We are having this dilemma in real time. they just stained the 1st floor of our 2013 built home. I wanted to refresh because the kids beat them up with scooters, etc when we first moved in and also the color ambered a lot over the years and was looking VERY orange... so we said let's just do the first floor since the 2nd is in relatively good shape but does have that more warm/amber tone. So now we have a custom blend downstairs going up the front stairs and the existing Early American on White Oak on the 2nd floor. See pics... I thought I could live with it, but now I'm 2nd guessing and wondering if we need to do the 2nd floor too... thoughts, photos welcome!

I think the rails s/b the same look as your floors for the best results IMO. White balusters to compliment the look would be stunning IMO. Try L.J. Smith for the best selection of products to use. Cumaru can probably be custom made but would be very expensive. LJ Smith has several choices in various woods and various prices. We put in antique heart pine floors and to have custom rails made from the same materials was going to be outrageously expensive. I selected several good hard woods that stain well and got some samples of maple and poplar. I then mixed my own stain, trial and error in small amounts recording the ratio of parts and stained the samples until I got a good match. In the end, I found poplar was easiest to match in my case. I then handed everything over to the painter and he stained and finished the rails and they match perfectly! The final finish is Waterlox. Waterlox is a tung oil based varnish product that is very durable and very suitable for a handrail. It will protect against oils, dirt etc and cleans up quite well. I know it seems odd that i mixed my own stain but it is not that hard and it was the only way I could be sure I was happy with the color. In short, insted of telling the painter "how about trying a little more of this color and see" I just looked at it and used my own judgement (and time and patience). BTW, I recommend oil based gel stains. This was the first time I had used the gel stains and I found them to be quite nice to use and very forgiving (even for my painter). Also, I had read a lot about preconditioning wood before staining. I found maple and poplar to stain very evenly and well and took on a much more rich look without using a wood conditiner. Sorry for the long winded response but I hope it helps. Having been there and done that, I know something like a hand rail seems like such a little thing but it makes such a powerful statement when done well.

The stairs *should match the "public" area flooring (as in the main living area floors). If the upstairs is for bedrooms and games room, this would be considered "private" (for the homeowners). If the main floor is the "public" area (living room, kitchen, dining, etc) then the stairs going UP should match the main floor flooring. The reason: the stairs are visible to the public and therefore they should match the public area floors. Now for tiles in the upstairs area. This is not common but it has been done. It takes extra work (and extra materials = extra money) to get this to work over wood-joist construction. The subfloors will have to be assessed for deflection rating. I'll assume they rating isn't good enough for tile (tile is VERY HEAVY and requires very STIFF/thick subfloor). That means you'll need another layer of plywood over top. That plywood will change the height of the subfloor at the TOP of the stairs...which can mess up the stairs themselves (according to code). And then you have to add the tile which can often add as much as 3/4" height - which can again mess up the top step which messes up the stairs yet again. And then we get into the "tile is loud" concept. It is extremely loud. It transfers noise "up and down" (from upstairs to down stairs) as well as "wall to wall" (down hallways, into the bedrooms, etc). To deal with the noise and echo, you could be looking at changing the doors to solid core (expensive proposition depending on how many doors you have). And if you find the noise transfer TOO much (up to down) then you may have to rework the ceiling on the main floor (pull it down, stuff it with acoustic insulation, replace ceiling with acoustic drywall, etc). You can see the $$$$ signs flying out the window. Please look at the upstairs as a part of the whole home. Ask yourself how big your MAXIMUM budget is (once all the bills are paid = includes labor as well). And then find out if it can handle the "extras" such as new subfloor and possibly a stair case that has to be updated to allow for the extra height at the top of the stairs (rebuilding stairs is one of the most expensive projects in the building industry). Then make your decision as to whether or not tile on the second floor is a good idea FOR YOU. You are the only one who can answer that question.

It's really hard to match stain color across wood species. It will take a lot of trial and error, and in all likelihood not match perfectly. A near match is often worse IMO. It might be better to go for a complimenting stain, like staining the stairs dark like the darker grains in the hardwood.