A runner completes the stair project.

It felt a little wrong to install a runner over stairs from which I’d stripped carpet and then refinished, but the stairs were a little slippery under foot. I had no desire to install the runner myself, so we spent an afternoon at a local rug and flooring shop looking for something that would suit both the dining room at the foot of the stairs with its deep green walls and sea-green rug and the upstairs with light tan walls. We settled on a tannish vine pattern over a blue-green base in 100% wool. Picking the pattern was the hard part: a few weeks later the installers spent a difficult three hours installing pad and runner, measuring each step to make sure the runner stayed centered on stairs that were inconsistent in width.