I’ve been slowly adding color to all the bare wood parts of my new stairs. The treads and floor boards will be finished without any stain except for a tone coat to slightly darken them and match the rest of my floor. All the other components (basically everything that’s vertical) will be finished in a darker brown color to match the foyer mantelpiece and other trim in the room. The combination of different surfaces, different levels of existing finish, and sheer amount of surface area has made this very challenging. But some pieces are turning out looking quite nice. Above is one of my newel posts. The dye stain and two thin coats of oil-based varnish already bring out a lot of the quarter-sawn character.