Stair runner questions

[MrsNuckyThompson]

We're currently looking at re-doing our main stair case as well as carpeting our upstairs (currently all wood floors). We'll carpet the first floor in the same carpet throughout (except the bathroom) and will likely choose some sort of boring neutral beige throughout. I'd like to think about something slightly more funky for the stairs as they are the first thing you see when you walk in the front door. My questions are:

1. If you had two different carpets, one for stairs and one for landing / hallway, how does the transition work? Does the stair carpet stop at the last riser, and the hall carpet takes over at the last step?
   

1. We also have a little turn in the stairs near the top, where we have a landing, leading down to a short corridor. If you follow the turn in the stairs there are another 4 steps before reaching the main landing. That being the case, would you carry the runner on round the turn? Or keep it for the main body of the stairs only, then switch to the main neutral carpet for the rest, including the additional 4 steps?
   

Thanks for any ideas you might have. Pinterest good at showing the stair case itself, but not so much the top / landing!

[wowfudge]

I would do the whole of the stairs in the runner, including the riser of the first step and the last steps at the top. Anything else will look odd.

[wowfudge]

I'd make sure the stair runner had some of the landing and hallway carpet colour in it to create some continuity too.

[carpetmanOX10]

Striped carpet as a stair runner looks good, and with most manufacturers you find that the colours in the stripes correspond to plain carpets in the same range so you get a good transition on the landing.