Repainting/restaining the bannisters

[carpedeum]

I am "resting" in between scripts at present and Mrs Carpedeum has me enslaved in casa mia. I have just finished repainting the walls, ceilings, doors etc in the hall, stairs and landings. To ice the cake, I have to revamp the wooden bannisters. I've done nothing with them since buying the house in the '90's. They are stained (multi coats) in what looks like a teak stain... Rustins or Ronseal.

Ideally, I would like to lighten the colour to something like beech or light oak to match the doors and architraving. Would a lighter wood stain work e.g. Ronseal, Colron or Rustins? Sanding or applying noitromors look like huge jobbies (many ballustrades, tight angles etc) and I am trying to avoid this. I don't want to paint them either and lose the woody effect.

Has anybody revamped their bannisters successfully?

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

 

[ROSS]

Hi

Unless your name is Paul Daniels I'm afraid I dont think you can lighten the shade without sanding down to the bear wood and starting again.
We had ours done recently - they are a red deal softwood type - fairly standard - just applied 2 coats of ronseal clear satin to brighten them up again after a good cleaning.
By your desciption, some of yours maybe hardwood say iroco / teak - if so this is the natural colour of the wood and if so you are stuck with it unless you go for a painted finish.

 

[Abbica]

Hi, sorry to turn away from your query but I want to paint our banisters an off white and paint the handrails a darker colour than the wood it is (teak stairs), like you might see in Dallas, my grand delusions, and I was wondering how I go about this, do I just buy a wood paint and stain for the handrails and paint away. Just worried about painting lines showing. Will I ruin the stairs??