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The Elmhurst waterfall — Elmhurst — Custom Railz & Stairz
Gallery/Elmhurst · Illinois

The Elmhurst waterfall.

A modern Scandinavian stair in pale oak — thin matte-black pickets, angular blade newels, and a geometric cube chandelier overhead.

Most of our stairs lean traditional. This one doesn't. It's pure modern Scandinavian — pale, geometric, deliberately unornamented. Pale oak treads with no stain. Thin matte-black round pickets, regular spacing, no turning. Angular blade-shaped newels with sharp corners and no curves anywhere. A geometric cube chandelier overhead doing the lighting that traditionally would be done with crystal.

The vocabulary is restraint. Where a traditional stair would have a turned newel, this stair has a tapered oak blade — a slim wedge of wood, square edges, no profiling at all. Where a traditional stair would have a carved volute, this stair just stops, cleanly. The handrail is a square-section oak bar, mitered at every corner.

The pickets are the architectural choice. Thin round matte-black steel, just under half an inch in diameter — slimmer than a pencil. They almost disappear from across the room, leaving the oak treads floating in the open well. From close, they read as line against the warm wood. From across the foyer, they read as a screen.

The light fixtures matter. A geometric cube chandelier — a brass armature with white shades — drops into the foyer above the bottom flight. Sphere pendants on dark wood beams light the upper hall. Both fixtures are doing what crystal would do in a traditional house: bringing pattern and rhythm to the space without ever competing with the stair.

Specifications
StyleModern Scandinavian · multi-flight
TreadsPale white oak, natural finish
PicketsThin matte-black round steel rod
NewelsAngular blade-shaped oak, no turning
LightingGeometric cube chandelier, sphere pendants
ScopeStair, rails, and balcony rails in our shop

Pickets slimmer than a pencil. From across the foyer they read as a screen.

Selected Frames

Detail of the light oak handrail — square section, mitered corner, no profiling.

The full run from across the foyer — pale oak floating between thin black pickets.

Bottom flight with the window beyond — light pouring across the open risers.

Blade newel detail — a slim wedge of oak, sharp corners, no turning anywhere.

Turn at the landing — the rail mitered, the pickets continuing into the new direction.

The foyer in full context with the geometric cube chandelier above.

Wide approach to the bottom of the run from the entry.

The cube chandelier dropping into the open well above the bottom flight.

Looking down into the foyer from the upper landing.

Upper hall with sphere pendants — dark beams overhead, pale oak underfoot.

Wide context — full-glass entry doors, white painted brick, the stair beyond.

Underside of the cantilevered treads — clean joinery, the wedge geometry visible.

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