This decorative handrail needed to serve duel purposes: create a stable guide for navigating the uneven stone stairs and blend cohesively with the surrounding landscape and outdoor furniture.
After an initial meeting with the clients, I created a demo piece out of lumber ripped to the dimensions of the steel. This served as an “audition” for the look and the feel of the piece before committing to the steel installation.
The piece needed to be offset from the steps to be both accessible to the user and mounted securely into the existing hardscape. The varying nature of the stone stairs needed to be accounted for in the design of the piece, and required two separate slopes joined in the middle with a flat horizontal section.
My favorite nerdy detail was including brown pigment in the cement used to anchor the posts; this allowed the material to blend into the mulch seamlessly even if it was exposed after rain or wind.
