One of our viewers had removed a stair rail and the absent newel post left an ugly hole in the hardwood floor at the bottom of the stairs. How to patch it gracefully?
You will probably never get an exact match with a small patch. So I recommend cutting out a full board in front of the steps, and even cutting out the width of a board along each side, right over the ugly hole. Now insert a contrasting colour of hardwood as an accent trim all around the front of the staircase. That looks classy, and no one will guess that it is just a patch. The FEIN MultiMaster has special E-Cut saw blades with Japanese style teeth that efficiently cut the tongue out of the tongue and groove boards for clean removal.
If you want to take the design feature even further, you could flatten off the nose of each step and replace it with a well glued and screwed contrasting nose that matches the floor patch. The design can be striking, but more importantly it gives a good visual demarcation of the edge of the step for someone with a visual impairment.
I get great help for the show from the guys at The Hardwood Flooring Store in Markham, Ontario.