dalacombe:

Every once is a while, a Houzz poster proves by their post that they don't know what they don't know. Respectfully, yours is such a post.

Stair building and hand railing are second only to boat building as to difficulty of carpentry and skills required. The people who know this stuff are in huge demand right now, so this is not going to be inexpensive. With my 50 years of carpentry experience, my hands would be full with a project like yours. Absolutely not a DIY.

Agree- leave it alone. I would paint much more of it- I would keep only the treads and handrail natural.

Oh yes - I understand the expertise required here and have someone who does only stairs who will do the work. I am just buying the materials and making decisions about the look.

Your proposed changes won’t help the look. It will be a remuddle. It currently has a consistent ‘colonial’ style.

My suggestion is to simply paint all the posts, they'll be less prominent will make a big change. And after seeing Diana Bier's comment, yes to painting the risers white - forgot to mention that - it will also take the heavy look out of the staircase,

In the picture on the right, they painted all the stairs in white and installed a runner which also gives a brighter look.

I have a 90s house with a lot of railings and balusters just like yours. Didn’t want to spend the money to replace the whole shebang so we just refreshed it with paint. Painted the bannisters black, the risers, balusters and newel posts white, and added a new runner. If you don’t have or don’t want to spend many thousands of dollars on a completely new set of railings, that might be the way to go.

Here are some photos of what we did:

black handrail staircase · More Info

black handrail staircase · More Info

black handrail staircase · More Info

And some other ideas:

Rocky Ledge Stair · More Info

Kate Marker Interiors · More Info

Staircase · More Info

Breezy Brentwood · More Info

Thanks to you all for taking the time to respond!

And thank YOU for letting us know that our efforts were appreciated!

Are those top finials a separate piece of wood doweled into the main post?

I think it looks odd without them:

You are right - I was considering replacing it with the top in pic #4 but I think this thread has persuaded me that this plan isn’t a good one. I appreciate you taking the time to show me in a picture how it would look!

Dalacombe - I have a center hall colonial with similar newel posts + balusters. I’m not fond of mine either - although, I have a switchback staircase (open on one side only for part above larger landing + open on both sides from landing down to first floor) - and don’t have nearly as many as you do!

I think Diana’s staircase update looks really nice!

Before I decided to have my railing/newel posts/balusters professionally replaced, I found some ideas re: updating them.

1. This first one doesn’t require any changes to structure of existing staircase (except changing balusters):

They added pieces of mdf around the existing newel posts:

I’m missing a photo of where they added some more trim before prepping (filling nail holes + priming) and then painting:

2. This one would require having someone with expertise since the railing and balusters are both replaced:

Hopefully, these will be helpful. It is very expensive to have a staircase renovated by someone who has the expertise!