Looks really nice - you must be pleased!

It looks very nice. I liked the older version too. :-)

The old one just wasnt my style at all. But I imagine now that we've done the work to change it, it will come back into favor and I'll kick myself for taking it out. Haha.

Mostly they paint because if they do anything else they have to bring the staircase to code and that costs $$$

There are parts of your new railing system that are very nice, but those huge white newel posts are distracting. Just my opinion

@BeverlyFLADeziner

I did actually conceptualize the same thing (above) and was soooo torn between the two designs. The rest of the house is very light and bright and I worried that all wood would feel too heavy in the space. In my non-scientific polling of friends and family, it was nearly evenly split between the white/wood and all wood design. I was back and forth, losing much sleep. Haha. Eventually I just had to pull the trigger on a design.

I guess it really just comes down to preference.

Before was warmer, more organic, and just plain better. And, that was also right in current style. Woods are back in demand for everything, including trim.

Looks like a nice update. The white newel posts do stick out a bit. If you tire of them, you can always paint the railing + at least the top of the newel post to match your black treads in the future.

OR - you could clad the white newel posts with wood (stained to match the railing) later. I've seen several diy blogs/videos where people have updated their newel posts without detaching them from the railing. It's a much smaller project when you don't have to detach the railing.