Paint colours for staircase spindles/ bannister

[Anita81]

Hi everything! First time posting on this forum
Thinking of painting mystaircase with Farrow and Ball railings - spindles and Bannister etc.( it's currently different stains of stained wood . The walls will be most likely skimming stone.

Before I finalize this I wanted what you all felt about how dark colours like railings stood up to everyday wear ? Does dust show up more? Do chips/ scratches show up more. I have a 13 year and a 7 year old but no pets. Or any suggestions on how to maintain them? Is it a lot of work for their upkeep?

Or am I better off going with eggshell white?

Thank you everyone!

We did ours in railings, it lasted well. I've just painted over it in fetush from Graham and brown as the bannister had worm after 4 years. They are easy to touch up if needed, of you get a water bases paint it dries quickly.

@Anita81 Are you keeping the carpet? If so, I really would use a white eggshell. We have white painted spindles but oak hand rail. This makes a good contrast and certainly means no repainting! Can you strip down the handrail to a more uniform finish?

Thank you for replying! Rally appreciate it. No we will be changing the carpet to a lighter color as well. Oh not sure if stripping it down would give it a uniform colour. I think from looking at old pics - it was painted white first and then stained over ...
White with oak rails is a good call

White does give you a brighter more spacious feel. Changing the carpet will help although my carpet is quite dark on my landings. Oak staircase. Maybe have a look at just renovating the handrail and seeing if a stain will unify the colour.

Thank you for replying. This helps. When you say worn do you mean it faded? Actually this is something that hadn't crossed my mind. The handrail of the staircase in my house gets a lot of sunlight so that may make it fade soon won't it?

I did mine in Railings and it was too light; it looks institutional instead of classy! I switched to black (with Railings on half the wall) and it looks much nicer.

Just came on to say your hallways are lovely and spacious!

We have Skimming Stone on the walls. We painted our stairs in Railings and it looked too blue. After much mumbling DH agreed to repaint with Off Black which is very similar to Railings but without the blue tones.

Adding to say that we used estate eggshell and 12 months in and it's still looking as good a new. Make sure you sand well and use a good primer. We used the F&B primer. I love the dark stairs - it was a bit of a leap from white but we took the plunge - and I love it. I really recommend getting the tester for Off Black and Railings to see which looks best. Our hall is really sunny and the light picked up the blueness of Railings a bit too much for me

Skirtings and doors are white so it's not a total black out..

No, just worn where people hold on, but to be honest, i didn't do a great job painting it. The spindles are fine as they don't get touched. It's really easy to quickly paint if It wears off.

I prefer the wood. Once you paint it it's hard to go back. Can you restore and restain the wood? White spindles look good with an oak rail but be wary of chips.

I have unpainted wood spindles and newly posts etc. looks good I think and much easier to maintain.

We are literally in the process of having ours painted in pointing and railings. I will post a pic when it's done (annoyingly one of the decorators told me to go for black rather than dark grey and I didn't listen, so will be interesting to see how it turns out!)

I painted mine in Off Black, it looks so much better than white.

Depends on the house. My wood garage is Off Black. I don’t fancy it on my stairs. Just too dark.

We have a wood banister and white spindles. The corners we have retaining in wood. We polish regularly and they look beautiful, once you lose the wood it's gone forever

Like this , you are preserving the features. Lovely staircase

@maeveiscurious Ours is a new staircase and has similarities. We had to move the staircase and the old one didn’t meet building regs.

Lovely the wood on the bannister is
Timeless

It’s oak but no staining.

Thank you! So kind. Wish I just could decide on a colour....😩

Hi everyone, ive bought a tester pot of F&B railings, put some on my staircase. My house is quite dusty because of building work and very soon the part where i had painted some railing was showing dusty footprints! With 4 boys and a cat i wonder if perhaps downpipe might be more suitable? Any feedback on the dust?
TIA