Making wood the same colour

painted

I started stripping the stairs (paint stripper to start with) but the wood is two different colours. The mid section that has had carpet on is darker than the side sections which looks as if they were painted as soon as the staircase was put up.
I tried sanding but it's not working, I take it I would need to take off quite a lot of the surface wood. Any other ideas please?

tony6403

Assuming that the staircase is made from pine , the stripped sides will darken simply by exposure to light. Whether they will ever match the treads is difficult to predict as the treads will have ingrained dirt.
I don't think that there is an invisible fix.

Owain_Moneysaver

You could try bleaching it.

CrispieS

sanding it down should strip the wood back to its natural colour, you can normally hire them relatively cheaply - I wouldn't attempt to do them by hand (except maybe a test patch)

painted

Thank you for all your replies. I think I knew deep down I would never get it the same! I just like wooden stairs