Interior Design Advice req'd please!!!!

[wickedfairy]

Hi there,

Just about to decorate our hall/landing and need some opinions/advice on what would look best, please!

Victorian house but want a modern(ish) look for the hall/stairs - we are going to go with neutral walls with wood floor on ground floor, stripey statement carpet up the stairs and along the hall landing upstairs (beige/brown-ish stripes, looks really striking). Currently the bannisters are: (brown) wooden newel posts/handrail and white posts under the handrail. The stair carpet will be fully fitted, not a runner like in the links, but just to give an idea.....

1)Wooden handrail (although the big end post in our house currently wood too): www.advancecarpets.co.uk/images/stairsweblarge.jpg

2. Totally white bannisters 2.bp.blogspot.com/_AwIFTWat8-s/Swr5JYyIpzI/AAAAAAAABXw/p4AhFWfOCVg/s1600/striped+stair+runner+flickr .jpg

Do you think that the bannisters would look better painted completely white (satin, not gloss) or left as they are with the brown wooden features. We want the carpet to be the main feature, so that's why I am thinking totally white bannisters, but DH not convinced.

Opinions gladly welcome, and sorry about the length of the post!!!!

Sorry, am with your DH

Love the wooden handrail and end post, looks really striking.

I like the wood Can't honeslty explain why I just think it looks nicer ... sorry I 'm rubbish me

I would prefer natural wood hand rails. I think.

I think that the wooden handrails will look more expensive, more high-end than painted.

Assuming they are nice, carved ones like on the first pic?

I like all white, myself. Will be gorgeous whichever.

Sorry, I think if you have a nice wooden Victorian handrail, then it should be a crime against humanity to paint it.

But that's just me!

Love the stripey carpet idea though!

here!here!30andMerkin
i also love the stripey carpet but would go for a runner

Hi,

Wow - thanks for the quick feedback!!

Our banisters are pretty similar to the first picture - our end newel post is more square with a bigger round top-thing than in the pic, but pretty similar.

Both the newel post and handrail wood is a browny colour (with a very slight orangey-hit to it), I just wasn't sure how it would look....

Ok - so if you think the wood looks good - do you think a white newel post with wooden top/handrail i.e. www.idealhomemagazine.co.uk/inspiredecor/gallery/d/3718-2/hallway_004.jpg

or completely wooden newel post like this (but with stripey carpet) www.oldhousejournal.com/magazine/2009/dec/refurbished-victorian-staircase.jpg??

Thanks again!

Meant to say, the reason we haven't gone for a runner - which was the original idea, is we have a young child (with another on the way) and thought it would be easier to keep clean if it was fully fitted (dust at the sides, very old dusty house that we have).

Also means we wouldn't have to keep touching up paintwork at the edges of the steps.

Overall, would you think a runner would look better? Waaah, there are way too many choices and I have no visualisation at all.

That's why I am very grateful for all your comments (and my DH is always right with his opinions - so far, the majority agrees with him!!). That's fine, I sometimes can have strange ideas and then am glad that I ended up doing things his way :-)

wicked i know the dust factor is a nightmare not to mention the cobwebs lol
ds2 says he likes it that way as it's like a haunted house
you've got a pretty impressive staircase which makes a real statement and a strong selling point hence why i mentioned the runner
however,dcs chip woodwork wherever they go
mine is a victorian cottage so just has a v sheer flight of stairs and basic rail so i reluctantly seagrassed it as your lovely stripey carpet would have looked too grand
somehow tho the skirting board around it still gets scuffed and chipped and the dust settles in the edges!!

Love your stripy carpet - can I ask - is your landing upstairs long and thin or more of a square.

I'm struggling to see how it would look on our square landing (dog leg stair case) and I'm thinking not good

Hi,

We have a small square half-landing at top of stairs, then to the right, one step up to the proper landing (which is long - back along the length of where we would walk up the stairs, iyswim).

That's one reason why I think fully fitted stairs would look better than the runner in our case, because of the top of the stairs. They said with our carpet if we did a runner, then it would run straight to the end of the wall on half-landing, then start again in other direction. Struggling to imagine that one myself.

