I'm trying to decide the best way to trim out my stairs, in particular the risers. The risers are 7" and the deck boards I'm using are, of course 5.5". On the face of the risers I can just rip some narrow strips to fill it up, but what about the sides of the stringers?

I'd appreciate close-ups of your stairs from riles, salmon, sparks, and anyone else showing me what you did. As I figure, my options are:

1. Put a couple boards diagonally on the outside of the stringer. 1(a) would cut out the notches like the stringers so the stairs are still open; 1(b) would leave them straight and close in the stairs (I prefer the look of open).

2. Carry the front risers around the side, so the side would match the front but would have boards of differing width (seems like it would look funny). I think that's what they did here.

3. Do the sides independent of the fronts and just put full horizontal boards down from the top, and rip the bottom one to fit. 3(a) would go all the way to the deck, boxing it in (It looks like salmon did this), and 3(b) would stop at the stringer (bunch of little pieces).

4. Do the sides vertical (sparks, is this what you did?). Again, could do all the way to the ground or just to the edge of the stringer.

I'd appreciate any and all advice. I've searched through GW postings and google images, but can't find very many examples that show close-up. If you deck builders/owners could show me some detail, I'd be much indebted.