A stain that looks close to the color of your floor is not a bad idea. In the photo, the second one (from left to right) looks pretty close but only you can see the colors IRL.

I suggest staining it close to the color of the floor. I wouldn’t paint it .looks beautiful natural wood.

Colors from the floor.....Stain rails lighter and the post darker?

I don't like the all white version ;-)..

Oh my gosh this is so helpful what if the spindles were white too?

Also could you change the newel post to stained for me. What tool are you using? Thank you so much!!

I would keep the black spindles as they match your door and also let you see through a space more easily. Agree to stain as close as you can get to floor.

Definitely not all white it will look clinical. A stain similar to the darkest tone of your floor would look great with the black spindles.

The black spindles look great with the stain, why change them.

I would meet halfway. The support beam white to match the walls and the horizontal elements (nosing and rail) match the floor.

Reanne, you are welcome. I cut and paste and change color with Pixelmator on my mac. I agree with other comments not to paint the spindles white. The black spindles look very nice with the front door and with stained wood. Once you paint wood, it's a lot of work and a big mess to strip the paint if you're not happy with it. If you're really not sure of which way to go with this, I would stain it first. If you want to paint it later, all you have to do is sand it down and paint, but I promise you that staining it will look more beautiful than painting it all white.

The black spindles are great.

White spindles are more maintanence intense--kids knick them, dust collects in them. Been there, done that.

Design-wise, I like the other ideas anyway.

Okibijp I really can’t thank you enough. I think I will stain the everything, I agree if the post doesn’t stain well I can paint that easier than I can strip it. I think what bothers me most is the white stair treads. I think they stand out and would look better stained to match the railings. They were originally stained and my husband had them painted. 😢 if you happen to playing on your computer and want to change the color of the treads that would be awesome. Thank you again.

Raeann, can you post a photo of the stairs looking from the doorway that is next to the bookcase?

Is this sufficient?

"I think what bothers me most is the white stair treads"

Raeann, there is nothing wrong with them. It goes with the wall and baseboard. It doesn't make sense to strip them down after they've been painted. I suggest you compromise with hubby and paint the column white, pick a medium to dark color from the floor for the rails and leave the newel white like it is in the photo below. Good luck :-). I'm sure it will turn out beautiful!