The Oak Brook radius.
A two-story curved sweep in espresso-stained oak with twisted iron balusters and a dramatic X-beam ceiling overhead.
A curved staircase is a piece of geometry first and a piece of joinery second. Get the radius wrong and no amount of beautiful wood will save the run. Get it right and the stair stops being a stair and becomes the room.
This Oak Brook home built itself around the curve. A grand foyer, a tray-ceilinged dining room opening through paneled archways, a dramatic dark-stained X-beam crossing the upper-floor ceiling above the well. The stair sits at the center of all of it, and every public room in the house looks at it from a different angle. The radius had to be generous — wide enough that you'd want to descend it slowly, not steep enough to feel theatrical for its own sake.
The treads are espresso-stained red oak, run continuous around the curve with a patterned carpet runner laid down the center. The balusters are twisted iron with knuckle midpoints — slim, dark, and arrayed at tight pitch so the run reads as a textured veil rather than as individual posts. The top rail is the same espresso oak as the treads, formed in shop sections to follow the curve as a single line. No miters at the corners, no sharp joints; the whole rail flows.
The newel post at the base anchors the whole composition. Heavy turned profile, dark stain, sitting on a thick square footprint that grounds the curve as it lifts off the floor. Look at the post from across the foyer and it reads as the stair's center of gravity. Look at it from the dining-room entry across the paneled archway and it reads as a piece of cabinetry. Either way, the curve flows out of it.
The stair stops being a stair and becomes the room.
Dining-room view — the stair visible past the paneled archway and silver orb chandelier.
Lower foyer angle — the curve catching the eye from the front door.
Entry hall — the leaded-glass front door framing the stair beyond.
Upper landing — the dark X-beam ceiling overhead, the stair returning to the well.
Tell us about the stair your house deserves.
The Oak Brook radius.
A two-story curved sweep in espresso-stained oak with twisted iron balusters and a dramatic X-beam ceiling overhead.
A curved staircase is a piece of geometry first and a piece of joinery second. Get the radius wrong and no amount of beautiful wood will save the run. Get it right and the stair stops being a stair and becomes the room.
This Oak Brook home built itself around the curve. A grand foyer, a tray-ceilinged dining room opening through paneled archways, a dramatic dark-stained X-beam crossing the upper-floor ceiling above the well. The stair sits at the center of all of it, and every public room in the house looks at it from a different angle. The radius had to be generous — wide enough that you'd want to descend it slowly, not steep enough to feel theatrical for its own sake.
The treads are espresso-stained red oak, run continuous around the curve with a patterned carpet runner laid down the center. The balusters are twisted iron with knuckle midpoints — slim, dark, and arrayed at tight pitch so the run reads as a textured veil rather than as individual posts. The top rail is the same espresso oak as the treads, formed in shop sections to follow the curve as a single line. No miters at the corners, no sharp joints; the whole rail flows.
The newel post at the base anchors the whole composition. Heavy turned profile, dark stain, sitting on a thick square footprint that grounds the curve as it lifts off the floor. Look at the post from across the foyer and it reads as the stair's center of gravity. Look at it from the dining-room entry across the paneled archway and it reads as a piece of cabinetry. Either way, the curve flows out of it.
The stair stops being a stair and becomes the room.
Dining-room view — the stair visible past the paneled archway and silver orb chandelier.
Lower foyer angle — the curve catching the eye from the front door.
Entry hall — the leaded-glass front door framing the stair beyond.
Upper landing — the dark X-beam ceiling overhead, the stair returning to the well.