American Oak Staircase, Zetland
For this project, we worked closely with local builder LJW and architect Black & Hellyer. Our job was to manufacture and install one of the most crucial components of the home, the staircase. The staircase itself is made from American Oak and complements all other joinery in the space.
The staircase is furnished with stainless steel webbing, which has a main purpose as a safety net but also is used as an aesthetic detail to the joinery.
The treads themselves were joined from four separate blocks of Oak and then machined to shape, with each tread being individually hand-finished.
Our Oak stairs are also paired with a custom handle and lower steps to the landing. These elements help tie the Oak to the other joinery in the home, including the flooring.
The Oak is finished in a natural or raw finish to bring out its light tones and prevent it from yellowing over time. This allows it to naturally shift its colour palette depending on the time of day and what light source is being cast onto it.
LJW approached us looking for a joiner to complete the staircase for a build in Zetland, which we willingly obliged and took on this project to push ourselves into new territory. The stairs themselves presented many obstacles, the main issue being that each stair stringer weighed over one hundred kilos, making them a multi-person job just to work on them. The design of the stairs was done by architects Black and Hellyer, we enjoyed manufacturing to their proposed design, along with implementing functional design elements into the stairs to ensure their strength and longevity for years to come.
We have worked with American Oak on a number of jobs now and love how it looks in its natural state. Its light appearance lends well to modern architecture and brings a softness to any space it’s used in, much like it does here in the Zetland house.