Hi....my husband and I just bought a 3-floor townhouse, the kind with the living room and kitchen on the 2nd floor and garage on the 1st floor. The sellers had installed brand-new Berber carpet on the stairway that goes from the 1st floor to the 2nd floor, but there's a little problem -- it's white! (Okay, more likfe off-white, but still....) So what it means is obvious -- the carpet is going to get dirty really fast. The "take-off-shoes-before-going-upstairs" thing isn't going to work, especially when you have to do things like carry groceries upstairs from the garage.

So what suggestions would you offer for this scenario besides the obvious (replacing the carpet)? Would a runner work on the top of carpet (which is also padded as well)? I know you could put some clear plastic runner or something like that on the stairs but it'd look tacky. Is carpet dyeing cheaper than replacing carpet? Another option is to remove the carpet, but I don't think there is anything attractive under the carpet, though I'd have to check.

(Note: I'm not looking for "do-it-yourself" tips -- we'll likely be having professionals do it since we're not very handy, and the staircase is L-shaped which probably complicates things a bit.)