2 questions regarding bannisters and redecorating the stairs + hallway?

[misdee]

someone has painted the bannisters using emulasion paint. its looks naff and desperately needs doing. whats the best way of stripping the paint off, and is least harmful to my kids lungs and the enviroment.

Also, we have one of those stairwells, that halfway up the stairs the ceiling disappears and thenh there is a big wall all the way up to the top of the house. how am i meant to paint that bit of wall and the topmost ceiling? both need doing as very shabby atm. obviously in my not-so-hughly-but-8months-pregnant state i wont be doing that job just yet (still deciding on colour scheme), but need to know how to do it.

I read your title as "barristers"

No help as to your actual question I'm afraid...

2 ladders and a plank of wood between them to decorate high bits

np, cant do that as its above the stairs.

a roller on the end of a broom handle then

or

hire a huge ladder

tool hire shops

i have a huge 4 way ladder. am wondering it it can be wedged between wall and stairs.

its a scary job.

get someone else to do... fil done mine lol

can i borrow him?

bung him £20 and he will do it lol

Can you not do it from the landing if it overlooks the stairs (mine does) we also put a ladder on the stairs leaning back onto the wall of the cupboard over the stairs.

Re the bannister and spindles we ripped out the spindles, they are very hard to strip with all the fiddly bits. We stripped the newel posts (orange varnish) and then dh re-cut new spindles that I painted white and used the old spindle as a template plus the filler pieces in-between.

We have said next time we would get the whole thing ripped out and put in by a joiner. We really wanted modern square newel and spindles as the house is modern but had to keep the traditional shaped ones as the newels matched.