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This post is in partnership with L J Smith Stairs.

When we last blogged about our stair transformation, we had demoed and had made difficult design decisions about the style of our soon-to-be stair balusters, newel posts and handrails. At that time, we thought we had settled upon black balusters and newel posts, along with natural white oak post to post handrails. We did stick with the black, straight, wooden balusters and black newel posts (with spheres on top), but changed our mind to black post to post handrails…and so we went with all black and I love it! We worked with L J Smith Stairs on all the stair parts and I am impressed with the quality, communication and speed of delivery and helpfulness through the process. There are so many choices to make when redesigning stairs and LJ Smith made sure to talk through all of them with me, answering all of my questions along the way.

As a reminder, this is where we started (below). We’ve come so far! We knew the stairs would be a focal point since they are front and center as guests enter our home. We wanted them to reflect our personal style. We wanted clean lines and we prefer classic design, but not overly formal. Most of all, we wanted the entry and stairs to be a welcoming space, naturally. You can see more of our design process here and here.

One way we were able to envision our ideal stairs and entryway was through 3D renderings. In fact, I had you all help me narrow down my selections on Instagram using these images. Adis M Designs provided our 3D renderings.

Once we settled on black, straight, wooden balusters, we got to work painting them. We made a makeshift drying rack out in the driveway.

Black newel posts with spheres on top were selected for the way they gave weight and a sense of stability to the stairs. They’re classic and feel as if they could be enjoyed for several generations.

Working on our own home on nights and weekends means that some projects take longer than we’d like, but we know it will be worth it in the end. To be able to customize our stairs exactly to our liking could have been complicated and tedious, but it was simple because of L J Smith Stairs. They patiently answered every question as we made up our minds about all of the details.

Tom and I worked on this project in all of the small bits of time we had—on Sunday afternoons when we could be napping, a little here and there before and after hockey practice, on the occasional Saturday morning not already claimed by other commitments.

We started to see something that resembled an actual staircase. So happy!

When the decision-making process was in full swing and I kept confusing myself with options.

Pulled the trigger and went all black and I’m in love.

This is still a work in progress, but we can see it coming together and are looking so forward to the finish line. We’ll blog again when we finish this entryway (still need to sand and finish the stair treads and entryway floor…oh and, of course, lighting, paint, furniture, styling pieces, oh my!). We’re pretty sure these stairs will continue to be the star of the show, though!

Stair parts: