DIY Modern Design

My house is typical of a house built in the 1980’s. It was filled with carpet and vinyl. A few years ago I put bamboo floors on most of the first level of the house. But it just doesn’t work to have a bamboo floor and carpeted stairs.

Staircases are hard to change. Unless you want to rip out the whole staircase and start over, there are some real limits. If you are lucky, you may have a staircase that is made with hardwood. If you steps are carpeted, however, you will probably find some rough looking wood underneath.

I was able to get a good result with a combination of bamboo and some low-nap carpet. I used the same bamboo flooring to create risers (the vertical back part of the step).

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Many people have requested more photos of the metal stair rail. It is remarkably difficult to get good pictures of a staircase, but here’s my best attempt:

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I wanted to have a way to display photos that could be changed easily. Of course, I didn’t want a cork board or one of those puffy frilly boards with crisscross pink ribbons to hold pictures. I wanted something with a modern edge.

It was destined for a wall in the living room, the same room with the metal railing, so I opted to continue the metal look.

The solution was to use some simple galvanized sheet metal. I made two different displays: one small one and one long narrow one.

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This is a metal stair rail I made for my house. It uses electrical metal conduit, a very cheap material, to create a very nice modern look.

The old staircase was a typical wood railing with turned wooden spindles, a look that is boring, overly frilly, and not at all what I wanted for my house.

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