Hard to say from the angle of your photo ....

1) Most of the time -- white spindles do add fresh "spark" to a hallway or foyer OR they MIGHT be too bright and add too much visual clutter to the area ....

2) You may want to consider painting the top rail only instead -- perhaps in semi-gloss black ... again ... the decision depends on the looks of the rest of the area ....

Jan at Rosemary Cottage

P.S. Are you from Glasgow? My mum lived in Kilmarnock many many years ago! :)

Well I am biased as I am on a total grey kick for a year or so. That said - I'd be more inclined to paint the walls!

My thoughts before opening were, yes. I think they'd look nice white but I actually like the gray.

Hmmmmm...you guys are not helping. LOL

I am actually from England, Now living in Ontario Canada. We just bought the house really and won't take possession till Jul 30th. What you see there is what the sellers have going and am just looking to put my touch on it

I don't see any white in your photo. What's the color of the rest of the trim in the room?

The rest of the trim is the stairs colour. Perhaps I should just leave it as it is and consider painting the walls instead?

Thank you for that....we are actually going to be changing that carpet, once we take possession. We plan to go with a Berber carpet

I love contrast so I would either paint them white or leave them gray and paint the handrail and posts black.

Paint the handrail black? I wonder how that will look though

Congrats first of all for the home. It looks very beautiful. I would leave the spindles as they are, and just paint the walls. This would be easier than painting each spindle and against that white carpet on the stairs. I know, because my home has white carpet throughout and when it comes to painting I have to be extra careful.

The carpet isn't white, its some kind of Grayish colour. We are going to be changing that and replacing with Berber of a different colour.

All that Grey is just getting to me and I feel the need to get rid of it, don't know what the previous owners were thinking.

Here are pics of the house we sold, I did all the painting myself

Sorry but black IMHO would be WAAAAY too harsh. It is good timing for you, glaswegian, in that you are changing the carpet. Take advantage of the time between pulling off the old carpet and installing the new carpet. The job will look nicer if there is no carpet there at the time because you don't want to leave a "carpet line" on the spindle. Berber is less thick then plush carpet (saxony) and you may see some of the old gray at the bottom.

To me, the paint color on the walls is not relevant to the issue of what the spindles are painted. You may change wall color several times, but you won't repaint those spindles anytime soon. So stick with basic white like your front door. I would probably paint the rail a coordinating color to the walls...perhaps the next shade up on the paint strip making sure that you have that color somewhere in your decor. You really do not want the handrail to stand out in any glaring kind of way.

I would lose the gray trim as well since it is color specific. Paint that white as well when you can (perhaps the carpet installers would be willing to remove all carpet on one day and give you a couple days to paint before they return to install?).

It is definately a personal taste and for some may be too harsh, but black can look amazing in the right space and I think you have the right space. You have black framed art on your walls, painting the handrail and bottom posts would tie into those. Here is an example of what I mean, only thing different I would have done in the picture below is also paint the 2 posts black as well. I think it would look AMAZING!

{{!gwi}}

In my area, I only see white painted. So I thought the grey seemed special. That said, I would paint the handrail and newlposts black.

I like the gray, but hate it with the white door in the pic you posted (gray on the door would also hide the security system better..but you might consider asking for that to be burried into the door frame so it does not show at all given it's your front door....it's very easy to do and not expensive at all).

If you paint the newell posts (I can't spell that LOL) and hand rail black and leave the rest alone....it will look like the stairs in your old house :) And that's a lovely look.

I'd also paint the walls. You're obviously not a boring white walls person...so get rid of them :)

Thanks everyone, keep them coming.

Roseabbey....those picture frames in my pic above are not black by the way, they are coffee brown. I am not sure about doing black, but it's tempting

thanks again

As an experienced spindle painter...here's my take on your last post :oP What's the worst thing you could end up with? Black paint you're not in love which, which could then be repainted gray or painted another color. Painting those larger pieces is SO MUCH Easier and less time consuming than the spindles!

If you paint the spindles and still don't like the other pieces with the white you have to repaint the spindles which are freaking time consuming and fussy! Try the easy road first LOL

I actually like the whole thing as is. The gray (it looks French Provencial to me) would match anything.

I'd get a contrasting carpet color though for the stairs, or a stair runner with a pretty pattern so it's not all one color.

Funny you should mention French,the sellers are Franco-Canadian

Not lovin' the gray. Reads cold to me. Go with your gut instinct. Love the colors in the house you just sold.

With all the same gray on all the stair elements and the rug, it does seem like too much gray. But I think it could look really cool if you painted the handrail a very dark charcoal gray (less harsh than black) and then maybe use a striped or patterned runner that has varied tones of gray. I don't know if it's an option for you (i.e., whether there's hardwood under that carpet) but I much prefer the look of a runner over carpeting covering the whole stairs.

Oops, I just realized that may not have been clear. I didn't mean "runner over carpeting" as in "installing a runner over the carpeting" -- I meant I prefer a runner INSTEAD of carpeting! Just wanted to clarify!

Thanks everyone...please note I have no intention to keep the Gray, am looking to get rid of it

Yes, the staircase looks so plain Jane with all that grey. What would you think of white spindles and a black chair handrail? I always loved those colors together and I have them as well.

.....Jane

I would sort out the carpet colour first, then make paint decisions. If you paint first, you'll then be limiting your range of carpet colours and there is way bigger range in paint colours!