It really depends on the style of the house. It will also be exponentially more expensive to replace rather than repaint white spindles white. And I know more than one person who has had to have a new handrail redone at the time of installation because there was something not right about it. (off angle, wobbly). If there is nothing wrong with it I would be tempted to not tempt fate),

I don't think you need to change the spindles. The ones you currently have are classic and not too fussy.

Thank you for the comments. I wonder how I could show you the style of house it is to get mor efeedback. Yes I'm not sure whether the gain is worth the money so I figured i'd pop on here.

Notice the floor in your inspiration photo is also very dark, matching the treads of the stairs. Your floor at the bottom of the stairs is a light, warm color. Were you going to change the floor? My point is that without changing the floor you will not end up with something that looks like the inspiration picture. I don't know what led you to have your stairs painted black.

kdandrewspa....what led me is the flooring is going to be changed.

I would not get iron spindles. There appear to be many colors….white, off-white, black, dark brown, gray and light brown flooring.

Eliminate several of the colors. Personally i would get rid of the gray wall and the tannish flooring..

thinkdesignlive so true and sage advice! Unfortunately/fortunately when I do post pics sometimes other parts of the picture do come into play and sometimes distract from the topic. In this one, I'm focussing on the staircase rails but unfortunately the floors get pulled into the conversation.

The full story is over the last several years I've been doing renos to my house. One of the first things I had done was had the house repainted. It was full of golden oak and tan paint. The oak doors were stained espresso and walls were painted 'a touch of grey'. As you can guess as the years wore on and I've looked to replace the flooring (throughout the house).....it seemed like white trim and white doors were the way to go. So roughly a month ago I had all the trim and doors in the house painted white. The staircase is just a side project that is being repainted but I thought as while i'm at it i'd see what people thought of getting iron spindles....seems like the answer is no.

In the next year or 2, I will be getting hardwoord floors throughout the upstairs and parts of the main floor. As for the ceramic you see in the picture....that too will eventually be pulled out all the way to the kitchen, which will also be upgraded. Hopefully this answers a lot of concerns about flooring.

I find that having a whole home vision really does start with the floors. Even if you don’t actually do the floors first you should know exactly what they will be so that all of your other decisions are grown from the ground up. Good luck!

Are you sure you want black floors? They will show E V E R Y speck of dust.

Tell us about your new floor choice first. (If you are going towards the white/black/gray theme, your floor should absolutely be changed!)

My former boss built an upscale home several years ago and had very dark hardwood floors installed everywhere. They were beautiful if no one walked on them.

But I attended a cocktail party there with 40 others and those beautiful floors looked like a dirty, dusty, heavily-footprinted tavern floor. It was ghastly and my former boss’s wife (one of those la-de-da ladies) was mortified.

Just sayin.

Course411- no I'm not going with dark floors. The pic I showed above was soley for the purpose of showing the rails on the staircase. Somehow the flooring got pulled into the conversation.

thinkdesignlive unfortunately the problem was half a dozen one way or the other. When I first moved in here several years ago I figured the quickest upgrade was to repaint everything. I was happy with that for a few years but I came to the decision that I want to redo the flooring throughout. With that being said, everytime I had someone come over everyone said it was very diifciult to pick a flooring to go with the dark doors/trim and I agree. Something like 90 percent of houses have white trim/doors.

Now that I have that accomplished I feel like I can move forward with the flooring which will be in 2 stages. First, I"m going to get engineered hardwood and run it all upstairs and on the main floor except for the kitchen/entrance and mudroom. Those areas will be some sort of tile or ceramic. Kitchen also will be upgraded at the same time.

Now that the white trim/doors are done the hardwood is the next project for this year. This staircase thread is just a side topic. As for the flooring choice........I have zero idea of what to color or grain to go with. Most tv shows are showing flooring with that super pale oak.....can't say I'm a huge fan of it as it seems so barren. I also don't want super dark or grey floors for the reasons mentioned above. Reddish floors seem to be not in the cards either.

