Stairs are often at the entry of a home and are therefore the first impression of a home. Our staircase was one of the most important interior features for me when building our home. I had a specific design in mind so I researched all I could about stair design. If you are building or renovating your stairs, you will want to know the design considerations so you can easily communicate what you want to your architect or builder. This diagram of a staircase (below) can be used as a reference to understand the important components of stair design.
Style
An architect will likely determine much of the location and placement of your stairs, but you should have some input on the style. Do the stairs need to take a turn or two if you have high ceilings on your first floor? Do you want your stairs to be straight or curved? The stairs can take turns by being curved or spiraled or they can be straight and take turns with landings which change the direction of stairs at 90 degree or 180 degree angles. In the case of our home, we chose straight stairs taking two 90 degree turns with landings.
Treads and Risers
Treads are the actual steps of the stairs and risers are the “vertical rise” of the treads. Most stairs will have wood treads and risers if the floors are wooden or carpeted if the floors are carpeted. Yet, you may choose to use a different material with the risers for some contrast. We chose to have plastered risers to go with the plastered walls of our staircase. I love the contrast of the white plaster with the wood treads, especially with the sawtooth stringer that shows off the shape of the stairs.
In addition to the materials used for treads and risers, there’s also the decision of choosing closed or open risers. Closed risers have a supporting wall between the treads and are the more typical choice. Open risers leave space between the treads and are often used with contemporary designs. Open risers are not as safe, leaving the potential for a small child to fit between them so consider your choice carefully.
Balusters and Newels
Balusters are the spindle like legs that support the handrail. They are obviously for safety and support, but they have style considerations as well. What width and length do you want? Do you want straight or tapered? Do you want wooden or metal? Newels are the larger supports for the handrail and have similar size and shape considerations. Newels are typically at the ends of a staircase and sometimes at turns on the landing. For our staircase, we actually have only one newel at the end of the stairs. The rest of the handrail is supported by the balusters. This design gives the staircase a modern continuous look and complements our curved handrail.
Handrail
The material and style of the handrail is also an important consideration. We chose white oak wood to match our wooden baluster and newels. Incorporating natural materials in our home was a big priority so the white wash stained white oak was the right choice. Wood provides a feeling of warmth and I knew it would be fitting with the other woods used in our home. We stained the white oak with a very light white wash to give it a slightly lighter look.
I mentioned earlier that our stairs take two 90 degree turns. I wanted the wooden handrail to curve rather than have sharp corners. I have seen several curved handrails in our travels in hotels and vacation homes and loved the look. Additionally, the curved design would be a nice complement to the curved doorways in our home.
The curved wooden rail was made by gluing smaller wood pieces together and shaping them to follow the stair line. The glued wood was then clamped together to ensure the rail held together. The rail shape was eventually set and then carved and sanded to a smooth oval shape.
Stringer
The stringer is the diagonal support structure for each side of the stairs. There are several types of stringers, but most commonly, you can choose a closed or open stringer. The closed stringer hides the stair risers and treads and an open stringer leaves the stair step of the risers and treads exposed on the side. I’ve always loved the geometrical shape of stair steps so there was no question about choosing an open stringer when building our staircase.
The style of your stairs can arguably be an overarching consideration of all of these components so think about them carefully and how they go together. Now that you know more about the ins and outs of stairs, what type of stairs are you going to build? Please share below or ask any questions in the comments.
