New homes come standard with carpeted stairs with rarely any character. That does not mean that your stairs need to suffer that fate. Substituting the carpeted steps with hardwood steps automatically changes things. Add a metal as the balusters, like a high-density wire for example, and you begin to get a knock-out contemporary look. This is what we saw from Paolini's Stairs at the Miami Home Design and Remodeling Show and a reason we fell in love with stair re-design.