Replacing the Staircase from "H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks" with a Heavenly Staircase (Part 2)

Happy Friday world! Another week has flown by; are you guys ready for the weekend?  I sure am!  My weekend is going to be super busy and filled with running all sorts of errands for the house.  I have to pick out door knobs, cabinet pulls, stone for the fire place and light fixtures...but that means I get to go shopping, so needless to say, I am thrilled! Woohoo! Yesterday I brought you up to speed on the staircase remodel.  As I mentioned, here is what the death-trap, break-your-neck-and-your-shoes staircase looked like before the remodel began.

And here is what the new staircase looked like once it was relocated and elongated.

As I mentioned yesterday, after wading through all the options (glass, metal, wood, wire, none), I decided to use metal balusters with wooden newel posts.  I chose the metal balusters because I like the fact that they bring a bit of a rustic feel to our otherwise traditional living room (we have wainscoting all over the place, including the stairwell) and are somewhat masculine for my husband.  However, just because the stairs would be a bit rustic and masculine, I still wanted to infuse some glam and pretty for me.  So chose I chose a mixture of the large double-S balusters, double twist balusters and single twist balusters, and came up with this design:

Soooooo, after the wainscoting was complete and the balusters and newel posts were installed, we ended up with this as our finished product:

AND I L-O-V-E IT!!!! I am so excited with how our new staircase turned out! The wainscoting and large wooden newel posts satisfy my traditional side, while the metal balusters make the rustic-glam loving gal in me giddy like a school girl. I was busting out some hardcore Carlton, Roger Rabbit, Running Man and every other happy dance you can possibly imagine when I finally saw the finished product!  Progress and pretty...happy days oh happy days! Here is the view looking up the staircase towards the second story landing.

And here is what the staircase and banister look like from the second story. 

 

I love the fact that the double-S balusters are feminine and sexy.  I can't wait to see what everything looks like once it is painted...although we still have to figure out what colors everything will be.

 

So the progress keeps coming slowly, slowy, slowy.  Now onto the next projects, which are granite and tile installation. I will update you on that fun stuff next week! Wish me luck with my shopping extravaganza this weekend. And I hope that you have a wonderful weekend too!  Thanks for stopping by!!!

 

 

Replacing the Staircase from "H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks" with a Heavenly Staircase

Happy Wednesday everyone! We are half-way through the week and I hope that it has been a great one for you so far! Today we are going to check out the progress on the stair case.  Back in December, I told you that one of the big motivating factors for the remodel was to fix the killer staircase that lived in our house. Basically, the staircase was super steep because the stairs were extremely narrow (each step was only about 7 inches long) and extremely steep (each step was a different height). And, unfortunately, when you combined the fact that my closet was upstairs with my weakness for 5 inch heels and my propensity for being late...you ended up with this scene playing out in our house on a weekly basis:

 

And on a complete side note, although I am 5' 9.5" (can't forget that 1/2 inch), I belong to the school of thought that heels make your legs look pretty. To me, the taller the heel the better! This is a view of the death-trap stairs from our dining room before we started the remodel.

 

And here is a close-up of the steep little buggers pre-renovation. Not good I tell ya, not good at all!

 

 

To resolve the steepness factor, we moved the staircase against the front wall of the house, which allowed us to make the staircase much longer and install regulation stairs.  Here is our original floor plan that shows the location of the stairs before the renovation started (they are highlighted in yellow). 

 

And this is our new floor plan that show where the stairs have been relocated.

 



 

An added bonus of moving the stairs was that it completely opened the space between the entryway and the living room so that the living room became one large space instead of a decent sized living room and an awkward "foyer".  You can see really see the difference in the space in this picture of the new staircase that was taken from the dining room once the drywall was in.

 

Here is another view of the new staircase after the wood floors were installed.

A couple weeks ago the trim carpenters came out and installed the wooden treads and started on the wainscoting.

This is what the stairs looked like after the treads were installed. So pretty!

 

After the treads were installed, I got to pick out the balusters and newel posts.  This seems like a simple task, but there as so many different options to choose from, it can be a bit overwhelming.  First, you can have metal railings with glass walls like the staircase in Apple's Paris store:





Although I think this is super cool...this look is too modern for our house.  A second option is metal poles and wires. 

Here

Again, a bit too modern for the look that we are going for. Also, since we are planing on adding kiddos to the mix at some point, I am afraid that the wires would scare the living daylights out of me once the little ones became mobile.  A third option are wooden balusters and newel posts, like this beauty:

 



Here



I love everything about this picture.  The dark floors, the dark treads on the stairs, the wainscoting and the large craftsman newel post.  In my book, this is a stunning example of traditional architecture and design.  Although I love this look, another option is metal balusters, like this: 

Here





Again...this baby is 100% drool-worthy to me! What I really love about this look is that it combines traditional furniture, wainscoting and columns with a rustic (yet super glamorous) metal banister.  The only problem here is the price tag that this bad boy comes with.  I don't know for sure how much the banister costs, but I can pretty much assure you just by looking at it that it is well beyond our budget.  So that leaves us with the least expensive option around...











Here

Just saying "for-get-about-it!" to the newel post and balusters all together and opting for a floating staircase! How amazingly cool is that?!?!  But, going back to the child fear factor issue (and my own safety considering I have issues walking down stairs in 5" heels), these guys aren't going to cut it either.  So, Matt and I ultimately decided that we loved the mixture of traditional wainscoting with rustic metal balusters.  However, in order to keep the pretty factor that metal banister above has, I decided to start with this swirly beauty as my base:   





I then went online and found a website with a "design-your-own-staircase" application and created this layout for our staircase...which is a mixture of the double "S" balusters, single twist balusters and double twist balusters (because I thought that all "S" balusters would be too much and by spreading them apart, it makes the "S's" really pop).

I will report back tomorrow with the finished product! What about you guys, what type of staircase would you like in your home?  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fantastic Thursday!
 

 

I am sharing this post on Pinworthy Project, The Blackberry Vine, Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Crafty Confessions, Home Stories A to Z, Today's Creative Blog, Elizabeth and Co., Coastal Charm, Hope Studios and Inspire Me Please Projects