Be careful of doing engineered floors in two stages, because when the time comes to do the second stage, you might not be able to get more of the floor in the same design/color that you need. We see that dilemma quite regularly on this forum.

chispa - oh yes I've learned that lesson well. When I first bought this house the former owners ran laminate through half of the upstairs....but not 2 bedrooms. By the time I bought the house it was basically impossible to match! My plan is to buy all the hardwood flooring for the entire house all at once. If necessary I'll store some of it until it gets done. I did the same thing with my basement (although I went with laminate down there). I"d like to get a flooring that will be a bit timeless but also a little character to it.

A medium brown hardwood (no distinct yellow or red or orange) is about as classic as it gets and would go with black or white spindles. But your decision is not just spindles - it’s the whole stair concept starting with the foyer floor (which I would suggest be wood and not tile). This is where your whole home vision comes into play.

The flooring keeps getting pulled into the conversation because nothing exists in a vacuum. Black treads and iron railings look different when they terminate into a black floor, or a beige tiled floor or carpet. Your inspo pic looks great, but part of why it looks great is because all the other elements are supporting the choices on the stairs and vice versa

In this case it existing in a vacuum as I wasn't asking if the iron spindles would work with the ground flooring that I have Perhaps it would have been easier for people if I took the picture from above floor so it wouldn't distract them. As I've said....the flooring will be changed. I was just looking to see what people's thoughts were on staircase trends and if changing the spindles would add anything or not. So far the concensus seems to be against changing them....regardless of the flooring.

thinkdesignlive - my plan is actually not to go with hardwood in the foyer. The entire upstairs will be hardwood. I'm thinking of using the same hardwood on the main floor in several rooms on the main floor that are currently rug. The foyer (which runs with tile) extends from there, down a hallway and into the kitchen. I was thinking since that area does get so much wear and tear that I would replace it with a more modern tiling.

I know people talking about the flooring first etc but the problem is that tiling. It's no small task to change and I do want it changed.

To rip up all of that tiling is one thing but with it I will also have to rip out the kitchen (which I plan on doing as well).

So in the meantime.....what can be done? Well I did have the doors and trim painted white (not a small job either). People complain about the wall paint but that can easily be changed. But as all of these jobs do take time and money my next feasible job will be to rip out the rug rooms and place hardwood in them.

It wouldn’t be worth it to me (depending upon the cost ) but i dont’t think it will add much so I would be reluctant to change it just for the sake of change.

K Laurence thank you for that. You hit the main nail on the head of my post which was whether adding this really adds anything to the house. I don't mind paying more IF it means it was worth it. Such as the slight dilema I'm having with changing some panes in my french doors. Plain glass is pretty inexpensive. I could also go with some fluted type glass which is just a tiny bit more. My original plan was to go with beveled glass but the price is really expensive......which again I would do......but I'm not quite sure I see the bang for the buck on going that route so I may go with the fluted type glass.

Anyways thanks again K Laurence!

First, leave balusters (spindles) alone. Flooring. Do all the same flooring throughout the main floor. Only exception might be tile for the mud room. A good engineered wood will be beautiful and long lasting. Pick color that works with your whole home. Avoid trends. Trends change about every 4-5 years. Flooring job is big expense. I can help more if you post photos of the first floor standing back so we can get the perspective of the home. Do a rough sketch of the layout too. Do it in black ink so it is readable once you post it. Thanks!

Thanks for the explanatory post, OP.

Don’t do it AT ALL until the new flooring is in place. Even then, it seems not worth it to me. Use that money to invest in very fine flooring.

As you can see the ceramic goes throughout the middle of the main floor quite extensively. Again this is why I haven’t tackled it yet because a full kitchen Reno will be done as well

Also mud room

That is an unnecessary expense which won't improve the market value of the home.  Spend the money elsewhere in the house or on a vacation

There is the layout of the main floor.

