Here is a before and after picture of the upstairs hallway. This shows how far that railing went around. Painting the twisted and fancy shaped pieces, was a bit tedious, but gave it some life again on the cheap!
The carpet looks great, and we got a good deal for it, and had it installed, in all 4 bedrooms as well as this upstairs hallway and runner down the stairs. But you can see by the after picture, how much better the walls were looking.
There had been a wallpaper border (this house had wallpaper everywhere!) I got creative with a sponge mop. After wetting it down, from the upper hallway standing at the railing, I then taped a wallpaper scraper to a broom handle and scraped off the wallpaper without any scaffolding! I thought that was creative! Then painted with a roller on a long stick, and used a ceiling edger on the stick as well.
