Wool is in the same cost category as hardwood.

If you wear shoes in the house: For a young family, the most practical color is the same as the dirt outside, not a light color that will show foot traffic paths in nothing flat. Scoop up a couple tablespoons of dirt in a baggie, take a photo, and take the baggie to the store.

If you don't wear shoes in the house, choose any medium grade carpet for wall to wall, but avoid white and off white. White and off white rugs can be sent out for cleaning, but it is much, much harder for professionals to get wall to wall carpet spotless.

Our stairwell and upstairs are already completely carpeted. im not sure if theres hard wood underneathe to do a runner

lift it and see.

there are tons of stair makeovers online if you're handy -

here are some of the carpets I have liked in the past

Lake house · More Info

Lake house · More Info

Lake house · More Info

With 3 kids carpet would be my last choice so I agree the color of the dirt . Wool will cost almost as much as hardwood and IMO wait until you can affor the hardwood .

Would you do lvp instead?

I would need to see the home . What are the stairs ?

you have a lot of projects happening in this home if I am remembering right - LVP/laminate takes a ton of research (we just went thru this with a lake home) - not just format, but also wear levels, colors etc and the install needs to be super well done (our pros just redid our stairs bc they were too creaky for our builder ) I’d be tempted with everything else on your plate to go to a good local flooring store and look at their high quality nylon carpets (not wool) and choose something like what you posted above - down the road you can pull it up and do engineered hardwood

lala girl yes I am basically trying to tackle this entire home! It is a little overwhelming. We are coming from a townhome with hardly any furniture also. The flooring and the paint are something we are trying to handle before we move in so this is first on my list. This is not just for the stairs but the entire upstairs level. Would you use nylon carpet on the entire level or just the stairs?

If you will have carpet in the upstairs hallway leading to the stairs then it likely makes the most sense to continue it down the stairs - is it currently carpeted?

I would go and look at the carpet in person - there are tons of options and they may be less objectionable than you think - it does not have to be forever :)

FWIW friends didn't want carpet and didn't want to pay for enginereed hardwood at the moment - they painted all their upper floors a pale blue grey (and added area rugs) - looks amazing - they painted their stairs white and added a fun stripey runner - took quite a bit of time & DIY sweat tho (live on the Cape, so a beach feel for sure)