cand1781, I showed your pattern to my husband. He said it's not going to line up if you look at each individual step. Being a curved staircase you'd have to square it at the front of each step but the overall affect will look good and he's never had anyone complain (he's world famous for his staircase runners) :) BTW, there is a difference between a runner and carpeted stairs. A runner has to be templated and bound and goes over an existing wood staircase vs installed over a subfloor with stained wood (or tile) on each side of the stair. Is that what you're doing? What he said would work better is a smaller pattern or something with florals and/or vines, but what you're looking at will be fine if it's installed correctly. This is the only picture I have. It's winding but a much smaller pattern (if it even is a pattern). I just happen to be with him one day when he needed to stop by this house and tie in the stair with the landing at the top.

If you are looking to do a decorative carpet on the stairs (only) then one way to do it is to use the carpet as a RUNNER...not a stringer-stringer carpeting. The other thing to consider is normally the stairs should match "something". If you have different carpet at the top of the stairs that does not match the stair carpet, that NORMALLY means you have different carpet DOWN stairs. The stairs will match the carpeting on the MAIN floor. I'm not hearing that this is your scenario. What type of flooring do you have on the main floor? This is what the stairs will be MATCHING if you choose to go this route (stairs not matching carpet upstairs). The other way to do this is to use the decorative carpet on the stairs and then pay to have an area rug cut and bound in your chosen "stair" carpet. This area rug then sits in the entrance/bottom of the stairs. This is a quick, easy (slightly less expensive) way to get the stairs to match "something".....'cause they really should match something. Right now they match the upstairs carpet. Once you change this design feature, you need to REPLACE it with another version of "must match something". The bound area rug in the same carpet is one of the fastest ways to do this. Good luck. Remember to look at your main level flooring and decide whether or not you want to go forward with this concept.

Will the real hardwood and LVP interact anywhere? (like a staircase) Faux wood next to real wood never really looks good but since they're on different floors it should be okay. Where you live really impacts the decision. If you live in a colder climate, not having carpet under your feet when you wake up might not be as comfortable. Carpet also dampens noise so you hear less downstairs. Really it's a personal decision, neither is going to hurt your home value.

Hard surfaces (like hardwood, drywall, glass, etc) allow noise to bounce around = echo. That irritating 'hum' that is there all the time even though there is no one around. Carpets and soft coverings (wall tapestries, heavy drapes, large upholstered furniture, etc) absorb the 'bounce' and reduce the echo. I liken noise to a jar of marbles being released onto a tile floor. It bounces and bounces and clatters and makes a racket. It rattles down pipes (plumbing and heating) and gets into everything. Until it meets carpet. Then it sticks and never bounces back up. You have a two story opening to a mezzanine area that opens into another area for bedrooms. There is nothing to stop the noise in the air (voices, TV, kitchen, footsteps, etc) from reaching the upper level - except the carpet. It is reducing your noise levels by 1/2. As soon as you add in hardwood (or anything that is solid) your home will get TWICE as noisy. As a cork flooring expert, I would suggest cork as a noise reducer. It works very much like carpet. But buyer beware. Cork is a finicky product to live with. It fades, it dimples (dents that pop out after a year or so) it scratches. All of this can be corrected (except the fading) with a little TLC. Cork is one of the few flooring choices on the market that do what carpet does = keep the noise levels down. Rubberized flooring (extremely expensive) is the other. Cork and rubber are the only products that mimic the noise reducing properties of carpet. If you are unsure as to go for hardwood or recarpet, you do yourself a favour by removing the carpet RIGHT NOW. Live on the bare subfloor (yes slippers will be needed) for several weeks (6 weeks should be enough time to figure this out). You will find that every flush of the toilette, every TV noise, every phone conversation will be clearly heard throughout the two levels. Compare that to what you have now. Only you can decide the level of noise that is livable. I'm someone with sensitive ears. I'll take a quiet floor covering (yes...even carpet) over the noise increase any day of the week. How quiet do you find your home right now? Is it acceptable to you? Can you handle it if it DOUBLES in noise?