I had my heart set on a cumaru floor for it's medium color, interesting color, and hardness, but just found out my KD can't find the railings, or my first stair step (which is curved on both ends) in cumaru. He said he can do maple or oak stained "to match". I'm really concerned the stained to match, won't. I did find one company online what sells the stair step I need as well as the railings in cumaru - they are $$$ and I'm not sure of their quality or that the wood would match the floor. My head is spinning but my options as I see them are: * change the floor to oak or maple * stay with the cumaru floor and change the bottom step to a square step in cumaru. Use some other wood (oak, maple, popular) stained to match on all the railings * stay with the cumaru floor and use oak or maple stained to match on all the stairs and railings * stay with cumaru floor and use Brazilian cherry on the stairs and railings. * stay with cumaru floor. Get all stair supplies from online company. * stay with cumaru floor. Get stair treads from flooring company. Get remaining stair supplies from online company. Am I missing any options? Are there any options here that are disastrous? What do you think is the best solution?

clg - That's the one place online I found that had the double rounded first step in cumaru! I'm worried about the matching of the wood, and the quality. I didn't see any online reviews of the company. Do you (or anyone) have any experience with them? Mairin - Funny - I've been following your progress (and lusting after your potential countertops!) as we seem to have a similar style. I can't wait to see your pictures! Please share when you can! We considered iron balusters too, but a stairman mentioned that our stair area is rather small and they may not look good there. That lead us to wood. Raehelen - wow - your registers look great! You'd never know it's not the same wood. My concern is that the step is 5" wide so if it's a little off, there's a lot of space to notice it. (And I'm not sure if my floor guy is as good as yours!) We've already contracted for all wood stairs, including risers, the "catch" is it was presented as "in your choice of any wood we carry". We didn't realize they didn't carry the steps we need in all the flooring woods. We could try and take the stairs out of the contract price, but I really have the same issue either way. Even if I order the stair parts on line myself, and have someone else install (I'm a diy'er, but more on the painting level!) I'm still unsure the floor would match the stairs. My biggest issue is the first step. This step is right inside the front door - literally 6 feet from the door, so it's really visible. There are railings in both the kitchen and the stairway that need to match, but I am a little more comfortable trying to stain a different wood to match those. Has anyone done all wood steps in a different wood and tried to match the stain?

One question: does the center spindle (not sure what it's called but the one that's fatter than all the others in the middle of the swirl at the bottom of the steps) - does that get painted too or should it match the railing?

It seems like being in the same color family, they don't clash and won't look odd. I wouldn't replace them yet. If, after you finish the stairs and they look awful (which they won't) then you can do it. But I would wait and see how it looks. I don't think everything should be the same color. Then there's no contrast.