The staircase was built by an expert carpenter who did a truly amazing job. Every other tradesman we’ve ever had in the house has commented on the craftsmanship of the stairs.

Here’s all the elements, waiting to go in:

Working his way down from the top of the stairs:

Next steps (quite literally):

And then the bannister and post were added. (We stayed true to the original post design, but chose a different variety of spindle to add some more dimension.) Here’s my oldest kid, photobombing:

And here, in hat-haired glory.

Once we got to this point, we decided to add wainscoting as well. Maybe we were just drunk with relief from having a functional staircase. Plus, once you’ve already dropped a ton of money on an unexpected, soul-killing project, you want to get yourself a little somethin’ special. Here’s that element layered in.

Once everything was built (which took about seven weeks from ordering the parts to installation), it was time to paint and decorate.