looking for ideas, besides painting?? what else is left? replacing them. they're very heavy, dated looking. Replace them with anything else. tons of options.

Remove ALL spindles. Fill all holes and paint/stain.............

If you don't mind cleaning, fill all the open area with acrylic panels, or if no kids....tempered glass. You need a contractor All the clutter will be GONE. GONE GONE

To basement? Make a drywall bannister height knee wall and top it with a painted or stained 1 x 6. Or repeat as above,

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Try to peel some of the carpet off one tread in the basement and see what the wood looks like? If it's paint/stain-able, you could go that route (after you remove 1,000 staples) but if you want to remove the carpet and put in risers and update the railing, it's time to talk to a stair pro. I don't think risers are right for your home, the underside of stairs are not always pretty and yours would be exposed and you'll lose valuable light too. It's a giant job. Good luck!

Rustic modern? This is not a home joe job, especially when asking how to fill holes.. Call an architect, and replace the entire stair $$$$$$$. To code.

Yep you need some pro help for sure and IMO the only option is to replace at the very least the balusters but the whole thing needs an up grade. Some new lighting wouldn’t hurt either. A look at the rest of the house could help with ideas since we have really no idea of your style.. I don’t think syaining them dark would improve them at all

we had ours removed at our vacation house, it was a big job. we went with black metal balusters, matching oak shoe and handrail. pretty much exactly like this from the spiral stairs website (we were installing a new spiral stairs, so had to find one that had a rail system we liked for the rest of the loft and room).