Since you didnt mention age of the stairs first thing to do is confirm there is no lead in the paint. If it does contain lead you need to call a pro to remove it. Removing lead based paint is not something to mess around with. If theres no lead then you can use a chemical stripper but that might still leave some residue. Since you are wanting to finish the treads sanding is required. To deal with the spindles will requirea sharp and i mean sharp scraper blade. If you are able to remove the spindels i suggest that gets done. Job will go much better if you dont have to scrape around spindels on every tread.

UGH !!!!! My project is an original door that's been in this house since it was made 100 years ago. I'm using this "nuclear waste" that they call paint stripper ~ lol It works like a charm but the door has these little nooks and crannies around each panel in the door , and I don't know how to go about getting the paint remover out of those grooves. Every little brush I tried just got gunked up and just moved the paint stripper around. It didn't remove anything . If you have a hint or trick you could share ???? :) This is my first attempt at stripping paint ... might be my last ,too !!!! PS ....... It was actually interesting to remove layers of paint and see the colors that the door was painted over all these years. The original color under the paint was canary yellow ! It must have been popular in 1919 . Even the door knob was yellow ! The next color was some kind of mossy green. The next color was tan and finally white. It was fun to see all that !

Thanks Patricia Colwell Consulting!!! Super helpful. Here’s a rending of the front of the house. It’s currently the same khaki paint color as the back with white trim amd a white garage door and a bit of Palos Verde rock under a front window. White rock roof that you pretty much only see from the backyard and the neighbor’s house. We had plans to add on above the garage that would have really given an updated look to the house, but they got denied by our neighborhood architectural committee. So we are settling for interior remodel, windows and paint and some landscaping (this is not a rendering of the landscaping). I’m trying to figure out which windows to order... black outside or white outside. The new ones going in the front will be black outside. In our back patio area you can only see these two sliders and one white vinyl window. For a cohesive house look, we could paint the vinyl window black, paint the sliders back or preferably strip the paint and have them be wood, then order black windows for the new ones. That would prob be best?

I don't think it's stained. I mean, it's stained, but by life and not intent. Is it just paneling or is it thick stuff? You can sand splintery bits and try to even out the color with stain and seal it with a couple coats of polyurethane but I don't think it'll look like a formal paneled wall. I think it's destined to be rustic. But I think it can still look pretty good. But rustic. Because it IS. I had an old house built out of wood once. The walls and ceiling were tongue and groove 10" x 3/4" thick planks. (The floor, oddly enough, was just typical tongue and groove heart pine with nothing else between you and the crawl space.) It was all covered with wallpaper except for the front rooms which had at some point been drywalled. This wood was not meant to be seen. It was rough, discolored, uneven, and gappy. I suspect yours is similar. (Pull off the lightswitch cover. Betcha got wood behind the drywall. That's why the door trim is embedded.)