Office, Dining room, living room and family room that goes out to a patio door are all carpet.

Tile goes from the entrance, down the hall, goes into the mudroom on left, half bathroom on right and then throughout the kitchen. The family room is a step down so tile was not run in there. Again all of this was done way before I bought the house.

Curious to hear others' thoughts as we are now on the floor subject. My thinking was to update the existing tile as I figured areas like the kitchen, bathrooms, mudroom and even the entrance would take the most traffic. All of the other rooms would be replaced with hardwoord.

As mentioned, I don't want go with anything too trendy for the flooring. This will be sort of a one kick at the can type of thing. I know see a lot of that white plain oak in the new houses or even gray floors but I'm not feeling that or anything too red.

While looking up french doors I saw this flooring and thought it was pretty nice. Not sure the name of it though.

If money isn’t a big issue, you can’t go wrong with real white-oak planks, site-finished with your choice of stain. (Or no stain.)

Classic.

I think I would like to stay away from the white oak look. I do see it's really popular but I think i'd like to get something with a bit of character to them like the picture shown above.

Ok great. I would do an engineered wood from front door, down hall and right into kitchen and family room. If you need floor protection there are loads of rug options out there to absorb moisture and preserve flooring. If you are concerned about water damage any flooring that water seeps under will have to be replaced. The more continuous your flooring is, the less issues you will have with thresholds and visual consistency.

To remove tile and replace with tile is just as expensive as removing tile and installing the hardwood. What will greatly improve the value of your home is to have minimal floor changes. Keep tile in bathrooms and laundry/mud but if you are planning hardwoods upstairs you really should do them in the entry and hall spaces. Ideally the kitchen too. So don’t do anything at all with the stair until you settle on your whole home flooring plan.

thinkdesignlive - the stair project is just a little something that has to be done right now. Probably can't tell from the pics but the runner was taken off so the staircase is in the process of having the steps completely black and the spindles will have to be repainted a white finish (as opposed to the off white it is now). I had only wondered with all of that going on,,,,,which has to be done now.....if it would be the time to upgrade to the iron spindles but it sounds like the consensus is no.

Flo- so you would have the same hard word run throughout that main floor except for the laundry room and bathroom? If so, would you just run the hardwood into the bathroom and laundry room at that point and maybe leave a bit of ceramic where you step in from the garage? I had only considered replacing the tile with tile in those areas so that I wouldn't have to worry about wear and tear in the kitchen (especially) as that's where accidents usually seem to happen. Was just my thinking though.

These new engineered flooring options are very good and many choices of looks. I have had them in two of our homes and they were great. In kitchen and bathrooms. Just don’t let spills stand for long. It is so easy to care for. We have LVP now and while it’s ok, I prefer the engineered wood. I would use rugs for high traffic areas. Tile and grout and hard on knees are problems engineered woods overcome. Engineered woods have come a long way in last 5 years or so. Research them on line to see tips for best product for you.

Yes, I would do it all in engineered wood.

Flo - I know some have suggested to start with floors but I'm glad I didn't. I got to live in the house a few years and kind of familiarize myself a bit with modern styles. The house was LOADED with golden oak and beige throughout. Having the trim and doors painted white now frees me up to choose whatver for flooring. The wall paint can always be changed so it's not a big deal. The trim and doors were solid oak though so that was an expensive venture to go through....but worth it.

As you can guess I'm not looking for too trendy. I'm looking for styles that will last (hence the white doors and trim). Looking back i'm glad I held off from buying laminate or other decisions because engineered hardwoord definitely sounds the way to go and I look forward having it installed.

As I need a kitchen upgrade (the last of my big projects) I was thinking I'd have the upstairs done first and then move to the main floor. Of course I'll be buying the flooring in advance so I don't run out. The door and the trim being white are my only constants. Although I"m looking forward to the new flooring I am a bit antsy as I want to make the right decision on what colour/grain to use.