Stair ideas on budget ? Painting ?

[Indiecindyloo]

Hi 👋 I have 2 sets of stairs in my flat (both pretty small 8 steps each) I currently have carpet down on the but the one at front door in particular is disgusting 🤢 cat decided to start spraying at front door (he has since been neutered and stopped ) but despite extensive cleaning and purchasing a carpet cleaner the smell /stains remains 🤮.
I really need to rip it up but can’t afford replacement at the moment , is painting stairs practical ? I’m thinking painting the stair threads my main concern though is they are concrete and I have kids I don’t want them getting hurt but surely treads will do same job as carpet ? Anyway any advice welcome 🙏 Tia

il ask pic from when I moved in of the stairs at front door

I'm sorry, the pic is a bit fuzzy. Was this before you put carpet down? Anyway, the annoying thing with taking up carpet is that you are likely left with remnants of glue and nails on the steps. It's a pain getting it off, I still haven't got it fully off my stairs. I settled on a routine of sanding, nitromorse stripper and steelwheels attached to a drill. Painting is perfectly fine, it'll chip pretty soon, though. I would stain/paint a darkish wood colour, which I find more forgiving fir dirt than white. Places like Dunelm have stair runners in hard-wearing sisal/jute for not much more than a packet of treads, personally I think such a runner would look nicer and can also be fitted quite easily DIY.

For the smell, it’s worth trying de Beckmann pet stain remover and odour neutraliser as it works wonders and is good value

At a previous house we fitted a (flatweave Roger Oates) stair runner having first stripped and painted the staircase. I did the stripping (with Nitromors) and the painting (Craig & Rose eggshell), whilst DH fitted the runner. It wasn't as simple as a straight run as our Georgian staircase had several turns, but the end result looked lovely.

For two smaller sets of stairs this would be a much simpler job.

At our current house I again stripped the staircase (hot air gun) and painted - this time using Little Greene eggshell in a dark colour (Lamp Black) - see attached pic (walls and skirting are F&B Inchyra Blue). As this was only intended to be a temporary solution to improve the appearance of the stairs whilst we got on with major building work elsewhere in the house, I used vintage border paper on the risers which I then varnished over. The intention was to eventually put a runner down, but as we now plan to sell this might not happen.

The stairs have been painted about 5 years and are now looking a little worn/scratched (I blame our dogs 😉), so I'm planning to give them a refresh in the same colour but this time Little Greene floor paint which should wear better.