Plans for our Stair Railing

It’s been a long time coming, but we finally have some plans to replace out stair railing!

The railing was installed to fit a rustic, “cowboy” style home.  I doubt any thought was put into how it looked when it was installed by the contractor.  It just served a function.  Yet, it takes center stage in our house.  It’s one of the first things you see when you walk in our front door, and it carries up two stories around the loft.  I’ve hated it since we’ve moved in, but other projects have taken priority.  Here’s what it looks like.

 

 

@ the top of the stairs it dies into the slanted, gambrel roof.

I’ve been looking and looking and looking for what we should replace it with.  I love iron handrails, such as the one pictured below.

{via Pure Style Home, original source unknown}

There was just one problem. For budget, my husband had to be able to build it.  So an iron handrail wasn’t an option (darn.  I hate when that happens).

So that left me looking for a handrail with wood spindles.  I kept finding the regular, boring, “Home Depot” handrail (sorry to anyone with one of those!).  If a handrail is such a dominant part of your home, shouldn’t it be beautiful? Unique?

Then one day I came across this “handrail” done by Tracery Interiors.  I’ve seen it before, but I realized there might be potential for it to work in our house.  Go here to see this picture on my Pinterest page.

I talked it over with Dave.  We hashed over it for hours one night.

We finally agreed it would work!

So here’s the plan.

First, we are going to have our cabinet maker make some hollow posts that can “slip” over the top of the structural newel posts.  They will look something like this and be made out of quarter-sawn white oak, stained to match our chicken wire hutch. {All drawings done by moi}.

Here’s a shot of our chicken wire hutch.  You see them in the same room.

Then we’ll create the “wall” out of the same tongue and groove material that is on our ceilings.

A shot of our ceilings…..

and drawings of what the new handrail will look like.  The horizontal wood will be painted the same creamy white as our walls, ceiling, and trim.  I’ve never really been a fan of two-toned wood on stairs (why? I don’t know), but I love the idea here.  It just works!

Guess what happens at the top of the loft?  The “handrail”, which obviously is more like a wall, will go all the way down to the carpet. The loft is where my children play. Yep, no more little toys flying down two stories and crashing below! That, I would say, makes me very happy.

What do you think?  What are some of your favorite handrails?