The good thing about buying an older home is that there is usually plenty to keep you & your pocketbook busy before you get to hardcore decor. (walls, insulations, potty, as you say!) I think you're going to find plenty to love enough to live with if you do a bit of kitsch research. Do you have any original lighting? I notice Rejuvenation is now up to 1960 with period reproduction lighting! By the time you've decided whether to go with carpeting-you-can-rake, there should be plenty of businesses treating your "period" house with respect! A few years back our home was on a historical tour and a woman stopped by who was the granddaughter of the woman who built the house. "Ms. Manners" was beside herself going from room to room and finally threw her hands up in the inglenook squawking "I can't believe you even have that horrible ugly furniture!" referring to the original mission pieces we'd lucked into at that point. Well, I'm sure the woman had no idea why we bought the home, let alone why 1500 people plunked down hard cash that weekend to take off their shoes and tiptoe about, but I learned that sometimes a little distance helps with the appreciation! So I guess this is a longwinded way of saying "Gee, I don't know how to get there, but I hope you'll send me postcards along the way!" I entered adolescence in the 60s and my mind was evidently not on domestic decor...

Oceanna - I just got done reading the thread regarding your split. Our is only slightly different than yours. The window above the door is that 70s bubble glass. I don't like it, but ours is clear bubble glass while all the other neighbors have yellow bubble glass. I feel lucky. We also have side lights on either side of the front door, also clear bubble glass. We painted the interior side of our door sort of a deep plum shade. I liked it at the time but would rather go with a very deep green now. Actually, I want a new front door, but that's another budget item entirely, and I'm not ready to go there yet. When we bought the house, the railings were black wrought iron with little gold splotchy things. The rail separated the stairs from the living room. We needed some of that space for my piano, so DH build a half wall from the living room window wall about half way up. On the entry side of that, we've hung two shelves just made of MDF and painted white. Currently there is NO railing from where that half wall ends to the top of the stairs. I was getting on DH's case to get something built there, but the contractors have suggested waiting until they're done with the kitchen. It will give them more room hauling things up and down the stairs. On that big tall wall over the stairs heading down, we have another MDF shelf that we use for some of my larger doodads. At Christmas, we fill it with greenery and have large glass bowls with ornaments and other Christmas items. Unlike you, our kitchen doorway sits off to the right of the stairs, so when you come up our stairs you come into a wall. Oh, our house appears to be a mirror image of yours! I LOVE what you have down at the bottom of your stairs. We have two boys, ages 12 and 10, and a 100-pound dog. We use that garage door as our main family entrance and exit. For me at this point, I doubt anything nice would stay in that location very long! I'm really looking forward to the kitchen being finished. Not so much looking forward to the process. My moto is to "keep the eye on the prize." I also have a goal of having enough money left over after the kitchen to replace at least the windows on the front of the house. Unfortunately, ours are original windows, single pane, and you can see the gaps when the wind blows. We live in a part of the country where 60 mph winds are normal in the winter - slamming right into the living room window - ugh! Oh, we replaced the light in the entry with a ceiling fan with light fixture. I realize it's entirely too modern for your decor, but it suits ours. Besides, I was pretty intent on getting rid of the huge orange globe that was there when we moved in! Also, the house is not air conditioned, and it can get quite hot here in the summer. The ceiling fan helps move the air around the living room quite a bit. Bonus. So, I don't have any advice for you on the entry. Most people here have really left the entries pretty plain. I would vote for painting the wood part of your half-wall white as well. However, we have spent most of the last five years slowly working on replacing all the "wood" trim in this house with white trim. I put the wood in quotes because it was very, very dark and not good quality wood. I had no guilt painting it! Oh, in the corner by our front door, we have a 3-foot tall stuffed moose dressed for fishing. Not a "real" stuffed moose, more of a teddy-bear stuffed moose. Again, I'm guessing that's not really your style, but frankly we are a bunch of nut jobs in this household, so it suits us. It gives me a smile whenever I walk up and down the stairs, and everyone who enters the house comments on him (his name is Morty). Let us know what you decide to do with your entry!

"wood under carpet is real cheap pine that is in poor shape, so it can't just be stained." Not always. I had pine under mine and painted them. Do you know what's undeath the carpet? We had a local flooring guy remove the carpet and staples and I painted the treads a dark brown (SW Woodsy Brown) and the risers white. Looking back, I wish I would've used General Finishes Gel stain, but that's another story. The link Bonnie posted above was the first person I thought of. Thriftydecorchic did her stairs as well. My treads looked like this when the carpet was up. Reading what you wrote again, I don'y think my link is very helpful at all. Could you post a photo showing the top of the stairs where the flooring is? I'm having a hard time picturing what you're saying. At the top of our stairs we have an oak landing tread and carpet buts into that. (Our railings are all oak) Doing a quick search, this is what ours looks like. http://www.directstairparts.com/collections/wood-treads/products/lineal-landing-tread-3-1-2-per-lf?gclid=COudpO6tocECFQQT7AodY34A3w Here's a photo. Here is a link that might be useful: Thriftydecorchic This post was edited by sheesharee on Fri, Oct 10, 14 at 1:41

@palimpsest, would incorporating storage in that second-level "built-in" on the living room side make sense? I think I'd want that - storage is scarce in my house. I fear building up this wall would bock light streaming into the entry though. Thanks for sharing your inspo pic, @Courtney Carter. @Mama Cita was right: the terminology was stumping me. :) A railing can "open up" a space by offering more light and sight lines than a pony wall. As I said, I also have a split entry so I'm sharing ideas I've pondered over the years in my own house. Apologies if they go beyond your initial project scope but I'd feel remiss if I didn't share. Have you considered a window above the door, a door with a sidelight or even a sun tunnel? These might result in a light-filled entry. After seeing @palimpsest's mock up, I'd even ponder sacrificing more living room to widen the staircase (major structural project though).