Painting Stairs - Joining to carpet at top

tightauldgit

I lifted the carpet on my stairs recently and thought I would give it a go with just painting them rather than relaying carpet. I'll see how it looks when the job is done and if I like it. 

Now one question I have and I can't quite decide on is what to do with the top stair and the join to the carpet which is on the top landing. At the moment I've left the carpet coming over the first stair and down the first vertical (if that makes sense) so the paint would start from the first flat stair at the top. 

Other options would be to cut the carpet back to just under the top lip of the floor - so paint the top vertical but have the carpet coming round the top edge and just nail it or staple it down. I suspect this might be the final option I go for. 

Or option three would be to cut the carpet to the edge of the landing so the top round of the stair would be painted. Maybe there's an edging or something I could use to make the join?

What do people think? I guess I finish the job as it and see how it looks.

I don't think I want to replace the top landing carpet at the minute (though it maybe needs it) so I'm just looking to do a decent looking transition from one to the other currently

casper_gutman

I would rule out option 1 as it involves the uppermost riser of the staircase being carpeted, which I think would look peculiar when viewed from the hallway looking up towards the landing.

Between the other options I think I'd go for option 2, as it would look more "natural" -  adding additional edging strips etc. always looks a bit off somehow. 

Another point in favour of option 2 is that you can try it and later resort to option 3, but not the other way round.

grumbler

Certainly, not 3.
And take care - painted stairs are more slippery than capeted. And more noisy. I hate carpets, but after 20 years with varnished stairs I carpeted them.