I'm not a big fan of the half wall look, however I can see it being nice if you don't have much wall space overall. Also, if you are already over budget that might be a place where you go with the standard walls and if you don't like it save up some money and change it a few years down the road. Odds are what's popular now (black metal spindles?) won't be in a few years anyway.

Honestly, people were just hardier in days of yore. My very scary, steep, hardwood floor staircase in my 1913 bungalow had no signs of ever having a handrail. I installed one for ME, no kids involved. I had a handyman put up one that looked just like Marie's above. When I moved from that house, I took it off to get my furniture down. Pretty simple actually. To be honest I would not use a velvet or other rope. I need something to really grab onto if I slip on the hardwood floors; not something that could rip or pull away. Oh, I also found that investing in non-slip socks is a must!

Painting will not look right and it will not hold up. There are firms that will come in and spray (refinish) your treads and bannister because that is what I did. Then you can paint the spindles. My staircase was similar all one color from 1970s.

I’m not the OP but this question relates to my current dilemma. We are replacing treads on stairs and the “discussion” is stuck on the risers. Should they be stained to match or painted white. I have seen both but it seems more recent design is going with stained risers. Since the last time we tried to redo these stairs was 13 years ago and we couldn’t agree on a lot of things and scrapped the project, I don’t want to get stuck again. The pics are of our staircase ripped out carpeting, a pic with stained risers, and a pic with painted risers. Since we are going through the work and expense, I want to make sure we aren’t putting in dated design from the get go. The other point we are discussing is wood spindles vs metal.