A homeowner in the greater Philadelphia area was building a new home. This home boasted a beautiful grand foyer staircase that needed custom iron railings. We met with the clients to review different custom iron railing designs. They decided to go with a custom forged design.
This included ¾” solid square stock for hand forged scrollwork. They also wanted custom frieze at the top and the bottom. The custom iron stair railing project had a short railing on the left side. It also had a short curved railing section with a volute that tied into the wall. On the right side of the stairs, the iron railing started with a volute, to an ascending curve until a landing, and then another ascending curve to the upper level. Then, the upper level had our custom iron railing on four sides of the foyer overlook.
The custom iron railing design was further enhanced with rigid 3″ square posts to improve the stability of the long spans of forged iron railing. The 3″ posts had a decorative ball cap on the top. The fastening plate at the bottom was concealed with an aesthetically pleasing cover shoe.
A design challenge occurred with the iron stair railing panels as they needed to be less height than the level iron railing. However, the client still wanted the frieze at both the top and the bottom. So, we modified the railing design for the center forge panel to still have the same design aesthetics, but be shorter. We kept the iron rosette in the center and the forged acanthus leaves. We also kept the smaller intermediate forged scrolls and the 1″ balls at the top and bottom of the forge panels. Next we coated the entire project a statuary bronze, and meticulously applied gold highlights by hand. The interior foyer space now displays an eyecating railing that will be appreciated and utilized for years to come.
