As always, it took me a while to decide on a handrail design, particularly with which handrail hardware to buy. In pure Angela fashion, I found a ridiculously expensive handrail hardware at Casson and waited around 6 weeks for it to arrive.

The hardware was beautiful and very heavy. A good sign of quality!

I bought a standard rounded handrail from my local lumber yard and watched many YouTube videos on how to install floating handrails.

The first step was to decide on final handrail height and then the height of my hardware anchors. The final handrail height would be 39″, so I installed the hardware at 36″ to achieve that final height. Using a laser level and carefully thinking about how the slope would change as I approached the winder and where the studs were, I marked all the hardware locations.

Following the hardware instructions, I then carefully installed all the anchors along the wall.

Before installing the hardware, I erased my pencil lines and repainted the wall, as it would be easier before the handrail was installed.

Next, I installed the actual hardware pieces. They installed nicely and felt very sturdy.

With the hardware in place, it was then time to install the wooden handrail.

The handrail would be installed in 3 sections: a long section up the main part of the stairs, a shorter section connecting to the first section but with an angle change, and a final section at the 90 degree turn leading up to the first floor.

Using clamps, I dry fit the longest handrail piece and carefully planned my cuts – including the angle of the end where it attached to the next piece. I then cut the other two pieces and clamped everything in place to make sure it all fit together.

I also opted for an angled cut at the top and a straight cut at the bottom. I found these looked the nicest.

Next I started with the long piece and planned for where the hardware would be installed. One shortcoming of the Casson hardware was the lack of a template, so I made one myself so I could figure out exactly where to drill.

I installed the longest piece and then proceeded with marking and drilling for the hardware.

For the connected pieces, I nailed the pieces together and then filled the seam and nail holes with wood filler.

I then nailed the shoerail (the piece that fits into the groove on the underside of the handrail) and filled those holes with wood filler.

The final step was sanding the handrail smooth and applying several coats of varathane. I made sure to sand in between each coat to make it extra smooth.

I was really happy with the final result and it was great to finally have a handrail! We still have a big opening on the other side, but at least the kids (and guests) can hold onto something.

I didn’t want to completely lose this space, so I decided to build a bookshelf in the wall. It would add some colour to my very white walls and also use the otherwise wasted space.

When we built the wall, we made sure to add framing on either side of where the bookshelf would be (and I clearly marked this for our contractor) so that I would have something to which I could attach the new bookshelf.

I struggled to decide whether I wanted the bookshelf to be white, or match the other wood in the dining room. I opted to match the wood and create a nice, teak accent in the wall. But this meant that I needed to wait until our kitchen cabinets were finished so I knew exactly what thickness of wood I should use.

Because of kitchen was majorly delayed, building the bookshelf was one of my first projects after I had the twins! Luckily they were sleeping most of the day, so I actually had time to make some progress.

I purchased birch veneered plywood and cut it to depth and length on the table saw.

I then put veneer on the edges of the plywood that would be seen.

Once all of my pieces were ready, I stained them using a gel stain in walnut, to match the kitchen cabinets.

I then screwed the shelf together before sliding it in place. I then used then nail gun to tack the shelf in place. I caulked the gaps between the shelf and the wall and then repainted the wall.

Installing the shelf meant that I could finally unpacked some of our books and fill the bookshelf. I still need to find some right-sized art for the rest of the wall.

I knew that I wanted it to match the style of what I had done upstairs (with clean, modern lines), but there were some tricky details to sort out.

Because the new stairs were wider and further back than our second floor stairs, the handrail couldn’t simply tie into the existing stairs. The new handrail would have to sit independently.

My inspiration for the handrail (and the stairs themselves) came from another project my architect had worked on.

I particularly liked the waterfall effect of the handrail on both sides, but this was something that couldn’t quite work with my stairs because I had to tie it back into the original stairs somehow.

In the end, I settled on a similar, but slightly different approach.

Making the Handrail

The first step was to actually make the handrail. We bought several long pieces of oak from our favourite lumber yard and made sure it was the right width and thickness. The width was already exactly what we needed: 2.5″. But the piece of oak had to be planed down to the right thickness. Once we planed it, we then used the table saw to cut out a groove on the bottom of the handle where the spindles would go. We didn’t cut the same groove for the vertical handrail pieces.

