Different wood species for stairs?

9 years ago

Our house is a split entry. 15 years ago we had Brazilian cherry put upstairs - living, dining, hall. We also replaced carpeted stairs with Brazilian cherry treads.

Unfortunately, the stair installation was horrible. I'm not going to go into the sorry details. Bottom line is that the stairs need to be replaced.

I want to change to oak treads, in part because BC has gotten really expensive, and in part because we're also going to replace carpet with oak going downstairs. DH thinks it will look dumb to have two different woods on the stairs and floor; I maintain that since all the woodwork in the house is oak (baseboards, window casings, doors, etc), we already have two woods.

Any thoughts? I would not stain the oak dark to try to mimic the BC; I would rather keep it light.

Comments (3)

PRO
BeverlyFLADeziner
9 years ago
I would consider painting the risers and treads. The oak stained light compared to the brazilian cherry will be very unattractive.
amykath
9 years ago
I think you can easily get away with using oak. Just stain it in a darker color. The photo Beverly posted is a great example. I had a friend with the same sort of combo on her floors and stairs and it looked great!
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Boopadaboo
9 years ago
I am not sure I am totally following you. But will chime in anyway :) When we moved in our house there was awful tile in the entry and indoor outdoor carpeting in many places. There was HW floors in the LR, DR, hallway upstairs and the stairs. We didn't love it so we did not want to match it, but it seemed wasteful to rip it out so we put in what we liked everywhere else. When we took the runner off the stairs the sun had faded the risers terribly. So we stained the risers to match the new floor and the treads still match the floors upstairs. Now to me neither one looks off. They didnt do a fabulous job but it works for us....

Before:

Not the best after....

(I can't believe i lived with those blue walls so long.) :)