Here are some before and after photos of our staircase. We primed and painted the railings with about 4 coats and then we coated them with a clear polyurethane to keep the paint from chipping off. The carpet on the stairs is new and the carpet on the main level is still the blue, as you can see in the picture. The edges of the stairs are done "Hollywood" style! We know so much more about carpet and paint now than we did 5 weeks ago, that's for sure! And I love the name of the paint color "Swiss Coffee". It really just looks white to me, but if you've ever looked for a "white" paint, you know that there are about 50 shades of white! We're happy with the way it turned out though, it really gave our banisters an updated look!