Using scrap wood to build this interior stair railing was a fun finish carpentry project

As I write this, the finish work is painfully close to complete on our straw bale home. The last leg of any project is the hardest part for me, as I’m so fixated on the end that the final push often feels like an eternity. But I digress. I had a lot of fun building this small interior stair railing in the second storey of our house. It was a great chance to do some finish carpentry and use some very pretty pieces of wood, many of which were scraps from other aspects of the house. No one will fall down the stairwell now, thank goodness, and this little wooden railing somehow completes the space much more nicely than I would have guessed. Check it out…

Making a Wooden Interior Stair Railing

Perhaps building this wooden stair railing was so enjoyable because the scale is so small. I barely needed any balusters, and all the pieces of wood I was working with were pretty short. The biggest trick was deciding how to tie into the existing framing. I decided to make a couple of mortises for the rail in the door framing and the corner post. It wasn’t totally possible to do the same on the round stair post, so I ended up using a few screws on that end.

Corner post installed, and rails are mortised into door frame, screwed into round stair post

The corner post is made of two 3x5s, planed down and laminated together, and then lag screwed into the floor joist below. The post was surprisingly solid, even before it was tied in with the rails. I’ll admit, I’m not totally familiar with all the stair railing terminology, so bear with me here… but essentially the railing is a sandwich, with two horizontal pieces hugging the tops and bottoms of the upright balusters. One half of the rail is mortised into the corner post and door frame, and the other is not. I can’t imagine how I would have assembled everything if it were all mortised. The horizontal rails are capped with a hand railing, slightly wider than the assembly below. I used a variety of multicolored oak for the balusters, and a nicely colored walnut for the railing and post cap.

The completed wooden stair railing

My favorite aspect of this project is the contrasting colors. There’s also the contrast of highly finished wood versus rougher timber here, which I don’t mind and actually rather enjoy. All the wood in the railing is very finished, planed smooth and oiled. The door post (and the door itself), and the round post are much rougher, and not nearly as refined. (The round stair post is full of worm holes, see below.) The floor, too, isn’t sanded and retains a lot of its wear and tear from its former life in an older home (probably under carpet). The variety of textures, colors, the contrast between smooth and rough sawn… I like that. Maybe that’s not for everyone (and maybe no one is even paying that close of attention), but I get a kick out of it.

The round post with its textural worminess, in contrast to the polished rail…

It’s yet to be seen whether the round post will get some kind of newel cap. I’m certainly not doing anything about it right now, but perhaps some one in some future time will be inspired to figure that out…

Well, there ya have it!