Wrought Iron and Wood Railing in North Barrington

Pairing metal with a wood top is one of the better calls you can make on an interior stair, and it is the move on this railing for a North Barrington home: square bar painted black, finished with a wood handrail along the top.

The metal does the structural and safety work; the wood is the part your hand actually lands on. A wood top warms up a black railing, takes a stain to match your floors or trim, and feels better under the palm than cold steel. It is a small detail that changes how the whole staircase reads.

We have written before about combining the warmth of wood with the backbone of wrought iron, and this is a clean example. The wrought iron is primed and painted, which is the right finish indoors, and the wood is fit and finished to sit flush so the two read as one railing rather than a board screwed onto a frame.

If you like the idea of a black railing softened with a wood top, send Signature Metal Works a couple of photos of your staircase and we will sketch out what fits.