.

The zig-zag handrail strikes me as very MCM.

This is the landing
I put bench there for proportion

Thank you so much for all the great ideas!! Definitely trying to get a functional yet MCM look ….:)