Hi Elaine,

I'm not sure about the post you are referring to, but I did this last summer on the stairs in our basement. It really was not difficult. The most time consuming part was all the taping!
I wrote out all the steps and took photos of each step here, hopefully it will help you.
If you google "Thrifty Girl Stairs", it should pull up another post with step by step instructions. (This is the process I followed).

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Stair Redo How To

I think you should stain first; then paint after. The reason...? You can always prime & paint over stain, but if you get careless & get some paint on anything you plan to stain, you'll have to sand off the paint. Also, it might make sense to do the actual staining of the treads in stages so that you can still use them...stain every other tread, let them dry, then apply a second coat of stain if that's the plan, then whatever you'd intended to protect them with. Then repeat with the other treads. Then, when the stain job is done, paint the risers.

Hi!

Thank you both! Actually I won't be staining the stairs, they are already stained, but there is no finish on them. I plan to paint the risers and trim, but leave the stained treads as they are and add a polyurethane top coat.

Thanks!