Hello my stylish friends. I need your help.

So I finally got the other bannister stained.  I am in love with how it turned out.  On the time and energy scale, this part of the project scored a 7.  It wasn’t as hard as I thought, but it did take a little longer than I planned.  And no, I am not counting the 6 months that I procrastinated getting the second bannister stained.

You like?

The next step is to paint the spindles white.  This will BY FAR be the most time consuming part.  I briefly thought about sanding and sating them all, but then I gave my head a shake and moved on to plan B.  Plan B will look just as awesome.  I hope.

But that brings us to my dilemma.  The stairs.  I originally hoped to sand and stain them to match the bannister, but this isn’t possible.  The wood is different and for all the work involved, it won’t likely turn out how I want it to.  This leaves me with 2 options:

1) Leave them alone.  I detest this option, but I have to consider it.

2) Paint the stairs white.

3) Try to match the stain and paint the stairs dark brown/black.

I’m leaning towards option #2, but I need some advice from those who know what they are doing.  You know, the opposite of me.

Help!