I painted my steps only black, and left the railing, spindles, and step facings white...it turned out to be very classy looking!

I think if you painted the spindles and railing both black, it could look cool. (Might resemble iron.)

I was also thinking it could be very elegant.

I've seen spindles painted black and it does look great. Also, another option is to leave the spindles white and paint the railing black. My sister did that and it looks fantastic.

It's a pretty classic look and we've done quite a few homes in Atlanta that way. It's all personal taste...won't look tacky at all!

Love the idea! But if you do that, I would paint the railings white or black. And maybe consider staining the steps a darker color.

I've seen it where the spindles and the stair risers were black, handrails and treads were wood tone. It was beautiful.

I like white spindles, black stair treads and railing, but I'm sure black spindles would look great too.

I wouldn't stain them, I'd paint them black. Google "Modern Family" and look at their stairway, it shows black stairs and railing with white spindles. It will look wonderful with your wood floors.

not to complicate things more...but there are dozens more styles than what you posted here.

http://www.stairwarehouse.com/33-2-double-sc...

Concerning the iron spindles - think about the design and how easy it is to keep clean. I like the swirls but there is a dust, etc. issue. I think the black would be nice, wood or iron.

Go to http://houzz.com/ and search for black spindles, balusters, stair rails. Lots of photo examples.

I would take a picture of them and print the picture then paint the picture to see if you would like it..

You can just paint the handrail black and it would transform the look.

You don't have to paint the treads or steps black.

It would be the least work for the most improvement.

Best, Charles

Remember this if you paint them Black it will be very hard to go back...you will have to use a silver colored paint as a primer to cover the black! Been there~someone else painted it black, the only way I could get the white to cover was to paint the whole deal Silver first, then white...or of course sand & scrape the whole deal and it was an antique stair case...Good Luck...

I had iron spindles at my last house and loved them. We did 3 simple plain ones then one ornate one. Loved the look.