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Stair Article Tip
Most stairways can be seen as you enter the front door the reason being
you can treated as a piece of furniture. Something extremely decorative
and nice to look at. If you notice as you walk in the front door in most
houses you will be able to see the stairs, living room and dining room.
The reason for this is simple most architects realize your living room
and dining room are focal points in your home. Your stairway being a
nether focal point should be nice to gaze upon.
How To Make Your Stairs Get Stares
by: Shawn Capell
A dramatic staircase can be the focal point of a home’s interior.
Remember Scarlett O’Hara’s sweeping entrances down the central stairway
at Tara, in Gone with the Wind? Even 60s sit-com The Brady Bunch had a
stairway that saw a lot of action. But some of the most endearing
moments have surrounded the newel post. Who can forget George Bailey’s
daily encounters with the newel post knob in It’s a Wonderful Life?
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The newel posts are the taller posts on a stairway at the head, at the
foot, or when the stair changes directions. In a spiral staircase, it’s
the central post or column around which the steps wind, providing
support for the entire staircase. Although structurally important, this
does not begin to convey the dynamic possibilities for design and style
inherent in these stairway focal points.
It’s no wonder that owners of old houses wax eloquent about
stripping and refinishing newel posts that have suffered the
indignities of time or redecorating. |
Others search through salvage and antique shops looking
for just the right cap or light to set the post off as the crown jewel
of the staircase.
A staircase is one of the primary mood-setters of a home, a place where
the homeowner can announce his or her individual style. It might range
from understated Early American to the ornate boldness of Victorian
excess. The quickest and easiest way to make a design statement is by
redesigning the decorative elements of a stairway, such as the handrail
or banister, the vertical support balusters, and the anchoring newel
post at the base (all together called the balustrade).
To make the most of your staircase’s beauty, be sure that newel post is
not only sturdy and strong, but it also reflects your style.
Newels can be square and imposing, or they can be larger versions of the
other stair rails. They can be turned in similar shapes as the rest of
the stair, or they can have distinctive shapes or carvings.
Top them off with an interesting shape—the caps on top come in countless
shapes such as balls, acorns, pyramids, or simply square or flat. Newel
post caps can even be custom carved to reflect your interior. For
example, in log cabins, newel caps have been known to take the shape of
forest creatures such as squirrels or owls.
For a home of one of the types below, use these stairway design ideas to
complete the look.
Saltbox, Federal, Colonial Revival houses
The simpler the better in these early examples of American architecture.
Amateur carpenters built the earliest American houses, and their designs
reflected their modest decorative skills—straight, sticklike balusters
and unadorned newel posts. Often in Federal homes, the rectangular
balusters were painted to blend in or disappear against the walls.
Greek Revival, Italianate, Colonial Revival houses
For one of these homes, you’ll most likely want your stairway to include
more subtle decoration. Architectural pattern books, which came into
vogue in the early 19th century, gave carpenters the resources they
needed to add decoration to their stairways, with more complex profiles
and newel posts with simple caps or classical cornices.
Second Empire, Queen Anne, Tudor houses
These homes require more elaborate detailing. The mid- to late-19th
century brought high decoration to the masses, as industrialization and
the transcontinental railroad allowed manufacturers to churn out and
deliver factory-made house parts. For the first time, middle-class
homeowners could afford the most ornate and intricate details. Elaborate
stair designs of the period featured complicated carving, newels
embellished with urns and other fanciful caps, and thick turned
balusters meant to evoke the solidity of carved stone.
Neoclassical, Spanish Colonial Revival houses
If you were wondering where is the place for ornamental metalwork,
you’ve found it. Cast- or wrought-iron elements, more products of the
decorative late-19th-century Victorian era, are flashier than wood and
lend themselves to grand, curved staircases. Metal’s versatility allows
design details to be simple and linear or wildly elaborate. Unpainted
iron, dark by nature, can make a room without ample light seem even
dimmer. Lighter metals like bronze, used to create the sunflower and
leaf details pictured here, lend a more open feel.
Craftsman, Prairie houses
Here, of course, the look would include natural simplicity. In a
backlash against late-Victorian-era busyness, artisans of the early 20th
century started a movement that celebrated handcrafted details and the
beauty of natural materials. On staircases, this arts-and-crafts
aesthetic took the form of boxy newel posts, often topped with pyramidal
caps or rustic lanterns, and slat-shaped balusters designed to show off
the grain of the wood.
International, Post Modern, Contemporary houses
The bold geometric shapes and metallic surfaces of these houses lend
themselves to a more minimalist look. Most modern stair designs take the
natural simplicity style one step further, exposing all the working
elements and eschewing trim, moldings, and other decoration. Because
this type of stair is meant to be viewed as if it were a piece of
sculpture, it looks best in an open space where the entire structure is
visible.
From the newel posts to the shape of the stairs, your stairway says
something about your and your design sense. Bring your stairway beyond
merely the functional with rich design.
About The Author
Shawn Capell is the cofounder of
http://Stairwarehouse.com . Stair Warehouse specializes in beautiful
American Cherry stair parts, ornamental contemporary and iron balusters
and Newel Posts. Visit them today at Stairwarehouse.com to find Newel
Posts
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