Sprucing up/cleaning a wooden stairs

[yerwan]

I have a cheapy wooden stairs that is varnished a kind of yellow pine colour. The previous owners were shit at painting, there are numerous speckles and splashes in it. I can't afford to carpet it at the moment. How can I clean paint off the varnish and any ideas on how to spruce it up in general?

Here is a pic

We have a similar stairs but ours is open tread. When we moved in we hired a sander and sanded in back to bare wood and then revarnished it.

After 9 yrs I got board though and have now painted it white(big mistake! Children, dirty feet and white stairs don't go)

If you leave the stair tread wooden and paint the stair riser that can work beautifully - either in one neutral colour or in a mix of colours like this ....

I recently stripped old varnish off skirting boards with Rustin's Varnish Remover.. it works but is so, so time consuming and tedious. You put a layer on, wait half an hour, put another on and then remove - mainly with a scraper. It is less harsh on the wood than sanding. Would you consider carpet on the stairs and just treating the bannisters?