A staircase is the one piece of joinery a whole house is organised around, and the first thing a visitor touches. The timber you choose shapes all of it — the colour of the hall, the feel of the handrail under the hand, and how the stair looks in twenty years' time.
Oak, ash, walnut or painted
Oak is the workhorse: hard-wearing, beautifully grained, and it takes staining and liming well. Ash is paler with a lively grain and a little more spring. Walnut is dark, rich and unmistakably premium. And for a painted staircase we use a stable, close-grained timber such as tulipwood, which holds a paint finish without the grain telegraphing through.
Treads take the wear
Treads and strings do not have to be the same timber as the spindles. Because treads take the daily wear, we often specify a harder-wearing timber there and something finer on the balustrade — a detail that keeps the stair looking new for longer.
To paint, or to show the grain
A painted staircase is quiet and architectural, and lets a fine handrail or a run of turned balusters do the talking. A timber staircase shows the grain and warms a hall. Neither is more correct; it is a question of the house and the light it gets.
Match the house, or contrast it
The last decision is whether the stair should match the floors and doors around it or stand deliberately apart. Both can be right. What matters is that the choice is made on purpose, and drawn in from the start rather than settled on the workshop floor.
We are happy to talk any of this through before a single line is drawn — it is the kind of decision worth getting right early.