Once we had the handrail pieces made, I primed all the handrail parts, including the spindles. Luckily I had purchased extra spindles when we did our upstairs railing so we didn’t need to buy any for this project.

Preparing the Floor

One of the most fun bits of this project was figuring out the location of the spindles. It was fun because it involved a bit of math and some precision work (which I find more fun than lugging wood back and forth to the saw). I knew that I wanted at least 2¼” space between each spindle, so I figured out that I needed about 23 or 24 spindles (since my spindles were 1 1/16″ wide. To figure out exactly what I needed, I took 23 spindles, multiplied it by 1 1/16 and then added 24 spaces times 2¼. I then took my total distance, subtracted the total I just calculated, split the difference among the 23 spindles and figured out how much extra space I had to add to the 2¼. See? Easy. And fun.

I marked the centre of each spindle on the floor using painter’s tape just to make sure I had my measurements right.

I then drilled all my spindle holes, careful to make sure that they were as straight and accurate as possible.

Preparing the Spindles

Priming them took forever and when they dried, I had to re-sand them because the wood had roughened up after soaking up the primer. Priming and sanding 30 spindles was not overly fun…

I also took the time to paint 2 coats of trim paint since painting them in place is hard and I only wanted to do one coat.

Installing the Handrail and Spindles

The first step in installing the handrail was to install the vertical pieces. It required cutting holes in the floor and figuring out how to tie the handrail into the basement for support. For most stairs, at least one end of the handrail ties into the upper floor staircase. Since our stairs were no longer aligned (because they were wider and started further back), this wasn’t an option for us. Instead, we had the handrail go into the basement and tie directly into the joist.

Next, we put the handrail in place (still un-cut) and cut each spindle to size. Given there were 27 spindles, this took some time. Since the floor itself wasn’t perfectly level, I used different spindle heights to make the handrail level. I made sure to number each spindle so they wouldn’t lose their place.

Once all the spindles were cut, it was time to make the final handrail cuts. These cuts were important because they made the outer spindles and handrail plumb by pulling the pieces together.

When the handrail and spindles were all cut to size, it was time to install everything. We started at the short end of the handrail and then tackled the main part. We put wood glue in each spindle hole, placed the correct spindle, and then made the spindles plumb by using filler pieces in the groove of the handrail and tacking them in place.

We attached all the handrail pieces together by screwing them together. We later filled the holes with wood plugs.

It was extremely satisfying when everything was in place, more of less plumb and level, and finally done.

The final step was preparing for the final paint. I don’t quite remember the upstairs handrail being so painful, but caulking this one seemed to take forever. It didn’t help that I was essentially working upside down for part of the handrail on the stairs side.

Once the handrail holes were filled and the gaps were all caulked, I could finally paint the final coats. At this point, I was very much done with this project and really wanted to move on with my life.

Painting was just as tedious as caulking, if not more. I used a combination of a brush and roller to paint the underside of handrail (which was the worst) and the spindles. Luckily I had already given the spindles a few coats before they were installed, so I didn’t have to do multiple coats. I also took the opportunity to freshen up the upstairs spindles, which were even more of a pain.

But in the end, the handrail looked great!

Substairs

Our contractor was originally supposed to only install the stair stringers, but he convinced me that it’d be easier if he also made plywood treads so I’d have something to glue my oak boards to. After searching the internet for several days and not finding anything useful about how to install oak treads directly to stringers, I took his advice. The added benefit was that we then had actual stairs and didn’t have to try our luck going up and down a 16-foot ladder.

Winder Templates

Once the stairs were built, I could then do final measurements to figure out the exact size treads and risers I would need, as well as whether an off-the-shelf winder kit would work. Spoiler alert – it would not.

Since I needed to get a custom winder set, I made a template of my steps to bring to this random wood place my contractor told me about. Two of the steps were easy to figure out because they were just triangles. I measured the two sides, transferred those lengths to my fibreboard and drew a line connecting them. And voilà, I had my triangle.

