Stair revamp needed

[Pendingcompletion]

What to do with these stairs? I want to keep the wood but could do with it been less orange - maybe just sand down and stain or paint? Thinking the hand rails could be changed - maybe metal? - not sure if I should just start sanding and see where that takes me or if I should have a solid plan in place first.
Has anyone done their stairs and want to share?

I think I’d paint the handrails and stairs and put a runner down. What colours do you like?

I'd really like to keep the stairs wooden rather than put a runner down. The walls will be a warm neutral I think.

At our last house (a 400 year old agricultural building converted to a house in the Victorian era) I painted the stairs and attached some William Morris wallpaper to the risers.

I recently stripped ancient carpet from the stairs of our current Georgian cottage and after sanding etc, painted them with the intention of adding a runner as we did in a previous cottage back in 2012. However, we've decided we like them without, so probably won't bother with the runner now.

@Pendingcompletion I'll attach some pics, although bear in mind our decorating style is eclectic/maximalist!

@LibertyLily interesting that you went dark with the Georgian cottage, it looks really good. I was thinking going lighter but now think dark will be a good contrast with the walls. Maybe with dark metal handrail just to add another texture.
Do you happen to know what paint / stain that you used?

It looks great, classy and perfect as it is. In fact we have virtually the self same thing !

@Joeninety feels like every house I've ever lived in ( rented ) has had a ton of this particular orange wood and I just can't do it anymore!

Thank you @Pendingcompletion! I used Little Greene Lamp Black intelligent eggshell. The first coat was actually LG Lamp Black floor paint left over from a previous project, but the coverage wasn't great, so I used eggshell for the top coat.