Project scope creep: newel posts, banisters, balusters

[Susie]

We placed the order for materials for our HW floors in the new house today.  We're doing natural cherry, finished in place, throughout the whole house except kitchen, baths, and laundry room.  Stairs will be cherry treads with white risers.  We're going to wait & see on whether we need a runner.  I'm so glad we got the flooring order in, because inventory has been so volatile lately.

Anyway, the stairs currently have the 1994 original oak newel post and banister, and white painted balusters.  The top of the stairs has another newel post and short banister at right, where the hall turns a corner, that matches the downstairs.  Listing photo:



The newel post is going to come out for flooring install along with the tile, so that the floor can be laid continuously across the base of the stairs.  An oak newel post isn't going to look good next to the cherry to put back.  If we change the newel post, we should also change the oak banister.  And if we change that, now seems like the time to also do the balusters.  If you give a mouse a cookie...

I hadn't previously given a ton of thought to this piece of the project.  Any recommendations of what you've done and liked?  Done and not liked?  Seen and want to do?

We have terribly cheap iron one-piece deals in our current house, and I've always loathed them, but now that I have the opportunity to do exactly what I want, it turns out I don't know!

[origami]

I’d just paint and restain them to match, if that’s possible
:

[Susie]

Staining to match will not be possible, because we’re doing natural, unstained cherry for the floors. Can’t stain oak to look like unstained cherry. The color and grain will both differ.

[origami]

Oooooh it’s unstained. I missed that. In that case, how about... Paint: www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-staircase-traditional-staircase-dc-metro-phvw-vp~1076604

Or just replace the banister to match the floors (white newel): www.houzz.com/photos/tequesta-waterfront-manor-beach-style-staircase-miami-phvw-vp~49762169

Modern: www.houzz.com/photos/kings-place-farmhouse-staircase-orange-county-phvw-vp~75511348

[aspentosh]

We redid all of those pieces (but not the stairs) at the beginning of COVID when we had allllll the time in the world, lol. And I am glad we did because it's made such a huge difference. Ours were all painted white and were gloppy and ugh. We did a white newel post and black iron balusters and it looks really great.

We also have cherry floors and the white looks awesome with it. And with white risers it'll be even more cohesive. Here are some in progress shots.




The only thing that was a bummer is because of project material shortages we had to make our own newel post, so it's a bit clunkier than I would have liked. But you can buy newel posts that are basically hollow and then paint them to match. All the ones we liked were OOS for months.

[Deleted]

Here's what I would do. Get a new, squared off newel post for the top and bottom to be painted white. Paint all of the railings white. And replace the balusters with black wrought iron similar to what aspentosh did. There are lots of different options that you could get with those types of balusters as well from traditional to more modern That will probably be the least expensive option with the most bang for your buck. If you want to take it a little further, I really like the look of the horizontal rails, but that may be a bit more modern than you are looking for.

[aprilsails]

We did oak posts and banisters with square iron balusters for our new build. My BIL works for a stairs and rails company so he did it all for us. We never even chose the style or finish he just did it for us.

I like it. I think you should modernize. You will be frustrated with yourself if you don’t take this opportunity.

@@@ DS is a ham and wouldn’t get out of the picture. Here’s a detail shot of the post so you get a look at the style BIL went with.

[icedcoffee]

The style you currently have is pretty outdated (not a critique, it's what we have too) so I would use this as an opportunity to upgrade to the current trend of black balusters like aspentosh did. I think it will really give the house a new and fresh feel.

We did black balusters on our outside deck a couple years ago and it really is nice. Take the focus off the balusters and lets you better see what's around it instead.

[aspentosh]

And honestly, it was a really reasonably priced project. We DIYed it but the balusters are like $3 each at HD or Lowes so you could always supply that yourself and try and keep the cost down. I think we paid less than $500 for the entire project and it made a HUGE impact on our entry.

[simpsongal]

I actually prefer white spindles, I think it's classic and looks nice w/the white risers. If I were you, I would spend extra to make it what you want - flip through houzz, etc. for inspiration pics.

re- runner, I'd get one. I fell down our stairs a couple weeks ago (slipped wearing socks). I added stickers to each tread to help prevent future falls. I mentioned the fall to other parents at tball and whatnot and heard so many similar stories.

[Susie]

aspentosh , that looks so much better!  Your "before" is basically exactly what ours would look like if all we did was paint ours white.  The "after" is def worth it.  And I'm glad to hear it wasn't $$$ to do.  The quote for our floors came in surprisingly reasonably (to me) but we're still working through getting an approved contract, inspection, and appraisal on our sale, so we really don't know yet how much money we're going to net, and therefore have to play with in the end.  It just seems like now is a good time to do it if we can.

I'm not sure yet whether I want black iron or white painted balusters, but either way we go, I agree that the shape of what we have is very dated, and I'd prefer something much narrower and lighter.

[k3am]

I agree with PP's, I'd take this opportunity to modernize. And now I have something else on my (endless) list of things that need to be updated in our house..

[divanerd]

Thanks ladies. I like the look of both black and white balusters.

Decisions we are updating our stairs, gate and bathrooms next month

[ellipses84]

I can’t see the original pic, but I say update it all now. If you want wood stain to match, you have to do it now with the floors. I think stairs can look good with a wood / black wrought iron combo or a wood / white painted wood combo or all painted white. They key to making it look modern or less dated, is the shape of the spindles and simple square / rectangular shapes are popular now. Anything too fussy/ curvy is going to seem dated.