Oak staircase with glass: a perfect match

21 June 2023

Interior staircases come fully into interior design projects not only for their practical function and physical space that sacrifice, depending on the structural anatomy.

Especially the modern indoor stairs reflect the complex needs of current living: the search for efficiency is maximum, the optimization of usable spaces is a primary goal, and in all this the ambition to better aesthetics than their tastes is the background to every choice.

Among the thousand needs of space and style, an oak staircase with glass – between space-saving internal stairs and monumental stairs, between classic installations and futuristic stairs – emerges for extreme versatility.

Structural shape, style, details such as railings for internal stairs and other details of the staircase-project will give the desired character to oak staircases  designed to fit precisely for that environment.

What unites internal stairs in various wood essences compared to, for example, internal stairs in natural stone? And why has a modern oak and glass staircase a result almost guaranteed?

Oak staircase with glass for interior: why it is a winning choice

The filling of environments is always played on fine balances. These balances are made of solids and voids, passage of light and enclosed spaces, colours and textures of the materials with which the game is played. 

The harmony of all the factors involved is what makes the difference, especially in the interiors of an everyday environment.

From this point of view, the wood element holds all the cards, both from the point of view of the practical use of the material itself for an internal staircase (processing, resistance, etc.) but also from the point of view of, so to speak, energies that it is able to emit.

Whether we are talking about ideas for covering internal stairs – internal masonry stairs or iron stairs for interiors – with woods of various essences, or stairs made entirely of wood, or just a railing for internal wooden stairs… let us see the constant qualities of the material itself, which are expressed at most in a project of an oak staircase.

• As for the purely physical peculiarities of the material, the wood, taking into account the thousand essences available and their differences, is resistant, light, durable and insulating; this is all the more true for an oak clad staircase
• The flexibility and easy workability (it is no coincidence that wood is the most known and processed material since ancient times) makes it relatively easy to give different shapes and different textures: this material is wonderful in both straight and essential shapes that soft and curvilinear, and it is even more so for oak staircases
• It is available in various combinations with other materials and other textures, for example in contrast with glass -oak and glass staircase is always a good idea- or metal, and this makes it perfectly adaptable to very different styles, from classic to modern through various shades.
• Back in vogue in the latest trends of bio-architecture and green building with other recyclable materials, it fully represents the desire for naturalness, simplicity, warmth, conveying in any form, colour or treatment feelings of welcome and harmony.

These are the main reasons why it is worth considering an oak staircase with glass among the best choices you can make.     

Internal staircase railing and other details that count to define a wooden staircase for interior

How many shapes can you create and how many styles can you pursue using wood for interior stairs? Probably everything you can think of. This is thanks to the ease of transformation of the material itself, but above all to the great versatility in combination with other materials, as mentioned earlier. 

Given the ease of processing and in accordance with the essence that has the right qualities, it is possible to achieve great aesthetic results in the realisation of staircase projects with strong identity

Small size, space-saving type, or monumental, whether it is an indoor open staircase or cantilever that connects the different floors of homes, offices etc. or a spiral staircase to access a loft, you could easily decide that an oak staircase is among the best possibilities you have. 

Oak wood satisfies without any problem the requirements required by classic and traditional interior stairs but also modern and contemporary interior stairs. 

In fact it takes little to change the cards on the table, so to speak, if we think that an interior design is based on the connection of many details – or even the lack of them, for example! 

Straight and essential shapes or baroque, light or dark colours, homogeneous or not, sober lines or on the contrary variations on the theme… even just in a flight of  how many details can make a difference. 

So you could consider that what you need is an oak glass staircase, or suspended, spiral or helical, completely made of wood but more often with metal or masonry structure and covered steps, with a railing of internal staircase in absolute material contrast with the steps, precisely glass balustrades.        

In fact, wood with its fullness and warmth emerges with a certain refinement in combination with iron, steel but especially glass: completely different textures and different ways of playing with light create visual combinations of strong impact. 

And even if you want an extremely simple, basic and without frills wooden staircase, even just the insertion of LED strips or stainless steel, for example, every single step is able to make an anonymous installation something memorable.

An oak staircase with glass plays on two different stages, on the dense material element of wood and on the lightness and clarity of the glass. And oak and glass staircases, even the simplest, never disappoint the expectations.

Interior stairs: oak clad staircase and other wood species

 We have repeated several times how an indoor staircase designed ad hoc to integrate perfectly into a space can help coordinate the style between all the elements in a room, finishes and furnishings.

An indoor wooden staircase, meaning just the presence of wooden cover of steps, even possibly the lift, immediately creates a sense of warmth and harmony and somehow retains a kind of timeless memory, a bit like natural stone but with more of the vibrations just warm.

Interior stairs made with wooden material can vary a lot, beyond treatments and painting, because of the different essences available; in this article we are referring to the modern oak staircase and above all to oak staircase with glass railings.

Not all of wooden essences are clearly the most suitable for this use for the properties peculiar to each; the differences in colour and texture do the rest.

The essences used in the realisation of a wooden staircase for interiors are usually those considered harder, with a more compact texture (specific weight greater than 0.55 kg/dm3); those considered best are:

• Oak 
• Maple
• Beech
• Walnut wood
• Doussiè
• Iroko wood 

Why do we focus primarily on the glass and oak staircase?The answer is simple.

An oak staircase with glass or with another type of railings has all the advantageous features you can expect from wood, in fact oak wood is brown in colour tending to yellow, has a medium straight fibre texture. Weatherproof, it is a wood of good hardness and stability, bendable, this wood can be processed in a very simple way compared to others.

High hardness and toughness, it is very well resistant to shocks. It has good hardness, stability and durability,  as mentioned above, all qualities that improve with aging. Oak wood is able to greatly improve its aesthetics over the years, something that not all woods can do.

In the use in flooring, parquet and steps, oak is able to present itself well in various types of processing, especially the European one, that best presents itself in the colour finishes and veins.

We talked about the characteristics of the material in its natural varieties; what then makes the difference is undoubtedly the professionalism in the choice and in the workmanship, especially in the case of artisanal installation totally created and tailored. But we can sleep peacefully in this sense: wood processing in Italy comes from a long and solid tradition. 

It is also right to add that with the use of wood for internal stairs (the same also applies to furniture and floors) we do not speak of perfection as such, regardless of the craftsmanship mentioned above: in fact the small imperfections, discolorations, even signs of use are an integral part of the natural beauty of this material.

Learn more about the oak staircase with glass

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