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Hi gang, hoping to get some advice on a plan of attack for beautifying the staircase in my home.
We have some stairs in my home. When we moved in, they were open backed and had some ugly carpet on them.
This led to a lot of dust falling directly below the stairs, and sometimes stuff would get dropped and fall below.
About 12 months ago, I ripped up the carpeting and added some temporary risers to the stairs, extending the back of each step with a pine dar and then screwing a piece of plywood into the dar and the underside of each step.
Added kickers to all of the steps except for the bottom one, has made a huge difference to stop dust and debris falling behind them.
Not overly pretty, but does the job. Just don’t look at the underside…
The next step is to make them not look hideous, and maybe add some nosing to the front.
I can't decide on a methodology to do this, and was hoping to get some advice.
I found overlays & riser kits online for like $110 per riser and tread.
Which do look nice, but seem expensive (I could just be completely out of touch for how much these would cost).
I also saw a few how-to DIY vids on making your own tread overlays, risers, and nosing. More steps, but cheaper and customisable.
While I like the idea of doing the overlay, I'm worried about the difference in height for each step. Currently, the travel for each step is pretty much consistent across the staircase. If I add an overlay, the travel from the floor in our downstairs to the first step is suddenly much longer, and the travel at the top step to the second story is now much shorter. "Only" by 17mm, but I think that's larger than allowable by building codes.
The other idea I had was using vinyl flooring, and getting vinyl stair nosing to match. I feel like this would require the least mucking about, and probably be thinner, removing the issue of the travel with full stair overlays. I am concerned though that this might less robust compared to other solutions.
Happy to take any and all advice.
Hello @Sean_S
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us and thanks for sharing your question about interior stairs.
I believe your second suggestion of installing vinyl flooring, and getting vinyl stair nosing to match would be the least intrusive to the measurements of the stairs. You also won't have to do a great deal of carpentry. My only other suggestion is to sand the surface back to wood and apply a new oil/stain on the surface to give it a uniform look.
Let me call on our experienced members @Dave-1 and @Nailbag for their recommendations.
If you need further assistance, please let us know.
Eric
Good Evening @Sean_S
Nice work with what you have down with the stairs to stop dust and debris coming down the back 
I like that way of thinking.
I am currently renovating my foyer, in it there are some old school very rough hand made shelving and cabinetry. I have gone the route of not ripping it out but going to modify it via painting and "facing" on the shelves. Very much like what I am thinking for your steps.
Bookcase retrofit to create a garage library is the project where I add facing trim to the bookshelves, step 4 is the part I want to show.
So if you have a thin piece of timber trim on the nose of each step, mixed with the vinyl for the depth of the tread and the backing a painted black It could look stylish. I do like the change of tones in the timber when its oiled tho. @EricL's suggestion of sanding the steps back would work well with the coloring of the sanded timber with oil, plus the new nose trim per step could give it a three tone effect. Nose, tread and rise, or paint the rise black and go for two tones of the step. I like black as your eyes seek out the timber instead to give dimension to what ever you are showcasing.
The only other thing you could also include is to change up the handrail somehow, maybe the same size "nose trim" along the upper side of the handrail as well?
Dave
