Newel post dilemma

Last year, we had a staircase to our loft installed and the basement stairs refaced.

We also had the hardwood floors on the main floor refinished. We pulled out all the existing railings at that time, with the plan to install new railings all the way around — on the staircases and along this opening in the floor (there’s a similar opening in the loft floor as well):

Well, it’s been almost a year, and these gaping holes and both staircases are still railing-less. Hubby insists that he’s going to build and install the railings, but at this point, I’m on the brink of writing to Bryan Baeumler at Disaster DIY and begging him to help before we have a real disaster!!

Here’s the style of the railing that hubby is going to build (pardon my snicker, I just don’t see him being able to build this!!)

And here’s a drawing with the newel post that I designed and hubby created in some fancy-schmancy CAD-like program that lets you create cool 3-D drawings that you can spin around and do all sorts of spiffy things with. Too bad it won’t actually build the design for you!! ;-)

I’m going for a sort of Craftsman look. The spindles will be metal and the posts will be wood (the handrail isn’t in this drawing, but will be wood too). The little squares at the tops of the newel posts are inserts of little glass & metal tiles. The post on the left has raised detailing in metal, the post on the right has the same raised detailing in wood — I can’t decide which way to go.

According to hubby, he can’t build anything until I make a decision on the final newel post design. Grrrr!!!

What do you think?? Does it look OK?? Do you have any suggestions for improving the design?? Remember, the longer it takes me to decide on the final newel post design, the longer we have huge holes in our floors that could swallow up all the inhabitants of our house!!

If you have pictures of newel posts or know of web sites with good newel post designs, please leave a comment with the info and/or send me pictures at jaxdecoranddesign@gmail.com

Thanks!!

 

I’ve had thE two railing pictures in my inspiration folder for years and can’t remember where they came from.