The middle winder was more difficult because of its shape. I tried to measure and figure it out, but I eventually gave up and instead, used some sheets of paper to carefully fold and tape the paper to the exact measurements of the middle winder. I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with this little workaround.

When I had my templates made, we headed out to order the winder and buy the rest of our materials.

Materials

Thanks to my contractor, I had a pretty good idea of how I would install the stairs, which also meant that I knew what materials and supplies I needed to finish the job.

• Treads (straight and winder)
• Risers
• Construction Adhesive
• Wood Glue
• Biscuits (the wood kind, not the cookie kind)

Our first stop was Cosmorama in Vaughan. It’s a random place with lots of different things – baseboards, tile, stair parts, tools, you name it. I ordered my winder and we were on our way.

We then headed to Rona to get our treads and risers.

Rona has the cheapest treads and they were deep enough that I could cut the bullnose off. Or so I thought.

I had carefully measured the depth of the stairs at home – 10 1/8″. When I got to Rona, I realized that they weren’t deep enough. With the bullnose cut off, I only had 10″.

Son of a…

So back up to Vaughan we went (a 40 minute detour with a “I-could-pee-any-minute”-toddler in tow). We stopped at Central Fairbank (just down the road from Cosmorama) and I bought 11″ deep treads that would give me at least 10 1/2″ with the rounded bullnose cut off. Sigh.

Thanks to our second trip up to Vaughan, we had a late start but we were finally on our way!

Tools

Making the stairs also involved some pretty serious tools. To cut and rip the wood we used a table saw. To make the top step to the right height, we used a planer. To make the biscuit joints, we used a buscuit joint router. And to make sure the treads and risers stayed in place, we used a 16-gauge nail gun and 1 1/2″ nails.

• Table Saw
• Planer
• Biscuit Joint Router
• 16-gauge Nail Gun
• Router

Installing Treads and Risers

Now for the fun bit! With all our materials in hand, we were ready to figure out how we were going to attach our oak treads and risers to the plywood subtreads.

The first step was cutting the stairs to size. We wanted the stairs to be the same width all the way, so we took careful measurements and figured out that our treads were just over 32″ wide.

We started by cutting the first riser to width and then height. Then we continued on to the first tread, cutting to length and depth.

I had read on a few woodworking blogs that you should seal the cut edge before installing the stair because the moisture from the painted wall could warp the wood. So I made sure to varathane the wall-edge of each step and riser. I used my sponge brush to really get it in the wood and did a couple of coats for good measure.

We also needed to make sure that the joints between the riser and tread were solid and tight, so we had to biscuit joint each piece of wood and then glue them together. We made sure to measure the riser and tread from the same side and mark three places where we would biscuit join. We then carefully made sure that we were using the biscuit joint router in the right direction so the joints would line up.

Once a few treads and risers were cut and biscuit joint cuts were made, we started by installing the first and second risers. I applied construction adhesive to the back and we nailed a few 16-gauge nails in the back to hold it in place, carefully making sure to only put them at the bottom so the wood could still expand. We then glued the biscuits in place using wood glue and eventually put in the first tread.

By the end of the first day, we had two full steps installed. We then used concrete bags and some heavy boxes to wear them down and make sure to minimize the gaps between the wood.

The second day was much more productive. We started earlier and made all of the tread and riser cuts first. It still took time to make sure that each riser and tread were exactly the right height/depth and length.

We then made all the biscuit joints, using the other treads and risers as templates. All we had to do was make sure the wood was positioned right and we were able to quickly make all the necessary cuts. It was much more efficient this way!

By the end of the weekend, we had cut all but the winder steps and installed most of them. We then spent the week installing the steps 2 at a time so we could use the concrete bags to weigh them down.

Installing the Winder

The custom winder steps took a week to make and were ready for pickup the following weekend. Luckily this meant that I didn’t lose any time waiting for them to be made. We also had to go and buy a couple more treads since we messed two up the previous weekend.

Before we cut the winder treads, we decided to cut the riser pieces below each riser. The complicated bit was figuring out what angle to cut and making sure we didn’t cut too much. We used a angle measuring tool, transferred the angle to the riser and cut it with the mitre saw (using a test piece first).

