Ditto! Lol. Carpet is much quieter and safer (I've slid down my previous 'all wooden' steps before now!) but I hate it too. If you have good treads, I'd go for a stylish runner which looks nicer. Get a busy pattern ie stripes or funky geometries to keep the dirt less obvious.

Carpeting the stairs will probably be cheaper than a runner! It isn't a style flop at all - it's just the norm and the colour of the carpet can be used to tie the tiled hallway to the upstairs, thus drawing the eye up and making the space feel larger (as the eye goes from one colour to another.) I too love bare stairs but soon found them an inconvenience with the cleaning! A quick vacuum and carpet stairs are done. With wood it's a brush and pan, then a wipe over with a damp cloth or disinfectant. Dare I say this... at the end of the day it is your home. I have regularly helped my neighbours and almost pandered to them - it gets one nowhere. I recently returned home and found my neighbour had been having her workmen park their vans on my drive as she thought I had gone away. No apology and she didn't clean the cigarettes, dirt or nails away either. Don't feel bad in apologising and buying a pair of quality slippers or slipper socks! I imagine the noise comes from wearing shoes?

Good morning Emanuel. Thank you for the picture! It is easier to recommend something when we can see the actual staircase. For your steps and risers, I recommend using our stair cladding parts as you can install them over your existing steps and risers (they are extremely easy to install). You can go for a walnut or white oak timber/colour. The newel post, handrails and spindles don't look too bad so it is up to you if you want to change them or not. It would look better if you changed them. You can renovate them with a stop chamfered design, or you can even go with a glass design (which seems to be the preferred solution for staircase renovation in 2016). Because we have this competition going on, I would suggest that for now you place a small order (maybe buy the cladding products) and then, if you win, you'll be able to get the other stair parts for free. Here is one of the projects where we used our stair cladding parts with our glass panels.

Here is an example of one of our before and after jobs; we hope you like it as much as we do. Our customer wanted to update from an old, painted ranch style so we discussed different designs and sent examples of the different ranges they could chose from. In the end they decided to go for an Oak Contemporary Raymond Twist finish which looks stunning. What a transformation! If you like what you see take a look at our website for more great products at brilliant prices http://www.shawstairs.com/ If you need any help or advice please email us at info@shawstairs.com or call us on 0182754988 where our friendly and dedicated team are always happy to help.