Renovate indoor stairs like this?

[Ironside]

Then we, the 90s generation, come along wanting to buy houses and sigh over having to sand off all the white paint that previous generations applied, thinking all the oak everywhere feels quite out of date. I'm more team let the staircase fit in with the year the house was built.

If the house is listed or similar, I completely agree, but if not, I see nothing wrong with modernizing a house as long as you sync it so it applies to almost everything. In our case, we've renovated the hallway upstairs and downstairs with new moldings, new floors, new doors, new walls, and a new ceiling, so it becomes natural to renovate the staircase to fit in. Of course, one can argue about what fits in and what doesn't, but the most important thing is probably that the residents are satisfied.

An alternative is, of course, to sell the house and buy one that fits instead of spending time on renovation; there are surely many opinions on that as well.

Regardless of what, our staircase will soon be renovated and already fits in much better