Solving the Stairway Dilemma

One of the problems with living in a home during substantial remodeling is the sometimes piecemeal approach you must take to projects out of shear necessity and sanity. Case in point: our stairs from the second floor into the family room / kitchen.


This space was unfinished and open for a long time and was often a ground zero dividing line between living areas and work areas for different phases of our remodeling. And not being very experienced in trim carpentry, we never were quite sure exactly how to complete the transition. But after finally consulting with several people (who insisted it was much easier than we were making it out to be), we developed a sort of hybrid solution of various ideas.

First of all, instead of having the handrail terminate directly into the wood jamb and center column, Jay decided to use some extra plinth blocks he had to make a decorative terminal for the handrail, shown in the image here.

We still have plans to do a craftsman-ish trim design on the center column, which will focus on three raised pieces of oak trim, and to echo that triple motif, we decided to arrange the stair banisters in groups of three. Instead of the typical turned oak spindles, we wanted to keep the straight lines of the era and went with 1" rectangular spindles, shown here as we waited for the two coats of "Rosewood" stain to dry. Speaking of this stain color, it took a lot of experimenting to find a stain that best matched the vintage 1912 trim in the house, and we even mixed different stains together. But ultimately, the rosewood came to be the closest match and after a couple of coats, gave the depth and color that we wanted. Best of all, this is a water-based stain (not oil-based) so cleanup and any mistakes were a breeze to handle, and there weren't any noxious fumes.

Anyway, back to our stairs dilemma. While it was obvious that the stairway spindles would attach to the bottom of the handrail, we struggled with how to finish the bottoms. Should we create a bottom rail parallel to the top handrail that would be slightly above the stairs themselves, or should we carry the spindles all the way to the treads of the stairs? We decided to go with the latter.

Of course, none of this could have been done without Kenny's woodworking expertise, and Jay's meticulous attention to the painstaking detailed work of staining trim. Folks, if you're considering installing trim before staining it, please - learn from us and reconsider! It is very difficult and time consuming to go back after having painted to stain (you'll end up having to do a lot of touch up paint anyway!)



Anyway, although it was incredibly labor and time intensive for just a few square feet, we're very pleased with how the stairwell turned out. When its warm again, we plan to create some detail work on the center column that will echo the triple-pattern of the stair banisters. The plan is to have three 1-inch vertical oak trim pieces hanging from a horizontal band that wraps around the column, to lend the room more of a craftsman feel.

Time for Trim, Craftsman Style

We're down to the final stretch in our kitchen remodel. Those finishing touches that add that extra sparkle to a finished space. Yes, the trim.

I'm glad we remodeled elsewhere in the house first as it's given us perspective and time to figure out how to approach this. And also a chance to research different options. When finishing the basement (our first big project), we went with cheap modern trim options. Not quite as basic as plain ranch casing, but not very consistent with a 95-year-old house either.



However, we wanted our kitchen to flow with the rest of the house, and making the trim similar is an important part of accomplishing this. While we saved all trim that was removed before our remodeling, we quickly realized there would not be enough and without thing feeling too disjointed, we would have to get new trim for most of the kitchen / family room area. Our bungalow has trim pretty consistent with traditional Oak Park area arts and crafts homes, in that the casing for doors and windows is plain and squarish with no mitered corners.



The doorways all have a 9" plinth block at the base to transition from the baseboard trim, which is a 3-piece system of a tall baseboard with a separate curved cap, and then shoe molding along the base (similar to quarter-round) to finish it off. At the tops of the doorways and windows, there are no mitered corners. Instead, the 4" vertical casing ends against a small bullnose piece of trim about 3/8" tall. Above this is a square 1x6 board, with crown molding attached to the top. The trim throughout most of our workingman's home was done in pine or fir instead of the more expensive oak. However, the pine of 95 years ago was old-growth pine, much harder and more durable than today's pine.

During this process, the book The New Decorating with Architectural Trimwork, with detailed descriptions on built-up arts and crafts trim was a great resource in identifying the finer points of our home's style.

A quick trip to the local bigbox hardware stores revealed that it would be tricky if not impossible ot try and replicate this with today's trim options. So it was time to investigate some specialty suppliers. David suggested we check out OWL Hardwood or Hines lumber.

Armed with the renovation experience of having to make multiple trips for any given project, I naturally chose the closer of the two. And learning that Hines Lumber also has a commitment to sustainability was a big plus as well. In fact, they even carry Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) rated lumber. While this certified sustainable lumber is intended for framing and not trim work like we needed, it was good to learn they backed up their word and weren't just trying to "greenwash" their business.

One of the other decisions we had to make was to decide whether to go with pine (cheaper) or red oak (more expensive) for the trim options. David mentioned that since both are harvested locally (within 200 miles), the sustainability factor was sort of a toss-up. It really came down to what we could afford and prefer.

After a thorough analysis, we decided to do a mix of woods. All the baseboard trim would be in pine, and all door and window trim would be in oak. That way we could add a greater sense of character to our newly renovated kitchen / family room area and still blend it with the rest of the house. And once the trim is stained, there shouldn't be too much of a difference.

From working with the helpful reps at Hines, we were able to find trim profiles that were actually really close to the trim elsewhere in the home. The only thing that is really different is the crown molding profile, but it isn't too noticeable unless you really study the two side by side in the hallway.

Realizing we may have to repaint, we've taken an unconventional approach of installing all the trim before staining and finishing it due to some time constraints we're working with.

There are few more elaborate craftsman-style trim details we plan on stairwell shelves and the column dividing the hall and stairs from the family room, but we'll post more on that another time.

But so far the transformational results have been amazing, and the house really flows well now, with a nice blend between the "old" and the "new."

December 2008 Update: We finally did stain the trim and finish the stairwell.

The Trash Man Cometh!

Jay arranged to have a dumpster unloaded in our backyard today, and elected me to let the guy in and pay him. We have a 10 cubic yard dumpster for as long as we need to fill it up for $275. Probably won't take long though once we get all that ugly panelling removed. Lookit this ugliness in what will be our office:


Interestingly, you can see in this picture that some Previous Owner's love of arches. These things get carried throughout the whole downstairs area - to the point that they even built one in front of this door frame, so when the door is closed, you see an arch from the dining room!