Designed Stairs

Designed Stairs has the experience to design structural, open-riser staircases that are also beautiful works of contemporary art.

  • Luxury Staircases in the Midwest

    Traditional European stair-building methods were transferred to the US along with immigrant craftsmen in the early years of our country’s history. The Great Depression caused the stair-building arts to almost disappear. The resurgence of the two-story home in the 1950’s and 60’s caused stair-builders to spring up in most major metropolitan areas across the country with a concentration from New York to Chicago.

    The highest concentration of traditional full-milled stair shops remains in the Midwest, with Chicago being one of the most concentrated markets.

     

    The popularity of the stair trade in the Midwest is partly due to the strong tradition of the open staircase in single family homes. Farm house style and a strong urban element from historic Chicago architecture have combined to create high standards for open staircases. As with all free-market supply and demand, the importance of the open staircase in the Midwest has fed the strength and development of the stair industry to perhaps the highest level in history. 

    The strong background and tradition of the stair trade has been boosted by CNC technologies, to bring design and quality to new levels. This also means that the average Midwest home is able to have stair and rail designs that may be out of the question in other regions of the country.

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  • High-End Staircases in the Midwest

    Traditional European stair-building methods were transferred to the US along with immigrant craftsmen in the early years of our country’ history. The Great Depression caused the stair-building arts to almost disappear. The resurgence of the two-story home in the 1950’s and 60’s caused stair-builders to spring up in most major metropolitan areas across the country with a concentration from New York to Chicago.

    The highest concentration of traditional full-milled stair shops remains in the Midwest, with Chicago being one of the most concentrated markets.

    The popularity of the stair trade in the Midwest is partly due to the strong tradition of the open staircase in single family homes. Farm house style and a strong urban element from historic Chicago architecture have combined to create high standards in the role of the open staircase. As with all free-market supply and demand, the importance of the open staircase in the Midwest has fed the strength and development of the stair industry to perhaps the highest level in history.

    The strong background and tradition of the stair trade has been boosted by CNC technologies, to bring design and quality to new levels. This also means that the average Midwest home is able to have stair and rail designs that may be out of the question in other regions of the country.

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  • Victorian Stairs and Rails — Features That Make Them Grand

    Victorian-Era foyers tended to be rather narrow and deep. Despite the frequent space challenges, they managed to fit some amazing stairs and rails into that space.

    The most prominent feature of a Victorian staircase is a very large starting newel. Victorian newels would have been either turned on a lathe, or, most commonly, built as an octagon. The amount of detail on these newels just never seemed to end. It can be surprising that an octagon newel can take anywhere from 4 hours to 40 hours to build by hand. The base of a Victorian newel can range in size from 6″ to 10″. Many Victorian staircases feature one large starting newel with a large rail cap bolted to the top of the newel. The stair rails commonly ascend and twist to the upper floors without the occurrence of intermediate newels.


    Hand Carved Curved Rail

    Perhaps the most beautiful feature of the Victorian balustrade was the large hand-carved rail sections. These hand-carved sections were necessary to eliminate intermediate newels and fit the railings into confined spaces. Today, few stair shops can replicate these hand carved rail sections which require many years of specialized training.

    Victorian Era railings are often in need of repair as they tend to loosen with age. This is due to failure of the antiquated “hide glue” and the lack of intermediate newels. Most modern stair designs would use more newels within the rail system and much improved wood adhesives. Victorian era railings were also very short — typically from 27-30″ high. Today rake rail height required by code is 34″ to 38″.

    Large Newels Typical of Victorian Era

    Large newel typical of Victorian Era

    Large newel typical of Victorian Era

    See more Victorian newels on our Wood, Turned Newels page or on our Wood, Boxed/Trimmed Newels page.

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  • How to Fix a Squeaking Stair

    A squeak in a stair is generally caused as the lumber dries out over time. Hardwoods are regulated by industry standards for a moisture content of 6-8%. This matches the moisture content inside the average home and allows the wood to remain stable under normal conditions.

    Pine (grades used for basement stairs and stairs to be fully covered with carpet) has a typical high moisture content of 12-16%. Over time as pine shrinks built stairs will begin to squeak.

