But is it art?

The staircase design allowed for a light on top of the landing newel.  The challenge though was to find something that was sympathetic with the recycled feel of the stairs and didn't cost an arm and a leg. There are some great lights around, but the ones we liked were either really expensive or shouted "I'm brand new" (or both).

So, I had a rummage through the useful box and assembled my newel light from the following components:

• dome interior light from a 1960's car,
• Copper and brass window sliders, circa 1940's,
• Timber offcuts from our LVLs (basically really thick plywood), and
• Scrap glass.

The result is about 11 inches tall and will bolt straight onto the top of the newel.  I think it has a certain, TARDIS meets steampunk feel to it - but is it art?

Second flight

Nette and I spent most of the weekend working on the second flight of stairs.  It was a pretty steep learning curve for us.  Up until now the stairs have been similar to pieces of furniture, which is in our comfort zone.  So much so that the bottom flight is actually a chest of drawers and the landing is a cupboard. 

But which ever way we looked at it, the second flight could only be described as one thing - stairs.   So we delved into the world of stringers (the outside beams that hold up the stairs) and brackets (the middle beam under the stairs).   The result…we’re well on the way to completing our first, fully fledged flight of stairs.  The stringers we made up from left over floor LVLs.  The bracket is MGP (machine graded pine) made along the lines of a “peter post” and inspired by the stair section in my 4 volume edition of  “The Australian Carpenter and Joiner”.

Bet you can't guess what the most useful tool was this weekend.