I would learn to love it until I had the funds to replace. Personally I think they look nice. Too bad they were painted in the first place.

Add a runner on the stairs to take away from the railing a bit.

Sure you can use chemical strippers to take off the paint but unless you are careful and cover everything and tape it off you risk damaging the steps. Have you used paint stripper before? Have you refinished furniture? It isn’t hard just time consuming and tricky if there are pets or kids in the mix!

You can repaint the spindles white. Sand them well, and use a good quality primer and then 2 coats of good quality paint. If you want the banisters stained, I would mask everything around, including your floors, and carefully apply a good stripper. Its a lot of work, and it could get a bit messy, but, with proper masking, it is do able. I agree, stained would be a much better look for your house.

Maybe you need to take them apart, in order to strip underneath the railing? Seems like a monumental undertaking.
Maybe replace the spindles?

Second the learn to love them comment... sometime love hurts. Maybe see how much work it's going to take to strip/sand a couple spindles and you will be forced to love it. That is ALOT of work!!!

Just saw this before and after banister on an hgtv episode. Maybe elephant gray is the new black. I do like the runner though.

I agree with you, I would want it back to stained too. I would also want the spindles back to stained, but, that is a whole lot of extra work.

Good example imho of seller wasting time and money following a fad and trying to anticipate whims of a buyer... and then the buyer doesnt like it. There have been a few buyers here trying to undo their painted brick exterior as well.... which unfortunately is pretty much a lost cause.

OP - first I would try to see if it scratches or sands off easily. With any luck they did a poor prep job and it wouldnt be too difficult to remove. If there is a good layer of clear finish under the paint then youre in luck - should be able to sand and get to good wood underneath. If paint has gotten into pores of the wood then its more of a PITA to remove. If you do resort to stripper, do a very thorough painstaking job completely masking off stair treads so stripper cant possibly drip on it. Be sure to use good quality painters masking tape that forms a good tight seal. And then just take it very slow in small sections, being careful not to do dumb things like getting stripper on your shoe and tracking it around the house (been there, done that LOL).

I didn't completely read the initial post, thought you wanted to strip the entire thing. Paint spindles white and hire a decorative/faux painter to do the railing in whatever species you like. done right, no one will ever know the difference between wood and faux. I would also suggest, if you don't want to get sucked into passing trends, cover all your walls in ship lap... ceiling to, hell do floors also... ship lap, ship lap, ship lap will never go out of style LOL.

Agreed, ship lap might be worse. There's no ship lap or barn door anywhere, so I may have dodged a bullet there.

Part of the time, it is realtors that advise the seller to do this stuff.