Renovation Reveal: Banister and Railing

Replacement of the banister and railing was a last minute addition to our most recent round of renovations. We knew that our banister was a safety hazard (and ugly) and our lack of railing was also problematic, but we originally planned to address them a little closer to the time that our little one would be moving around. However, as the renovations lagged on and our costs stayed within budget, it made sense to put our carpenter to work on the banister and railing while he was creating dust elsewhere in our house.

Pardon the poor and lacking "before" photos. We didn't document our old banister when we have documented the rest of the house over the years, and we didn't take official "before" photos because it was such a spur of the moment decision.

Banister - Before

So this was the way our hallway (and banister) looked when we moved in. I don't even have words for the bone white walls and unsanded, unpainted ceilings. I have always hated that light fixture, but I'm too cheap to replace it when it functions just fine. Oh yeah, the banister...Is it just me, or does the banister scream Brady Bunch? How easy would it be for a small child to step right through the balusters and take a dive to the first floor? All too easy. In case it's not evident from the photos, each (metal, poorly painted, ugly) baluster is about a foot from the next.

May 2007

The next year, I painted the hallway and hung up some photos in entirely too small a scale for the size of the walls. The banister was unchanged, but it looked slightly better with the contrasting dark paint, right?

Summer 2008

The new window, trim, and sill were definitely an improvement to the hallway, but the unsafe (and ugly) banister lingered. 

Summer 2010

Banister - After

And now...here is the new banister, complete with balusters that will actually keep a small child from launching herself to the floor below, getting her head stuck, or otherwise landing in harm's way. 

April 2012

After a bit of initial hesitation, I absolutely love the ball on the newel post. My grandparents had a similar (but larger and blue) ball on the newel post at the base of the stairs in their farm house. Whenever we visited, we always hung our coats on it. Now, the memory lives on each time I walk up or down our stairs. 

April 2012

Railing

As for the railing, we don't have any photos of the one that was up when we moved in. It was so ugly that we opted to not rehang it after I painted back in 2008. We decided that now is the time to have a proper railing since we want our house to be to code and to be ready for a little one learning how to climb the stairs in about a year's time.

April 2012

Well, what do you think? Improvement or waste of money?