The only complicated riser was one that wasn’t lining up with the other treads and risers. We figured it was because we actually had to plane it down to a thinner thickness so it would all line up. Slowly but surely, we planed and planed until we thought the piece was the right thickness. We cut the angle and held our breath to see if we were right.

Once all the risers were cut, we moved on to the treads. The first one was easy – it was a triangle so we only had 3 sides to worry about.

The first problem was that the tread wasn’t the exact shape of our stair. It was close, but we had to fix the angles before we could start cutting to size. We used the adjacent side as our “straight” edge and then started to mark the side we wanted to cut. There was a gap against the wall in some areas (because it wasn’t straight) so we measured an inch from the wall to the tread (despite the gap) to fix the angle. We then took it outside and used the circular saw to cut along our new, straighter edge. We clamped another piece of wood to the tread to use as a guide for our circular saw. We then ran it through the table saw to clean up the line.

We kept cutting away at the tread until each side was the angle and length.

Making the middle winder was more complicated because it involved 4 sides and 4 different angles. We took the same approach as with the first winder and straightened out the first three sides. We cut off little by little until we could slide the winder tight against the wall. The only difference this time was that we used a router to cut our angles. It was much more accurate than the circular saw and created a much cleaner edge. We didn’t have to run it through the table saw or anything.

We then cut the final winder step (which was a piece of cake in comparison) and called it a day.

Installing the Floor Pieces

The final riser and tread was complicated because I first had to figure out how the floor would be finished around the opening. So we made the riser, top step and floor pieces all at the same time, modifying each until it worked.

To start, we made the flooring pieces. First, I cut away the old flooring using my new oscillating multi-tool!

The first piece of flooring would be directly under the handrail and would be exactly the same width. Easy. We cut the piece on the table saw to width and then planed it until it was the same thickness as the hardwood.

Then we had to figure out how wide to make the next piece of flooring that would frame the opening of the stairs. I wanted the piece to overhand the finished drywall, but only but a tiny little bit. I had to also make sure that it lined up with the top step. We also had to plane the riser so it would be flush with the top step.

The final piece of the puzzle was that I wanted to give the illusion that the top step was the same thickness (1″) as each of the treads on the stairs, but on the floor, it could only be 3/8″ (same as the flooring). So we had to create an L-shape step.

Once all the flooring and stair pieces were done, I finished the drywall by installing an L-bead so there wouldn’t be a gap between the new stairs and the wall. Yay for more mudding and sanding!

I also finished the floor pieces so I could then install the spindles. I used the same varathane I had on hand, but I wasn’t as concerned about durability, since no one would be walking on this part of the floor. Once the varathane was applied, the colour quickly matches the neighbouring floor pieces.

When everything was in place, the stairs looked great!

Finishing the Stairs

The final step in building the stairs was to finish them. Since we didn’t stain our floors, we didn’t have to stain the stairs.

I bought two grits of sandpaper: 120 grit and 220 grit and started with the 120 grit. I was originally going to use the orbital sander, but I remember how much mess that thing makes from my drywalling days, so I opted to use some good ol’ blood, sweat and tears and worked my way up each step by hand. I then made sure to clean off all the dust.

Finding a floor varathane was tricky since there were several options and I wasn’t sure which to use. But I ended up choosing Varathane’s brand Nano Defence, which seemed to have good reviews. I applied a first coat with a foam brush (which took me an hour and a half!) and let it dry for 24 hours before touching them again.

Applying the varathane brought up the grain in the wood, so the stairs went from nice and smoothly sanded to fairly scratchy. After sanding the stairs with the 220 grit sandpaper, the stairs were smooth again. I removed all the dust and applied a second coat of varathane.

I then sanded the stairs a third time with a much finer grit of sandpaper – 400 – which I already had lying around. The stairs were extremely smooth but required one last coat of varathane, bringing the total coats to 4!

When the stairs were done, they looked fantastic!

