We've had this idea........

What about going to a carpet shop to see if they have any 'samples' the bits to show you what the carpet is like.

Like mismatched crockery at the table you could make a patch work on the wooden treads and keep them in situ with carpet tacks............ that is if they still sell such things....... or a staple gun.

Painting is such a hazard.

On our carpeted stairs i always remove slippers and go barefoot

We have got an open trend polished wood staircase. It's fine so long as you (I) use non-slip polish on it. I think you can slip just as well on stair carpet. Go for it p. Would look very smart. No answer re keeping the cats off. Sorry.

You however, could slide down the bannister.

We once had a stair carpeted in shades of beige samples. We obtained a book of them from carpet warehouse and laid one on each tread and had painted edges. Looked very smart. Also got half moon carpet edge things from Lidl for public hall and think they were under £15.

I have got a cat, and when we got our floors resanded and polished we locked her out for the day and by the end of the day the varnish was touch dry, and although we were advised not to walk on it with shoes it was ok for the cat, no marks at all. With stairs, we have barricaded them against the cat on one occasion when we didn't want her upstairs for some reason, using some netting.

uncarpeted stairs are very noisy and show all the dust!

This is the kind of thing I got from Lidl. Lots of other colours and styles on Amazon.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00Q8V2NZU/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1441637966&sr=8-3&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=stair+carpet+treads+pads&dpPl=1&dpID=51vsXPj-SeL&ref=plSrch

Katek they look pretty good...... though I don't fancy the dusting

Yes, that might work, but not sure how we'd do the 3 stairs at the top where the stair case turns.

I love this site and am so often chuckling to myself!!

I don't understand what the problem is with the three stairs where the turn is, phoenix. They must still have treads - you could surely trim the carpet pieces to look right (IYSWIM).

Many thanks for all the suggestions, including the Velcro bootees !

The carpet on the stairs extends to the landing and all the bedrooms. We would never choose that particular one again. Some friends had a different colour from the same range and were equally disappointed with it. The texture of the pile went flat very quickly and it stains very easily.

I can put up with it on the landing and the bedrooms until we can afford to replace all of it but the carpet on the stairs can be seen by every visitor, and it really let's the side down.

How about cutting out all the good bits of the carpet and seeing if you have enough to carpet the treads only and painting the sides?
As for the cats you would have to confine them to the kitchen for a day...though I well know how quickly a determined cat can slip through a small gap in a door.

My friend painted her stairs brilliant white and it looks really good. I do wonder though about it being more noisy without carpeting - not really a problem for her as she is single - but with several people in the house it might present a problem.

I often see beautiful white stairs and banister rails with a dark brown handrail. Would that be paint or varnish? We fancy just a runner on the stairs with old fashioned carpet rods. Not sure what to do then on the upstairs landing?

When we had the cheap seagrass mats/runners going up the stairs, we bought four of them, or was it five? They were in a sale for £13 pounds each. We took them up the centre of the stair tread, maybe that was three, then took the last one's end over the landing edge and ran the other two down the landing to overlap its edge, so that they, too, had white edges. It looked really good. Later we went back and bought another one for the hall below, when we had finished sanding back the hall and varnishing it I say 'We' - in our house, I do all sanding and painting and varnishing, but DBH did do the stair rods after many complaints about the quality of my stapling!

Just come back from NL where it is quite common to have painted stairs. DS has them and I had no problem with slipping. His MiL has curved pieces of carpet over the edge of each step which is also quite common.

I saw in a mag recently that someone had covered the upright section of the stairs in a sort of Cath Kidson type wallpaper which would suit some people.

I live in a very old Victorian terraced cottage with very thin walls between properties. I used to be woken up at 6 by the neighbours going downstairs , after a few hints, they now have stair carpet! Haven't I got good neighbours.

My first ever house was open plan, with open tread slippery varnished stairs. They were lethal AND noisy. I got in the carpet layers and had each tread individually wrapped - the carpet layers hated doing it but had to admit it looked good.

In this house, we have painted the side of the stairs in emulsion (quick drying) and laid a runner up the middle. It was off ebay, cost very little and came the next day so all done in one day. Top and bottom of stairs are carpeted in the old house lounge carpet, cut down, red as my visitors have a red carpet laid out for them coming to my house!

I recently discovered some paint called 'Everlong'; like chalk paint but doesn't need waxing and has more of a Farrow and Ball finish to it. Haven't bought or used it though. It's from a shop in Amble; can be ordered online but but, unlike Annie Sloane stuff isn't sold outside of Northumberland.

..oh, it is sold in other places but not countrywide as yet...

There is always acrylic gloss - it dries really quickly.