If you don’t need privacy on the loft, I would remove the drywall and restyle the railings similar to this photo.

The dark wood seems to be in keeping with the rest of the house, but the loft railing would look better if it weren't surrounded by drywall. It should be all drywall or a railing, not both. The way it is now it looks like a jail cell. Only do the horizontal railing like ffpalms shows if your decor is contemporary. If you like all the dark wood you have, do something more like the below, but if you use iron balusters, I would do plain ones, or alternate plain with ornamented ones to simplify the pattern.

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ffpalms - what would be budget to do something like that? What would I do with the pantry door? and how would i run the railing where the stair curves to drywall on both sides? I have similar inspiration pics attached.

kandrewspa - We are going to keep more modern. That is an interesting idea just to fill in the loft railings with more drywall. The worst part is really the loft railings. We are going to paint the doors and casings black so we could just paint the tops of the railings black to modernize it a bit and get rid of the jail cell look. That being said, we do not need the privacy in the loft. But the way the loft wall meets at the top of the stairs we would need to all black railing or keep the drywall look.

I would start by filling them in with Drywall. Quick and cheap and allows that area upstairs to be not on display from the first floor.

kandrewspa - I wonder what it would cost (laborwise) to do hardwood on the stairs and loft area and fill in the loft wall? Here is an inspiration pic of hardwood stairs at a neighbors house.

I don’t have knowledge of costs or construction, but I’m guessing the pantry door would be treated much like this hallway opening— though it wood be a door and a bit of drywall rather than an opening. Once you’ve decided on a style, I’d start getting quotes from contractors to see if want you want is affordable.

Is that hardwood on the floor at the bottom of the stairs? You can just remove all the wood trim and then drywall that whole space up top.The wood stairs would look a bit more modern but your house does not look very modern to me .Yoiu have a lot of wood to deal with that will aslo need to amtch the treads on thrstairs so all that wood will need to be stripped to stain to match .As for the pantry door IMO it needs to match the kitchen cabinets or not be wood at all.