We did not used a painted/stained combo, but strictly stained. Disclaimer: We did not stain anything ourselves, but paid a finisher to do it before install. We used 'rustic' cherry stained quite dark for all our interior trim, including our wood handrails. Since the entire 1st floor minus office is 'rustic' Maple, Treads and risers are also Maple, stained the same dark color. Balusters are wrought iron. I would say on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the darkest stain possible before looking black) our cherry trim is probably a 7. Grain pattern is present but not overwhelming, it tends to be tighter on cherry than oak, hickory, or walnut. Our Cherry is not red-hued whatsoever, because its too dark. We had no issue with staining Maple, even though I have heard some on here mention it is impossible to stain Maple dark because it is such a hardwood. A good finisher will know what to do and should have no issues. I say 'rustic' because we requested wood with knots and such, to add more character and we wanted the cherry to match better with our knotty alder interior doors.

We have 13' pitched ceilings and an open staircase in an atrium ranch. We are probably going to just paint our turned wood balusters, etc., but I am going more traditional to farmhouse style. If you want to stay contemporary, you could still do iron, but in a horizontal layout just like cables would be. You just have to make sure it's done to code. I am curious about what that little recess area is there? If you change to railings, will your railing have to follow the outline of that recess, or can you go straight across?

Even if you take out the wall and put in railing, you're still going to have that nook area sitting there just crying to be used. When it comes to space, I tend to lean more towards function than style so take my idea with a grain of salt. Our upstairs is very similar but instead of leaving it open like that, the builder brought the walls up to the ceiling, added a door and turned that nook area into a linen closet. It had a regular six panel door on it but we've since switched it to a single louver so it would have ventilation. It's worked out great because it's larger than average, like a small walk in and has shelving installed. I store everything needed for the upstairs from linens to cleaning supplies, the vacuum and even extra toiletries. We'd be lost without that closet.

"Looks like carpenter rates for the zip code can run between 20-25 bucks an hour as a base pay hourly. Let's say hundred hours labor since we don't know what materials we are working with so it might take longer than expected or than one person on the crew. Plus maybe another 500-1000 for handling others materials fee. So maybe around the ballpark of 2500-3500 base for labor?" You are breathtakingly mistaken. Sure, that's what a rough framer may get paid; a handrailer is getting just under boat builder pay. What about the worker's compensation, and the employer side of the tax burden? This can be 33% or more. What, his truck to get to the job runs on air? The insurance on my trucks are $14.00 a day for each. People have no idea how expensive running a business is. The guy who rebuilt the stair at $5,800.00 is going broke. He may limp along, but he's certainly never going to be able to retire.