I'm not a big fan of the half wall look, however I can see it being nice if you don't have much wall space overall. Also, if you are already over budget that might be a place where you go with the standard walls and if you don't like it save up some money and change it a few years down the road. Odds are what's popular now (black metal spindles?) won't be in a few years anyway.

Honestly, people were just hardier in days of yore. My very scary, steep, hardwood floor staircase in my 1913 bungalow had no signs of ever having a handrail. I installed one for ME, no kids involved. I had a handyman put up one that looked just like Marie's above. When I moved from that house, I took it off to get my furniture down. Pretty simple actually. To be honest I would not use a velvet or other rope. I need something to really grab onto if I slip on the hardwood floors; not something that could rip or pull away. Oh, I also found that investing in non-slip socks is a must!

Gee. I didn’t realize the picture I attempted to post didn’t actually post. No children; open minded with various suggestions. The other side of the room already has a couch & TV.

IMHO, this does not look good at all. I would not except this solution. It looks like you just slapped up a piece of molding. It needs to be integrated more with the existing chair rail and base molding. If you move it over to start under the chair rail, it would be too close to the boxed out trim. If you want it to look like it is meant to be this way, he really needs to move the trim under the chair rail and shorten the width of the box so the spacing is the same as the distance between other boxes. Also, the trim piece should not stand proud of the base piece. You need someone that knows how to rework this to look professional.