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Woodworking Remodeling Design Dilemma

Please help design new stairs/railings!

2 years ago

Before:

Now:

2 inspiration pics

In middle of most of house renovation. We replaced carpet with hardwood on main staircase. I had contractor open up wall so i could install new nicer railing, balusters etc. and open up the staircase. I also wanted to do wainscoting/ board batten up the stairs and in foyer.

Now with it open, realizing my house/ceilings are not of the grand scale that my inspiration pictures are and this will have to get funky as the railngs will reach the ceiling and my staircase looks so steep….?!

Any creative ideas or assurance this will look ok, or was this not worth it and i should build the wall back?! is my wall

too steep to do wainscot/BB?

how would you make this look nice?

thank you

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Comments (10)

cat_ky
2 years ago
I would build the wall back. It does look better than what you have now.
jessc2021
2 years ago
Agree with cat_ky. You dont quite have the volume of the inspo pics, I’d consider building the wall back.
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you will see from the pics we have a metal beam where you assume there is a wall stud I'm referring to the wall, which will at some point be framed with studs (vertical). You might want to run the railing right to the top of the stairs, whether you use dimensional lumber (2x 4 etc) or a handrail on brackets. This house looks like it was built before codes required railings. You'll know their importance once you've taken a spill! Or age. (My first home had 10 foot ceilings and stairs to the second floor along a wall. No railings. No half wall. I lived there seven years in my sure-footed 20s and thought it looked cool. I always wondered why houseguests walked up hugging the wall.)
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palimpsest
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
I would build it back to the extent that the handrail dies into a wall again rather than into the ceiling. This could happen right below the ceiling so it would be more open than before by a couple steps.
PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
2 years ago
Stairbuilding is second only to boatbuilding on the carpentry difficulty scale. Not a DIY project. Okay, maybe an advanced DIY with plenty of tools and instinct.
jewelisfabulous
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
I, too, prefer the wall the way it was originally. After that, choose a squared newel post, banister, and spindles. The latter could be iron or wood.
weedyacres
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
To make the handrails work, you'll have to have a wall back in there, at least at the point where the handrail is going to hit the ceiling. Here's a set of stairs I re-did (DIY) a couple houses ago. Perhaps you can move the wall portion so it's higher up than it was originally, so you do get some openness.

This house has 9' ceilings, and your look to be 8', so it won't be able to be open quite as far.

And your stairs do look a little steep. What's the tread depth and riser height on them?
roarah
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
My 9 foot ceiling entrance hall has a long steep open 100 year old staircase. The railing is set a few inches away from the ceiling and meets with a cat walk on the second floor.

Gap between wall/ ceiling and banister.

I think this would be tough to retro fit so i would do as pal suggests.
homebuyer23
Original Author
2 years ago
Thank you all! I’m not there to measure but I feel like almost all of the wall will have to be built back in order for the railing to die right into it. It just seems a shame to build it all back!
But we are still under construction so it won’t be that big of a deal.

I’ve been trying to find pictures where it’s done well. Thoughts on this solution? If we just build the wall back over a little bit and curve the handrail to finish going up the stairs…? I’d still need some diminishing balusters (I just learned they’re called :) )
kculbers
2 years ago
I had new oak stairs and bannister installed last year. I also think your stairs looked better with the original wall. Best of luck in your choice.
weedyacres
2 years ago
I just saw this in a house listing and thought of you. An example of diminishing balusters.

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