Stair riser inspiration

My stair risers have been scuffed up since I moved in (9/23/09). And the pillars had gotten pretty nasty. It's a favored perch and rubbing pole for the cats. The pillars don't clean so well as the previous owner did a quick paint job with either primer or very flat white paint. No wiping clean here. Pushed to boredom (putting painters tape on living room wall to paint stripes...YAWN) and disgust, I took the can of white paint that I had and started to paint over the dirt freshen up the pillars and risers.











I would love to take the risers one step further and do something fun like this:

source: The Styles Files

source: The Styles Files

source: Vintage

source Home Beautiful

I like the wallpapered flower steps shown here Apartment Therapy as well. That looks doable.