Repairing and Painting Stairs

Colour matching existing wood stain is a very tricky process and easy to get wrong. You have to completely sand down to the bare wood to start. The process I use is using wood dye rather than stain varnish. The reason for this is because wood dye absorbs into the wood by at least 4mm whereas stain/ varnish sits on the top and wears down leaving unstained bare wood over time. This is more applicable to you as it is on a surface that will be walked on. Also when you use wood dye you can build up the layers of dye until you get an exact match. Use a piece of wood cut off first to test so you can get the right result. Once you have finished the dye process coat with at least 3 coats of diamond varnish. You can use a non slip varnish but this is mainly used on decking and not really comfortable barefooted. Hope this helps, Clive

I am thinking of the finish you want and in my opinion the only way you are going to get it is if you sand the steps back to the original bare wood. It shouldn't take too much work with an electric sander but your end result will be much better. If you simply 'key' what's there you'll never get a nice even finish. Look at some of the Osmo products where you can stain and varnish in one. I believe they also do a varnish product with micro particles in to give it a non-slip finish which is going to be important on stairs. Good luck.