Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
flseadog

Staircase handrail: match floor or different wood?

flseadog
15 years ago

I have always dreamed of having a very dark wood handrail with white painted balusters and newel post with a volute at the bottom of the stairs. I've seen so many pictures of historic homes with this combination but usually the commentary is on the antique furniture and no one mentions what wood was used for the handrail.

Do any of you have any suggestions on what wood to use to achieve this? The floor and stair treads are already cumaru which DH had his heart set on. Should we just match the handrail to the floor? If not, what would be the best wood to use and how are handrails finished? The floor will have waterlox or something similar but it seems to me that the handrail should be finished or polished in some way to keep it from absorbing oil from all the hands using it for support. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Comment (1)

  • breezy_2
    15 years ago

    I think the rails s/b the same look as your floors for the best results IMO. White balusters to compliment the look would be stunning IMO.

    Try L.J. Smith for the best selection of products to use. Cumaru can probably be custom made but would be very expensive. LJ Smith has several choices in various woods and various prices. We put in antique heart pine floors and to have custom rails made from the same materials was going to be outrageously expensive. I selected several good hard woods that stain well and got some samples of maple and poplar. I then mixed my own stain, trial and error in small amounts recording the ratio of parts and stained the samples until I got a good match. In the end, I found poplar was easiest to match in my case.

    I then handed everything over to the painter and he stained and finished the rails and they match perfectly! The final finish is Waterlox. Waterlox is a tung oil based varnish product that is very durable and very suitable for a handrail. It will protect against oils, dirt etc and cleans up quite well.

    I know it seems odd that i mixed my own stain but it is not that hard and it was the only way I could be sure I was happy with the color. In short, insted of telling the painter "how about trying a little more of this color and see" I just looked at it and used my own judgement (and time and patience). BTW, I recommend oil based gel stains. This was the first time I had used the gel stains and I found them to be quite nice to use and very forgiving (even for my painter). Also, I had read a lot about preconditioning wood before staining. I found maple and poplar to stain very evenly and well and took on a much more rich look without using a wood conditiner.

    Sorry for the long winded response but I hope it helps. Having been there and done that, I know something like a hand rail seems like such a little thing but it makes such a powerful statement when done well.