    If your stair is squeaking, check the humidity level in your home as a first step. Verify where the squeak is coming from. You may hear a squeak walking up the stair, but it could be coming from the framing material rubbing against the stair, and not the stair itself.

    Tools to fix a squeaking stair

    How to Fix

    You can typically fix the squeak, as simply as “toe nailing”* a long nail or two in the area that is squeaking. That is not to say more squeaks won’t develop over time, as the lumber continues to dry out to equal the humidity level of your home.

    *Toenailing: driving a nail at an angle into a board. It makes a strong joint while it also pulls joining boards into position.

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  • Amazing Stairs: Gone with the Wind — Mr. Bulter’s Residence

    Gone With the Wind - Mr. Butler's Mansion

    The 1939 film Gone With The Wind features four beautiful staircases that have come to define the elegance, grace and grandeur of interior stair design. One of the most popular staircases in movie history is the red carpeted stair within the opulent Butler Mansion, on which Scarlett O’Hara sits in the final scene.

    The staircase is a straight stair with 23 treads and 24 risers. It is approx.12 ft. wide and features an ornate balustrade of William and Mary architecture. The ornate panels inset below the handrail are hand-carved wood with a pattern that is similar to the carving on the newel posts.

    The massive handrails were made from several pieces and have height of nearly 12 inches. Each of the four newels are approx. 12″ wide and the top caps form a pedestal for a light fixture at each location.

    At the top of the stair, there are horizontal rail sections that form an overlook to the foyer on the left and the right.

    This elaborate staircase was designed by Lyle Wheeler who won an Academy Award for his design work on the 90 sets and 50 full size buildings used in the movie. The stair was built on a Hollywood sound stage and torn down as soon as filming was completed. Little is known about the craftsmen that built one of America’s most amazing staircases.

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  • Amazing Staircases: Gone With the Wind

    Gone With the Wind - Aunt Pittypat's stair

    The 1939 film Gone With The Wind features four beautiful staircases that have come to define the elegance, grace and grandeur of interior stair design. The staircase in the foyer of Aunt Pittypat’s home in Atlanta would probably be closer in design and layout to authentic homes of that time than the other stairs featured in the movie.

    Aunt Pittypat’s stair is a U-shaped stair that has painted stringers, risers, balusters and newels and hardwood rail, and treads. The stringers feature ornate stringer brackets that highlight the area below each tread.

    At the first floor, the rail begins the ascent with a fantastic cap and 90 degree rail fitting that sits atop a twisted starting newel. The stair ascends 13 risers to a double landing that has about 2 ft. of horizontal rail across it. From the landing, another 9 risers bring you to the second floor, which actually did exist in part on this set. The rail is a 5″ x 4″ box rail that is very similar to the rail used on the Tara stair, and the balusters are an alternating twist pattern similar to the Twelve Oaks staircase.

    Like the other stairs in the movie, it was only built as part of a temporary set and torn apart as soon as filming was over. Little is know about the actual stair builders that built these amazing staircases, but it was designed by Lyle Wheeler who won an Academy Award for his design work on the 90 sets and 50 full size buildings used in the movie.

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  • Amazing Stairs: Gone with the Wind — Welcome to Tara

    Gone With the Wind - Tara Stair

    The 1939 film Gone With The Wind features four beautiful staircases that have come to define the elegance, grace and grandeur of interior stair design.

    Tara, the O’Hara family plantation, features a U-shaped staircase with Georgian style design and a stain and paint finish. The handrail is an approximately 5″ wide and 4″ high “box rail” and the balusters are 2 inch square top and bottom, reflective of Georgian design.

    The stair ascends from a beautiful half circle starting tread and descending volute on the left hand side for 12 treads to the oversized landing. The horizontal rail at the landing lifts up with 90 degree upeasings on each end between the newel posts. The stair then continues for another 8 treads to the 2nd floor.

    Interestingly, there never was a second floor as this stair was built on a sound stage for the filming of the interior scenes of the film, then torn down immediately after filming was completed. The exterior set of Tara was only a facade for filming and had no interior detail.

    The staircase was designed by Lyle Wheeler who won an Academy Award for his design work on the 90 sets and 50 full size buildings used in the Movie. Even though Tara’s staircase was short lived, it’s place in film history as well as American history makes it an amazing staircase.