The funny thing is that rerouting the pipes is actually not a big deal so we really should have just done this all at the same time. But if I’m wishing to travel back in time then I’d wish we would have done this 4 years ago when we renovated the first floor…

The basement stairs are typical of other houses from the Edwardian period: hidden behind a wall and accessed through a door.

We’re widening our basement stairs because they’re currently 25″ wide at their narrowest, which means we can’t really get anything down them – like a washer and dryer, a couch or anything else we might want to bring downstairs when we finally finish the basement.

Inspiration

If we’re widening the stairs, we also wanted to change the look of the stairs to further open up the first floor. The best inspiration actually came from another project our architect worked on and we thought the same would work for our house. Especially the contrast between the original Victorian handrail and the new modern one.

Demolition

The first step was to remove the basement stair wall. Calling it a wall is probably a stretch; it’s more of a piece of particle board. Removing it was surprisingly easy.

We then removed the door frame, door and flooring.

Easy peasy!

Obviously the lack of a handrail is a bit of an issue, so we set up a semi-safe make-shift gate and made sure to give Adam a proper safety briefing. He now knows not to go anywhere near the stairs.

The make-shift gate was only temporary until we had our super bright yellow gate delivered.

Structural Work

Next we needed to widen the opening, which required structural work. We left this step to the professionals. After some delays, our contractor finally came and moved the joists (and reinforced the ceiling).

First, they built a wall in the basement to support the existing joists.

Next, they cut the joists to the new opening and added a new LVL to support the ceiling.

Framing and Drywall

We also had our contractor frame the wall. It wasn’t easy; the existing basement wall changes quite a bit and we wanted our new wall to be nice and flat all the way to the basement.

At the top, the framing stuck out 9″ past the original wall, but in the basement, the framing was right against the wall. They also made sure that the wall would be square with the other basement walls (for our future basement renovation).

We also had them hang the drywall because, well, we’re tired and they’re just so much faster at it than we are.

We hung the drywall on the stairs ourselves because I needed some time to think about how I wanted to finish them. We ended up using an L-bead for where the drywall attached to spindles and a corner bead for the bottom part of the stringer.

Opening the Floor

First we had to remove the subfloor and flooring, which was basically cantilevered over the basement now that there weren’t any joists below. We used a hand saw to do the tighter, smaller cuts and a circular saw for the long stretch.

We made sure that the subfloor was cut right to the joists so we can have a nice clean finish when we finally install the new flooring pieces.

Taping and Mudding

By Sunday (only a day behind schedule) we were finally ready to tape and mud the drywall.

Turns out the only thing worse than taping and mudding drywall is doing it on a super tall ladder.

Making a Wall Niche

I somehow managed to forget that I wanted to build a wall niche bookshelf, so after the first coat of mudding, I marked where I wanted the bookshelf and grabbed my utility knife.

I had marked the wall so that our contractor put the studs in the right place, and I added blocking for the top and bottom of the shelf. It means I now have a solid surface to attach the frame of the shelf when it’s time to install.

Once I had the hole cut, I attached some L-bead around the edges to create a clean surface. Unfortunately I was about 2 feet too short and only realized after the hardware store closed. So I had to install the bead in two sittings. Sigh.

By the end of the weekend we did a light sand and second coat on the entire wall. We then kept sanding/mudding for the rest of the week and into the following weekend.

The final step was to caulk where the new drywall met the existing spindles. It wasn’t complicated or time consuming, but a final and necessary step after a long week of mudding and sanding.

After a week and a few days, we were finally ready to paint!

Painting

Because our plan was to install the stair treads right up against the new wall, it was important to paint the wall ahead of time.

The surface area of the wall is quite deceptive, because most of it is hidden in the basement. It wasn’t a huge task, but painting took its time (like everything else). Since it was new drywall, I primed the walls and followed by two coats of paint, knowing full well that when the stairs go in we’ll likely have to touch up the paint. But at least the majority of the work would be done.

And for a fun little before and after:

Handrail

During our design, we determined that both the handrail and baserail would be exactly 2½” wide. And we wanted to place them directly over one another so that when we installed the spindles, they would be perfectly aligned. We installed the baserail based on this plan.

