Stair risers: To paint or not to paint...

Hi all, lurk a lot, don't post often....looking for some advice, or at least some food for thought/educated opinions on whether to paint our stairs...neither my husband or I are particularly good at this kind of thing.

For context, we are trying to do some small touches to help sell the house eventually. We are on a very tight budget, all DIY. The interior is a bit frankenstein, bunch of mismatched trim (that I am trying to at least paint universally "powdered snow"). The biggest aim is to give an overall cleaner look.

Now....the stairs.....they overwhelm the livingroom, I think it is partly because the room is pretty small plus the wood is dark and...to be honest...ugly. I am thinking of leaving the tread and newel posts as they are with everything else (including the trim top and bottom of the fascia) "powdered snow", with the fascia painted the wall color. Would this look good? I'm reluctant to cover all of the wood, and I'm not thrilled about painting the treads....my luck it would all end up peeling or getting damaged by my dog's claws.

I am a bit concerned with the gaps between the riser and the outer string looking bad, also, I know this is going to be a LOT of work, and really want to be sure it is worthwhile....will it look THAT good?

Anyway, thoughts, input general opinions on good/bad idea.

 

If you paint any of it you'd need to sand and then apply a solvent based primer so your paint will adhere well. You can use your choice of latex paint over the dried primer. Painting the risers may highlight any gaps. Personally I'd leave it like it is. You never want to paint the treads!

 

If it were my house, I would close off underneath the stairs to make a closet and put a door. Then paint the side of the stringer white (semi-gloss) and leave everything else alone. The peach colored wall sure isn't helping.

 

Thanks to both of you....
For what it is worth, there was no plan at all to paint the treads. Also, closing off underneath the stairs makes the room even more cramped we did a test of it and right next to that area is a doorway.....it is a very small room. Under the stairs did used to be wood panel, the same colour as the stairs (YUCK!!!!) so we recently painted it the wall colour since there was no drywall under most of it. Also....the wall colour isn't peach, they are a light cream colour (sorry, I didn't colour correct the pictures...).