Matching a New Floor to Existing Oak Stairs

Q: My wife and I bought a new house that has an existing oak staircase (in excellent shape, about 7 years old), and carpet upstairs. We’d like to install hardwood floor upstairs, but we’re not sure how to match it to the staircase — first, we’re not sure we’d ever be able to find the exact same colour, and, second, that colour is not really our favourite anyway. My question is: what is usually done in this case? Should we go ahead and do our new floors in our favourite colour, and forget about the mismatch with the stairs, or will that look weird? Should we also restain or re-floor the stairs to match the new floor?
Any advice or opinion would be very much appreciated!
Thanks!
Stan
A: There are two schools of thought when it comes to floors in a home. Either make all of the wood flooring the same, so you keep a uniform flowing appearance or have each area floored differently to give unique feels in each new room.
Since you dislike the color of the current stairs I would not directly suggest trying to match the existing floor. Wood floors will naturally darken over time, although oak is less likely to darken as drastically, some darkening has probably occurred since it was installed.
At this point you can either leave the stairs and install a floor you like in the carpeted area or remove the stairs as well and make the entire area in the floor of your choosing. If you want the more professional look (and to have the stairs in a flooring that suits your taste) I would suggest replacing the stairs at the same time. If you are looking for a different stain to the oak, you will want to get the stairs and the new floor site stained and finished to ensure it has an even color. This can be very expensive so you might want to replace the stairs at the same time.
If you choose to replace your stairs, I would highly suggest finding solid stair treads and risers for your floor if they area available as this gives a much better appearance (my example here is bamboo, but it will give you a visual idea of what to look for). It can be difficult to find solid treads and risers for many floors, but they are well worth it when you can get them.
When it comes to stairs, installation can be very difficult so I would suggest looking into a professional installer such as our team here at iFLOOR.com to make sure everything is done just right. If you plan on doing this as a DIY project, take your time and make sure you get everything you need in order ensure this install goes without a hitch. So do your homework and make sure all your measurements are dead on.