I'd say the hand rail and newell posts in black, but a better look would be to stain them the same color as the floor and the stair treads, while keeping the balusters and stair risers white.

However, the balusters look to be spaced very far apart. Do you have children or small pets? This may be a safety hazard, and you may want to replace the entire rail system.

I agree with Diana ... I would have them stained to match the floors. That’s what I’m currently having done to match my walnut floors.

I don't believe those spindles meet code now. The cheapest way to bring them into code would be to have additional spindles custom turned and installed between the current ones. Then I'd paint the railing and all newel posts black. Here's a B&A I advised here on Houzz.

I really like your current wall color (at least from the photos) and wouldn't change it. Look how it looks with black. Nice! It doesn't however look good with the golden oak, but you're changing that.

I would consider changing out the colonial style turned spindles for an upgrade. And agree about them being far apart. I believe 4" is max??

look at all of the spindles here, as well as some different ideas you could do.

Stain the top rails to match your floor. Yes, those spindles are spaced too wide and present a hazard. Yikes!

Thank you all! Our original plan was to rip it all out and replace with stained railings and newels to match the floor and install less ornate spindles spaced closer together to bring it up to code. However, that's a costly project and this house has numerous costly projects ahead of it. :(

I guess I assumed that railings and newels couldn't be stained to match the wood b/c they were already painted white. Is that not a correct assumption? Wouldn't you have to sand them down to stain? I would think that's pretty laborious process and therefore expensive? I was trying to come up with a more cost effective solution. If staining the wood to match can be done at the same price, that would be my preference for sure . . .

Yes, it would take some major work to strip the paint from any part of the staircase! If you're just looking to spruce it up for the meantime, I like the idea of the top rail,newel posts and risers painted black. Maaaaybe the bottom rail, after you see what the rest looks like, you can always add it.

Thank you Elite!

As for the black, I have previously used Black Fox and Urbane Bronze on interior doors, fireplaces, kitchen island, etc. and loved it. However, I think those both skew a bit too brown / soft for a staircase rail? I think Tricorn is too stark. I was leaning toward Black Magic as a good balance, both on the rails and the interior of the front door. Thoughts?

Beautiful!

Wow, it looks terrific! So nice to see the results of DDs!

Laurie, what paint colir did you end up using? Your staircase looks lovely.

We went with urbane bronze by sherwin williams.

Thanks. I'll check it out. I want to do something similar and love how yours turned out. We're staining our floors medium brown which looks similar to what you have. Wish me luck!