Many homeowners find themselves in a conundrum when they are excited about renovating their staircase but don’t know where to start. The variety of stair tread finishes, newel posts, and accents available can be quite overwhelming, making it challenging to choose the right ones that match the floors.

Here, we help make life easier with our comprehensive guide on how to match your stairs to your flooring and whether it’s even necessary to try!

Do Wood Stairs Have to Match My Floors?

No, they absolutely do NOT have to match your floors. In fact, getting an exact match between your floor and stair tread finish is almost impossible when stairs are installed after the floors. Therefore, you have free reign to finish your stair treads any way you like. 

Unless you’re installing new floors and stairs at the same time, it’s best to consider the look you want for your stairs and use that as your main design cue. It’s much easier than trying to retrofit your stairs’ appearance to match your floors, and will also help you avoid disappointment with the final results.

Pros and Cons of Matching Your Stairs to Your Floors

First, consider the pros and cons of matching your stairs to your floors:

Pros:

  • Matching your stairs to your floors creates a unified look, as long as you get a close match in woodgrain and tone.
  • Maintenance is easier as you use the same methods to care for the stairs and the floors.
  • It can be cost-effective if doing your stairs and flooring together.

Cons:

  • It can be very difficult to get an exact match between your floor and stair tread stains, which can end up looking more disjointed than unified.
  • It can end up costing a lot more when you try to match stair treads to your existing flooring, with additional labour and materials.
  • It’s very difficult to match wood stair tread stains to modern flooring options such as laminate or vinyl.
  • Often, wood flooring types are discontinued, making it impossible to get an exact match.

Can I Buy Unfinished Stair Treads to Custom Stain?

Yes, this is usually the most common way people replace their stairs. First, it’s the most cost-effective solution. Second, you can more successfully match your stair tread stain to your floors than with finished stair tread options. 

However, as mentioned, this can be challenging if you want an exact match. If that’s the case, consider customizing the stain. This might sound difficult, but a good paint and stain store can assist with stain matching if you bring in a sample of your flooring.

Matching Stair Treads to Variegated Wood Grain Flooring

If your flooring is variegated with several dominant, contrasting tones in the grain, you can match one of those tones for your stair tread stain. 

This flooring type actually makes it easier to get a cohesive look, as the busy nature of the flooring helps the complementary tread stain blend in instead of standing out.

Matching Stair Treads to Man-Made Flooring

If you have laminate or vinyl wood-look flooring, it’s best to put the idea of matching your stair treads to your floors out of your mind. You’ll just get frustrated and end up with something that doesn’t work. 

Instead, focus on creating a unique staircase with features that really stand out. For example, you might go with a deeper or lighter stain on the stair treads than your floors to make it clear your mismatch is deliberate. 

You can also choose modern accents such as iron spindles and crisp white risers. When you put the idea of matching aside, you can relax and create a look you’ll love!

Matching Stair Treads to Non-Wood Flooring Materials

Whether your floors are tile, stone, marble, carpeting, or something completely unique, matching your stair treads to alternative flooring materials is more a matter of matching a design than matching a color or wood grain. 

As a result, the sky’s the limit, allowing you to make choices based on the style of your home, whether it’s rustic country, traditional, ultra-modern, classic, or eclectic.

Tips to Unify New Stair Treads and Existing Flooring

If you find your new stair treads are not the exact match you desired, there are a few things you can do to create a more unified look, including:

Use a Stair Runner

A new stair runner not only adds an accent to your stairs but often makes them feel a little safer. They also help tie your stairs in with your home’s design scheme. 

In fact, having an area rug at the foot of your stairs that matches your stair runner completely disguises wood stain “misses” and creates a unified look.

Paint

Painted stair treads are coming back in style, making it the simplest and most affordable option to match stairs to floors. While this might feel sacrilegious, painted stair treads are a stunning statement piece for your home, giving you full reign over the appearance of your stairs for a very bespoke design. 

A popular look is painting the risers white and the stair treads a dark colour such as black, grey, or something more modern like navy blue or rich sage green.

Decorated Risers

You can also distract from varied stains on stair treads and flooring by doing something snazzy to the risers. This might include adding tile, using a complementary paint colour, applying wallpaper (which needs a durable varnish coating for protection), or using an interesting wall panelling such as the popular mid-century modern slat wall panels. 

Just be aware that should you use a thicker material on the risers, you might need to add “nosing” to the treads to ensure they maintain a distinct separation between the risers and treads. This keeps your stairs safe.

Although installing or upgrading your stairs can be intimidating, it’s an excellent and affordable design option to add a signature feature to your home.

Revamp Your Stairs with Cosmaroma

Matching your stairs to your flooring is not a one-size-fits-all decision. It’s about balancing aesthetics, practicality, and your personal style. Whether you choose to match your stair treads to your flooring or opt for a contrasting look, the key is to create a cohesive and pleasing appearance that complements the overall design of your home. 

Remember, your staircase isn’t just a functional element; it’s a significant design feature that can enhance the beauty and character of your space. So, take the time to consider your options, and don’t be afraid to get creative. 

With the right approach, your staircase can become a stunning focal point that ties your home’s interior together beautifully.

Start shopping Cosmaroma’s impressive selection of stair tread options, along with accessories to create a totally customized look here.