But on the other hand I think the runner may look more striking.... What do you think?

On dog-leg staircases, the carpetmen said (dependent on carpet), you can either have a mitred (45 degree) join in the carpet, or run it straight to the wall and then start again from the side in the other direction.

No idea if my rubbish attempt at explaining makes it any clearer!!

I'm completely in love with the hallway in that ideal home link, but I do sort of feel if you have wood that's unpainted you should leave it that way.

Following on from your logic about not painting the sides of the stairs, less maintenance repainting that way too.

It's going to be beeeyootiful anyhow.

Leave the wood wood coloured, much more dramatic and upmarket looking that than painting it.

I always suspect that the wood is not good looking under the paint. If the wooden rail looks good then leave it.

Cannot decide on the runner vs carpet issue.

We have a Victorian house with the same sort of banister arrangement you describe - white painted spindles but a wooden newel post and handrail. We repainted the banisters in a satin white finish, but left the other wood bits wood and they look amazing. We sanded them lightly and used a matt clear varnish to give them a really striking statement look, everyone comments on them. In our last house we painted the newel posts and it was a total nightmare, they get so much wear being touched all the time we had to repaint every year and it always looked scruffy.

We also went for a stripey carpet, but as a runner, we have a very wide shallow staircase. It looks lovely, very visually striking, but it is a bummer to keep clean with all the dust (but am not massively houseproud, so just hoover it when I do the stairs. And have bought some feather dusters which the kids love using!). We couldn't afford to do all the stairs and landing in a stripe because of all the direction changes, so we just did the main staircase in the striped runner, and the rest upstairs in a toning plain colour which is close fitted.

Gosh, I have never typed so much about carpets!!!

OK I'm being dim now but ..... if you have a stripy carpet on the stairs and a plain carpet on the landing, where is the join?

We wondered the same thing! It's just over the top of the first stair. So the landing carpet tucks under the top stair beading (ie the lip bit), and the runner stops up the back of the top stair. From the hallway you can, almost, see that there is a different carpet upstairs. It doesn't look weird or anything though (I worried it might).

In fact, it's what they've done in the first link in the OP, although I bet hardly anyone noticed. Although there they have made the whole top stair in the toning plain colour, and its fully fitted, and the join must be at the back edge of the step.

I see

loving your work

Thanks. Having almost entirely renovated the interior of a Victorian house in the past 12 months, I am the world's saddest person on some of these topics.

Am just about to start on the outside....

Well, on the back of general consensus, I had decided to keep the handrail and newel post knob wooden >> my DH is laughing, he knew he was right and had all the taste (as do you!) and that I have none :-/

Penona - you've now sold it to me to keep the actual newel post wooden as well (which is what DH said all along!). Will shortly have a new baby to go with the mad toddler, so I am not wanting scruffy posts that need painting every year!!

How dusty does the side bits at the edge of the runner get? I would only hoover once a week on the stairs and I want it looking as decent as posisble, for as long as possible (without cleaning it constantly).

Do I need to go fully fitted, so no-one can see the dust?!?!?!

I hoover the stairs and sides once a week, and every now and then I dust them if I am walking up and spot it needs doing (usually with an item of clothing for the washing ). I am not massively fussy and houseproud though. The kids have feather dusters and we sometimes make a game of those. Oh, and we also have 2 cats, so the house is generally quite dusty.

One thing to note, if your current stair carpet is fitted, you will need to take it up and get the stairs painted before you can lay the runner - this means being at least a week with no stair carpet as the stairs will need sanding/priming/2 coats paint.

It looks lovely though. I do often admire it!!

ooo i just came across this thread as I am currently in the process of stripping back our staircase. what did you go for in the end and how does it look?

i am wondering whether to have the whole staircase - steps, handrail, spindles, etc wood or some mixture of wood and paint.

we also have a wooden panelled understairs cupboard, which I want to keep as wood.

but what colour varnish to go for?!

loving your stripey carpet idea too!