You can leave the handrail the same distance from the wall as it is now. Leave it connected to the newel post at the top; remove the newel post at the bottom, and add what's called a 'return' to anchor the bottom end to the wall. Then add a couple of brackets going up the stairs. The challenge is that the return should match the profile of the handrail, in order to blend, but check at the home center or a lumber yard/mill to see if you can match it (take measurements/drawings/close-up photos, etc.). As for painting the stairs--be careful with "fun" graphics. The treads and risers need to be clearly defined and regular. For example, a plaid or check that doesn't match the tread and riser exactly at each step is a trip hazard and may not meet building codes. People need to be able to see the treads clearly even without paying attention to them. Walking is an unconscious activity and we need to make it as easy as possible. Confusing patterns are a menace. In NYC, they put new edges on treads on one stairway at one train station that were designed to make them less slippery. However, they also made it more difficult to discern the edge of the tread. In 6 weeks, more than 1,400 people fell down those stairs. Then they redid them. Over 90% of injuries on stairs happen during descent. I highly recommend Bill Bryson's great book 'At Home--A Short History of Private Life'. The NYC anecdote above came from Chapter 14--'The Stairs'. Fascinating and amusing book. My house is 100 years old, so I feel your pain dealing with the changes and additions that happened over time.

Aqua might be a nice wall colour too. I think your kitchen floor tiles are nice. White in the sitting room would be good too and I would ditch the brown carpet in favour of a pale grey or else some natural sisal or similar, some houseplants and colourful artwork. I'd also replace or recover (even with slip covers) the sitting room suite with a grey or taupe cotton or similar and add a couple of zingy, colourful scatter cushions. If you do all this, it may not be necessary to paint the fireplace though, by all means do this if you want. Just be aware that once you paint brick, you can't really get the paint off i.e. it's virtually impossible to bring it back to its natural colour. As this is modern brick and only a fireplace that's not so much of an issue though as it might be in a period house with old brick.

Hi Shauna. It looks to be in amazing condition, i have been asked about restoration of these a few times but unfortunately they don't hold much value therefore nothing really gets done with them. You could add a new top which sits ontop of existing surface to make it level all the way around. This would be the cheapest and ur not completely making the sewing machine redundant that is if its still working. Another thing to do is to remove all the top with drawers machine etc put on a new top alot more work and butchery to the beautiful piece you have. Oh and make sure you disabled the bottom drive wheel as it can be a hazard. Hope this helps

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