staircase step refinishing

The horizontal step surfaces on my staircase are worn. The staircase is old and somewhat large. The vertical and decorative surfaces are in good shape and have a patina (home is 90 years old) on them. If I sand and polyurethane only the horizontal step surfaces it will stick out like a sore thumb. If I decide to refinish the entire staircase, I should be done about the time Haley's comet is ready to return.


My question: Is there some way to refinish just the horizontal step surfaces and have it look like the rest of the wood?

If you could post a photo that would help a lot.

Matching patina can be done with stains and lower luster finishes. When you say worn are you talking about the finish or has the wood wore down?

Contrasting paint on the treads (horizontal surfaces) with poly finish? Then you could just poly over the patina on the risers. The luster of the poly may tie the two together nicely. Again, hard to visualize what you are looking at without pictures.

It's nearly impossible to match if you're looking to buy a can of stain. The way to match an existing color is by blending stain. I've never used any stain right out of the can---I always mix my own to match what I'm doing. Buy a can of dark stain, light stain, and maybe one that has a red tone to it and do some bench trials to come up with a recipe that will match the existing wood.

You can see the surrounding staircase is a natural dark brown the stairs. The stairs are more of an auburn. Not sure if these are original colors or what time has done.

could have started out as the same color. The wear & tear on the treads could have worn the stain a little, if the protective finish is worn. Of course it is a matter of personal taste, but you could just put a new poly finish on everything and move on to the next project.

The house we bought a couple years ago had a staircase much like yours only much worse shape. The last owner had a dozen cats that spent a lot of time sharpening their claws on the stairs and railings.

Yours shows wear on the treads and if you look back along the edged that will be your original color and finish. Along the way it’s anyone’s guess as to how they became two tone. I would say that was not original unless other places in the house trim mimicked these colors.

In my house I got some wood filler and added a stain to it to get it close to the end color and repaired the deep gouges after first cleaning it all good. I then sanded out the filler and wiped it all down. I took the stain I wanted and you may have to do some mixing. I would match the sides not the treads. I used paper towels and lightly went over all the wood the stain in my case took mostly in the worn spots and the small nicks and what I had filled and spruced up the rest. Being careful I went right up to the plaster walls. After a couple days I put a fresh coat of poly on everything.

I know that wasn’t a proper restoration process but it was a quick way to get it looking a 1000 times better and I had so many other projects going on it was how I did it. it has held up fine for a couple years so far.

The two tone is, solid wood treads and plywood risers, often the same stain will give a different colour even if there are both the same wood.

Why not paint the riser white and sand the tread and stain. I just did my stairs and it was not that much work. Just sand the risers, prime and paint. Sand the tread and custom stain with a blend of different colors and poly. Done! Make sure you use wood conditioner before staining. It will look much better.

Here's another option. This paint job is now quite a few years old, the dark marks are scuffs - and that has been the only drawback to this style.

OP,
Over the years I've cleaned up many like yours. Polyshades from Minwax in the appropriate color should be a significant improvement. Prep is critical. Follow package directions.