We took our giant chunk of oak and cut it to be exactly 2½” wide. We then planed it until the thickness felt right in our hands (around 1¼”).

Once we cut and planed the handrail, we then cut it to the require lengths. Figuring this step out was complicated since it had to be perfectly aligned with the baserail pieces which were already installed in the floor.

We also cut a trench in the bottom so that the spindles had something to catch on. We used the table saw and limited the height of the saw. The trench was perfectly in the centre and was 1″ wide, which was the exact size of the spindles so they’d fit snuggly in the trench). 

We then temporarily installed the handrail so wouldn’t fall to our death while we were waiting to construct the rest of the stairs. We chose a height that was almost to code (around 32″) and that looked good against the existing handrail and spindles leading down the stairs. We pre-drilled the holes and then loosely screwed each piece in place. We didn’t want to tighten things because we eventually removed them.

The next step was to install the spindles. First we had to calculate the exact distance between each spindle and drill holes accordingly.

We started by drilling the end holes first.

Then it was just a matter of calculating the distance between the first and last spindle and figuring out exactly where the holes should be drilled.

I first used a piece of tape to place down the centre of the baserail. I then precisely marked the centre line so that each spindle would be placed exactly in the centre. Then with some trial and error, I figured out exactly where each spindle should go. I wanted a 2″ gap but because of the length, the spacing ended up being slightly more than that at around 2¼”.

Once all the centres were marked, I then used a punch and made dents at each location. We then used these dents to drill each hole. Each hole was 5/8″ to match the dowels in the bottom of each spindle.

Once all the holes were drilled, we had to cut each spindle to the right height. Because our floors aren’t level but we wanted the handrail to be, each spindle was a different height. We measured each one individually and marked them carefully so we knew their location.

Once all the spindles were cut, I sanded, primed and painted each one. It was much easier painting them before they were installed. I painted the handrail pieces at the same time.

After two agonizing coats, we were ready to install the spindles!

We had to install the handrail and spindles at the same time. It was sometimes awkward to get everything in place because the spindles would get out of alignment and we didn’t have enough hands. But eventually it worked.

For the centre spindles, we used wood dowels to add some extra support, mostly because our handrail wasn’t perfectly straight and we needed to draw it down in the centre where it bowed. 

When all the spindles were in and the handrail was in place, it looked great!

The final (and very tedious) step was to secure each spindle using a filler piece under the handrail. We created the filler piece when we made the handrail so that it fit perfectly in the trench.

We wanted each spindle to be plumb, but because our house isn’t straight or level, we sometimes had to make them off-plumb. This step was particularly tedious because each filler piece was a slightly different length. So we couldn’t just measure the distance between each spindle and cut a bunch of filler pieces to that length. It was much more manual (and therefore took longer).

When each spindle was in place and secured by the filler piece, we then had to work on the finishing touches.

We filled our screw holes with wood plugs and caulked around any piece that had any gaps.

Once all the caulking was done, I did a final coat of paint to hide any imperfections. This step was tedious and time consuming.

When we installed the new baseboard down the side of the stairs and went to paint it, we decided that it might be nice to paint the stairs. The old wooden stairs were really messy looking and since I was painting everything around the stairs anyways, why not?

Painting the Stairs

The first step was to prime the stairs. This was probably the worst step (no pun intended), because the stairs are extremely marked up and getting paint into every nook and cranny wasn’t easy. I also painted every other step and allowed them to dry so we could still move up and down the stairs.

Once they were primed, it was time to paint them. 

I painted them with 3 coats of our trim paint, but when I inquired with our trusty paint store, they told us that only an oil-based paint would really hold up.

Well, since it was winter and we couldn’t open the windows and I was almost 8 months pregnant, we decided that we couldn’t really do this ourselves. Luckily we were headed for a mini vacation a week later so my dad painted them while we were away.

Three coats later (so really 6 coats later), they were done!

This project took about 3 solid weekends and a few weeknights of work and really tested our patience, but we were extremely happy with the end results. We love the contrast between the original Victorian handrail and spindles and the new, modern look of the white stairs. Once we create the new stair opening to the basement, it will really tie everything together.

