Follow up on my original post.
Attached picture is our Kitchen cabinets with Maple wood stain, which is want we want for our stairs.

Certainly any stain can be removed by using a stripping solvent, scraping and sanding. Once bare wood is revealed, clean and let dry for several days (a week perhaps) and re-stain. Very difficult with stairs and small crevices especially because you are removing dark and going lighter.

Some ideas -- The risers don't look like oak or any real quality grained wood (basically looks like they are painted without seeing grain). Is it some sort of veneer? Anyway, paint the risers whatever color you are painting the walls.

Strip the treads and end-caps ... these are probably oak and worth re-staining -- flat surfaces plus the edge not too bad. Same thing with the hand-rail, strip, sand and re-stain. Pain to do but your desired tone (maple) will really pop on the treads, end-caps and hand rail if the riser facing is painted.

Can't really see your spindles -- are they glass or some sort of composite? What is at the top/bottom of each spindle that is dark Godiva-colored -- wood or metal? I would just paint those spindle ends unless they are oak and a decorative wood finial of some sort. They would be difficult to strip and re-finish now that they are installed.

I did a similar stair case long ago. Get some ideas by Google'ing "Cool Stair Cases", "Circular Stair Cases", etc. Decide on your combination of stain, paint, accents first. Everything being one color (paint or stain) doesn't do your design much justice -- figure out what you want to accent and go from there. My 2 cents is the accents are: Treads, Spindles and Handrail -- maybe just the spindles and handrail. Anyway -- good luck -- cool design to work with.

Hi Graywings,

Thanks for response. Couple of my friends also gave the same opinion that dark staircase will look good after painting is done. If the rework is going to be expensive I may not be doing it right now and probably may get used it. Let us see.

Hi Pineseverywhere,

Thanks for the detailed response and suggestions.

I don't think risers are of quality wood, we are going to have carpet on the stairs.

Spindles are Metal Knuckle Balusters, attached picture in the next posting.

Treads and end caps of stain-able wood. We have upgraded our stairs to have stain grade wood for skirts and end caps on both sides of the stairs for about $1000.

Have to look at all the options. Just to get an idea, I have requested a contractor to give a quote for the re-staining. Will update as I progress.

Attached picture has other views of the stairs.

Sample picture of Metal Knuckle Balusters that we have for our stairs

I got it now -- that quote isn't too bad really.

I love the spindles and understand now that yours are wrapped in plastic to protect them -- very nice design. That stock photo (even though it is a complete wood tread versus carpet) was the paint / stain combo I was trying to explain.

Anyway leaving it all Godiva (looks like Dark Chocolate) or lightening it up will be fabulous as your spindles are definitely the show piece. Well done and good luck.

Thanks Pines,

Hope it looks good after everything is done with Godiva, else i have to spend a lot.