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  • Amazing Stairs: Titanic — Grand Staircase

    Titanic - Grande Staircase

    The RMS Titanic’s “Grande Staircase” refers to a series of six custom staircases designed for use by the ship’s First Class Passengers.

    The most ornate staircase was the curved stair from the Promonade deck up to the First Class Lounge on the Boat Deck which was lit during the day by a 20 ft. diameter dome of milk glass and wrought iron. This “T” shaped staircase was fabricated from English White Oak and featured classic William And Mary woodwork and inset Louis XIV iron panels.

    The staircase began with a bowed double quarter circle starting tread that was approx. 20 ft. across. The stringers and rails on either side were curved, or “flared” to allow the stair width to shrink to 10 ft. at the intermediate landing. There was a 16″ carved newel/pedestal directly in the center of the start of the stair with a bronze statue of a cherub holding an electric light fixture above it’s head. A center handrail and balustrade ascended 11 treads from this center newel, allowing passengers to use either the left or the right side of the staircase. At the intermediate landing, another six treads lead either 90 degrees to the left or to the right.

    The extent of handcarved detail and ornamental iron work coupled with the massive size of the components the five story layout makes this one of the world’s most amazing stairs. Athough these stairs were destroyed during the sinking of the Titanic, identical balustrade sections from the sister ship, The Olympic, were salvaged and are in use at the White Swan Hotel in England.

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  • Amazing Stairs: The Nathanial Russell House

    The Nathanial Russell House (1808) in historic Charleston, SC features two of the most noted curved staircases in the world. The two curved staircases are “freestanding” (no supporting walls beneath the stairs) and rise from the first floor to the 3rd floor in a counter-clockwise direction offering a continuous handrail on the left hand side as you ascend.

    The stair construction is notable in that there are no structural stringers (main support members) used. Each tread and riser section are fastened to a framed box made from Southern Yellow Pine, and each box is offset (cantilevered) and bolted to the box beneath it; the top and bottom box are bolted to the floor. Beneath the joined frame boxes, another curved frame member is attached so that there is a place to attach the lath and plaster to the backside of the stair. The sides of this framing were then covered with plaster and painted to resemble stringers.

    Restoration work was undertaken in 1955 and the staircases had sagged up to 4″ in the centers. The plaster backing was removed in an attempt to tighten up the framing, but both stairs ended up being bolted into the walls via metal brackets to hold them up.

    The handrail is also a curiosity to modern stair designers as the sides of the rail are made from a bendable trim piece and the top is cut from many short sections that are pieced together to create the curve. The design is elliptical in nature and not built to a radius.

    The finished line of these stairs is evidence of near perfect geometry and the flow is one of the best I have seen. In spite of the unusual construction, these truly are amazing stairs.

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  • Historic Restoration of a Curved Stair & Curved Stair Railing

    Curved rail restoration

    Designed Stairs was called in to assess and restore a 1874 black walnut curved stair and curved stair rail. Abraham J. Hoffman built the stately River Forest Young Ladies Seminary in River Forest, IL in 1874. The building had many uses before it fell into disrepair prior to the eventual restoration in 1994. Many parts of the 180 degree curved staircase had deteriorated beyond repair and we determined that a combination of reconstruction and restoration would be the best course of action.

    The existing staircase and hand rail system were carefully measured, drawn and photographed before being disassembled and transported to Designed Stairs shop. The stair stringers, treads and risers had to be completely rebuilt due to water and animal damage, while the large walnut starting newel was able to be repaired. The handrail had been carved from solid black walnut stock and consisted of four sections bolted together end to end. The horizontal rail from the second floor was missing, along with many of the balusters. We carefully disassembled the four sections of rail. Each section was then scraped and sanded to remove the old varnish and prep the wood for a new finish.

    Curved rail restoration horizontal

    It was noted that the original craftsman had written the job name as “Abraham Hoffman” on the rail ends that had been bolted together. The inscription was documented and noted to the Museum staff.

    New bolts were placed and the rail reassembled and finish sanded. Several new black walnut balusters were made to match the existing originals and the horizontal 2nd floor rail and fitting were hand made to match the original stair rail. The new staircase was installed at the site and the rail system replaced in the exact position that it was originally set in 1874.

    The Trail Side Museum in Forest Park is open to the public — stop in and take a look. [Map]

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