But to install a new handrail and spindles on the second floor, we had to decide what we wanted to install in the basement and first floor so we had a consistent design.

Design

I really wanted to contrast the Victorian-style existing staircase with a modern look.

But finding modern stair parts is actually pretty challenging. And figuring out what things are called it part of that challenge. I found this resource useful. I’m pretty sure that most really great looking staircases are custom designed and made. So we had to do the same.

Because this stair project was super time consuming and we needed to get our floors done, we installed the baserail and trim first and did the handrail and spindles later. But we had to figure out the entire thing beforehand so that we knew exactly what dimensions things needed to be.

Understanding Stair Parts

The handrail is pretty self explanatory. It’s the part that you hold on to as you either walk up the stairs or that acts as a barrier from falling down the stairs to your death. 

Balusters, or spindles, are the parts that keep the structure of the stairs and prevent you (or someone very short) from falling.

The edging around the stair opening is called a stair nosing (although I’ve seen it called other things) and usually has a rounded edge (usually because the stair tread is also rounded). See left picture below.

The baserail is the piece of wood that the spindles fit into. Because we were going for a modern look, I didn’t want the normal baserail style, which usually includes a plow (a notch in the wood for the spindle to sit in). I find them too traditional for my taste and I don’t like that they sit above the finished floor height. See right picture below.

All of these pieces had to come together in a way that made sense around our stair opening. Alex and I spent a lot of time figuring out exactly what these pieces would look like and finally came up with a plan that would hopefully work.

Designing Stair Parts

Designing each part of the stairs was complicated and took a long time. We started with the handrail and spindles because everything else was based on them.

Our existing handrail was pretty traditional but I wanted something more modern (like in our design inspiration photo). I decided that I wanted a handrail with pretty sharp edges (at least in look), so we planned to buy a piece of oak and cut it to the right width and thickness. We landed on a 2½”-wide handrail (the old one was 2¼”) and about 1¼” thick.

I wanted square spindles and we managed to find some at Rona, of all places. And they were fairly cheap: $3.89 each, on sale.

Finding edging pieces that I liked was also nearly impossible. Most edging is rounded (to match traditional rounded stair treads) and I really don’t like the look. So I had my dad make a few pieces with sharper edges to see what it would look like. It looked much better!

Finally, I wanted the spindles to go directly into the floor, so creating the baserail was fairly simple. The plan was to create a baserail piece that was exactly the same width as the handrail (2½”) and would sit directly below the handrail so the spindles fit in the middle of it.

Stair Construction

Because we were constructing our new stair pieces at the same time as our hardwood floor installation, we had to time the construction in a certain way so that we could finish all of the parts of the stairs that would be sanded as part of the other floor work.

Stair Tread

We started by installing the top step of the stairs so we could frame around it.

We purchased a solid oak stair from Rona and made some complicated cuts to fit it in place. Unfortunately we didn’t follow the measure-twice-cut-once rule, so we ended up having to buy a new tread and start again.

We cut a new hole into the stringer so the step would have some extra support.

Because of the thickness of the stair tread, we decided to remove the subfloor so that we didn’t have to plane the tread very much. And when we planed it, we made sure that it would sit exactly flush (or very very close to flush) with our new hardwood.

And we made sure that the stair was securely fastened so there would be no movement. Ever.

Baserail and Edging

Next we created the baserail and edge pieces.

Before we could install the baserail and edge pieces, we had to square up our stair opening. We removed the drywall around the opening and shimmed it until it was square.

Instead of drywall, we used a thin plywood (which we painted) to finish the wall.

Once we knew exactly where the edge of the wall would be, we could figure out where the edging piece and baserail would sit. In our design, we planned to have a small overhang (sort of like an upside down L). But when we actually went to install the piece, we decided to simply have a piece of 3/8″ oak (to be flush with the hardwood) that went straight out into the stair opening by 1/8″ (so no upside down L shape). We knew where the baserail would sit and then calculated how wide the edging piece needed to be. Then we cut and planed our oak. 

The turn in the stair opening was created by mitering the pieces.

We how have to wait until our floors are finished to install the rest of the stairs.