The Burr Ridge masterpiece.
A Tuscan estate with three stairs under one roof — limestone arches, travertine mosaic, and hand-forged iron, all speaking the same language.
Some commissions ask for a stair. This one asked for a stair language — and then asked us to speak it three times, in three different rooms, without ever repeating ourselves. A Tuscan-Mediterranean estate in Burr Ridge with rusticated limestone arches, a travertine mosaic medallion underfoot, and the expectation that the millwork would carry the same weight as the masonry.
The grand stair is the room. It sweeps across a circular mosaic medallion set into a travertine floor, framed by a pair of rusticated limestone arches that vault into the second-floor gallery. The balusters are hand-forged iron with full scrollwork — not a stock spindle in the building — and the handrail is carved walnut, profiled in our shop and stained to the same depth as the floor.
The second stair is a helical wooden spiral, tucked into a stone tower at the far end of the house. It's the quieter showpiece — fewer photos, more mystery. Tread by tread, the spiral climbs through a circular stone shaft, and the geometry has to be perfect because there's nowhere for an imperfection to hide. We laid it out on the shop floor full-size before a single tread was cut.
The third stair lives behind the formal stair — a more domestic run that takes the family from kitchen to upper floors. Same walnut, same scrollwork vocabulary, smaller register. A house this size needs more than one way to get upstairs; what it doesn't need is three stairs that look like they came from three different houses.
The point of a project like this isn't any single stair. It's that three stairs, three registers, one vocabulary. Stand in the grand hall and look through the arches — the spiral is visible at the far end of the gallery. The eye travels and the language doesn't break.
Three stairs, three registers, one vocabulary. The eye travels and the language doesn't break.
Top-down through the central well — the medallion mosaic visible far below, the stair wrapping it on all sides.
The helical spiral in the stone tower — every tread laid out on the shop floor before cutting.
The grand sweep onto the mosaic floor, framed by rusticated limestone arches and a bronze chandelier above.
Upper gallery context — the formal stair lands into a carpeted runner that echoes the medallion underneath.
The full grand stair from across the hall — walnut treads, scrollwork iron, hand-carved newel posts.
Looking down the helical well — the spiral resolves into a single drawn line from above.
Tell us about the stair your house deserves.
The Burr Ridge masterpiece.
A Tuscan estate with three stairs under one roof — limestone arches, travertine mosaic, and hand-forged iron, all speaking the same language.
Some commissions ask for a stair. This one asked for a stair language — and then asked us to speak it three times, in three different rooms, without ever repeating ourselves. A Tuscan-Mediterranean estate in Burr Ridge with rusticated limestone arches, a travertine mosaic medallion underfoot, and the expectation that the millwork would carry the same weight as the masonry.
The grand stair is the room. It sweeps across a circular mosaic medallion set into a travertine floor, framed by a pair of rusticated limestone arches that vault into the second-floor gallery. The balusters are hand-forged iron with full scrollwork — not a stock spindle in the building — and the handrail is carved walnut, profiled in our shop and stained to the same depth as the floor.
The second stair is a helical wooden spiral, tucked into a stone tower at the far end of the house. It's the quieter showpiece — fewer photos, more mystery. Tread by tread, the spiral climbs through a circular stone shaft, and the geometry has to be perfect because there's nowhere for an imperfection to hide. We laid it out on the shop floor full-size before a single tread was cut.
The third stair lives behind the formal stair — a more domestic run that takes the family from kitchen to upper floors. Same walnut, same scrollwork vocabulary, smaller register. A house this size needs more than one way to get upstairs; what it doesn't need is three stairs that look like they came from three different houses.
The point of a project like this isn't any single stair. It's that three stairs, three registers, one vocabulary. Stand in the grand hall and look through the arches — the spiral is visible at the far end of the gallery. The eye travels and the language doesn't break.
Three stairs, three registers, one vocabulary. The eye travels and the language doesn't break.
Top-down through the central well — the medallion mosaic visible far below, the stair wrapping it on all sides.
The helical spiral in the stone tower — every tread laid out on the shop floor before cutting.
The grand sweep onto the mosaic floor, framed by rusticated limestone arches and a bronze chandelier above.
Upper gallery context — the formal stair lands into a carpeted runner that echoes the medallion underneath.
The full grand stair from across the hall — walnut treads, scrollwork iron, hand-carved newel posts.
Looking down the helical well — the spiral resolves into a single drawn line from above.