Varnished stair banister to white - worth doing / are we mad?!

[MochaChocaChino]

We live in a town house so three storeys to do. Currently they're varnished brown but I would love them white - they make each landing and hallway really dark and ideally I would love to do it before re-carpeting landing, stairs & hall...

Has anyone else ever done this, and if so any advice? I can't work out if I'm mad and should just embrace them, or pay a decorator silly amounts of money to paint them. That or replace everything which is just as pricey...

Love the blue accents, Ifonly!

We painted ours white, it has really brightened up the hall, which hardly gets any light through the front door and porch. It was done by the decorator, we were away at the time so not sure what the actual process was but I wouldn't have thought the cost was even a full days work (only one bannister and rail on landing) plus paint, considering there are usually loads of doors and frames to gloss in a hall and landing I wouldn't have thought it would be that significant.

You do realise don't you Wandering, that those accents are actually decorators tape to protect the handles and round the windows (grin) ...

Lol, Ifonly!

I knew, really...

In my experience (painter and decorator) you've got two choices: rub back to bare wood, and then paint,or use zinsser bin.This is the only shellac based paint I have come across, and only a shellac base will reliably stick to varnish. Wipe the banister with meths the first. The good news is, no sanding needed. You may get lucky with say a simpler/cheaper paint, but it probably won't last long, and once it starts chipping off you'll be left with a horrible uneven surface.
The actual handrail has a hard life, in paint terms, from constant, well,hands. IMO looks and works better stripped to bare wood and oiled.
I'm a paint nerd, and should undoubtedly get out more.

Ifonly, it looked like an interesting design choice to me too.. prefer them silver.

Definitely paint the banisters white! Our dark stairs are glowing now. We used gloss which makes them even glowier because it's so shiny. We have young kids or I might have considered eggshell.

ifonly looks amazing!!!!
Your before pic is very similar to mine....
Thanks for the update