One of my biggest pet peeves is when houses have different hardwood, especially when the two floors meet/touch. Weedy acres pic looks good, that wouldn't bother me... I just remember walking thru homes seeing real hardwood and then it's touching laminate wood or other hardwood, drives me nuts. You have two levels so maybe it's not a big deal and weedys pic proves that different wood on stairs doesn't look bad. If i We're you i Would put your wood of choice on the stairs and upstairs. Maybe someday down the road you'll rip out the main level and match it...

Pal, can you explain or show me a picture of what you mean by a pierced stone riser? I'm not following...but I very much value your opinion on this! Joaniepoanie, you're probably right that I should start there. There could be a significant difference in price that'll tip the scales one way or the other. Although if one or the other is a clearly better choice, I'd be willing to pay more for it if it makes the most sense.

A runner is the fastest, easiest, cheapest option. Sadly you have 4 different finishes inside of one stairway. You have dark stained hardwood at the top. You have natural oak for the stairs, you have outdated tile on the landing and then more oak going down and then you have brown laminate at the bottom. Without changing ALL the surfaces in the stair well (and don't forget banister and trim...and all the horrible fiddly stuff surrounding this area) you will still have +++ mismatch no matter what you do. If refinishing the treads are out of your budget, then pretty much every other option is out as well. A colour matched runner (either a nice brown that matches the two "wood" surfaces or something like sisal with a brown binding on the edges) on both sets of stairs AND a MATCHING AREA RUG on the LANDING (the carpet company can custom cut and bind the same carpet used on the stairs to create a custom area rug). Done and done. In essence you will be camouflaging the "mismatch" as much as possible. The actual surfaces won't change, you will just cover them up as much as possible. Personally I would work with a natural sisal runner with brown trim. This will tie in the gold tones of the wood work (banister, stringers, etc) with brown stain of the hardwood/laminate. Or you change out EVERYTHING to get a match to the hardwood upstairs (you won't find a match to the laminate unless you have 15 boxes left over). And that is already out of your budget.

Stairs should match the floors. Period. You need new bamboo treads.