How to update stair railings without replacing

[Anonymous]

We live in a three level townhouse that was built in the 1980s. We've updated just about everything in the house, but the stair railings are still bugging me. They are (were) wrought iron with square -shaped ballisters with a very 1980s looking oak railing on top. By the time we purchased the ballisters had been painted beige.

We looked into replacing, but we were shocked to see how much it would cost. We aren't interested in spending thousands on this project, but was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to do an update that would bring it into this century.

I was thinking of painting the ballisters a metallic gunmetal grey/silver color, but then not sure what to do about the actual hand railings. Paint those black? Replace just those with new wood? That wouldn't be as expensive as replacing every single ballister and building the railings from scratch.

For what it is worth, our house has lots of earthy, cool tones (slate tile, grey/black granite counters, stainless steel appliances, etc.).

[Anonymous]

I just bought a house that has a metallic grey/silver painted handrail and ballisters and I love it! I never would have thought of this but it looks great. I also have metal ballisters and a wooden handrail. Whole thing looks great in my house, which is mostly white with marble/stainless in the kitchen, hard wood floors. Sounds like it might work in your house too!

[Anonymous]

Wow! We also live in a 3-story townhouse and have those same hideous railings. I've been wondering what to do about them too. OP, did you look into replacing them DIY? Is it hard?

[Anonymous]

OP here. We did look into replacing them, and it would be $$$$ to have a company do it - basically they have to come out and custom make them for your stairs, since it isn't like they just have them off the shelf built to fit. The lowest quote we got was for about $2100.

We looked at doing it ourselves, because we are pretty handy (Husband has redone bathrooms, including tile work, plumbing, etc). I think the actual materials would be cheap, depending on what you want to replace them with, but you actually have to buy each individual metal bar, a bunch of little pieces to attach to the bar to attach it to your floor and then to attach to the top railing, which comes separately. So you'd build it piece by piece.

For our part, we have small children and the upstairs hallway (with all the bedrooms) has one regular wall and the other side is one of these railings. I think with replacing them, they'd have to be taken down for probably at least several days if not weeks, and I don't have any idea how we'd keep the kids from falling down onto the stairs.

[Anonymous]

The new wood for the top should be inexpensive -they sell it in strips for new construction. You can stain or paint it how you like. Painting and new wood strips sounds like a good, inexpensive option.

[Anonymous]

OP here again. Yes, that is the direction we are heading in - painting the metal ballisters and getting new wood strips for the railings. We saw they just had them out at home depot, so it is just a matter of cutting them to the right size.

Thanks all!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We did look into replacing them, and it would be $$$$ to have a company do it - basically they have to come out and custom make them for your stairs, since it isn't like they just have them off the shelf built to fit. The lowest quote we got was for about $2100.

We looked at doing it ourselves, because we are pretty handy (Husband has redone bathrooms, including tile work, plumbing, etc). I think the actual materials would be cheap, depending on what you want to replace them with, but you actually have to buy each individual metal bar, a bunch of little pieces to attach to the bar to attach it to your floor and then to attach to the top railing, which comes separately. So you'd build it piece by piece.

For our part, we have small children and the upstairs hallway (with all the bedrooms) has one regular wall and the other side is one of these railings. I think with replacing them, they'd have to be taken down for probably at least several days if not weeks, and I don't have any idea how we'd keep the kids from falling down onto the stairs.

We moved into a house in Arlington built in 1981. Just one flight of stairs, but the banister was loose. We didn't push it on inspection and decided to fix it ourself, or, rather, pay someone $900 to do it... In our case we didn't have a choice -- it was a safety thing, rather than a decor thing like your situation. But the lesson here is you'd THINK this is an easy fix but it really is not. It involves getting under floor boards, etc. I honestly don't think this is a DIY project.

My recommendation is try the paint. Then if you can't live with that, suck it up and pay an expert.