Living Spaces
Staircase Remodel
A traditional staircase weighed down by decorative scrollwork, ornamented iron balusters, and orange-toned treads, reworked into something quieter. Light oak, simple black rods, clean lines.
The staircase had every detail a 2000s builder could fit onto it. Decorative scrollwork running along the stringer, raised-panel wainscoting under the rail, black newels with capped tops, iron balusters with knuckle detail, and orange-stained oak treads. The architecture underneath was fine. The finishes were doing all the wrong work.
We stripped it back. The scrollwork came off, the wainscoting came down, and the heavy newels were replaced with simple rectangular white oak posts that match the new handrail. The old iron balusters came out, replaced with plain black metal rods that read as a line rather than a pattern. New white oak treads in a pale tone tie the staircase to the floors we put in elsewhere in the house.
What's left is the shape of the stair itself. Which is what should have been showing all along.
Scope
- Removal of decorative stringer scrollwork and panel wainscoting
- New white oak treads, handrails, and newel posts
- New simple black metal balusters in place of ornamented iron
- Repainted risers, stringers, and walls
Before · After
The room, before and after.
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