Our Stairs Arrive by Truck, by Boat, by Crane

Delivering shop-built stairs involves a multitude of transportation modes. Many of our projects are second homes and weekend getaways on remote islands. Add to that the urban condos in busy downtown cores, and our project managers have become expert at bringing in completed projects ready for install. Whether
Jackson Hole or Maui, downtown Seattle or the Grand Floridian in Orlando, our decades of experience make the stairs arrive beautifully and on time.

Photo of a recent work by Seattle Stair being brought into a private residence by crane high above Seattle's downtown.

Stairs that Strike Us: Loretto Chapel

In the coming months we’ll share with you remarkable projects that we’ve discovered in our travels and research. The kinds of stairs that stop you dead in your tracks as you look up (or down) at them. The Loretto Chapel with its legend of a miracle and its connection to The Compagnons is one. Click here to read its whole story: http://bit.ly/bzAHv

photo from the Loretto Chapel.

Opening our Doors to Seattle Stair & Design Friends and Clients

Our annual party was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with so many friends, clients and partners. Great music, drink and food made for a warm welcome as guests entered our showroom home… checking out our works-in-progress, like this staircase you see Shawn standing in front of.

A View from Above

Here, Bamboo Grass practically waves in the breeze in our Eco Resin panels.

Tradition Shines

Sometimes it's all about tradition. Here's one of our staircases with crisp white paint and dark handrails. Striking.

Traveling with a Master Stair Builder? Naturally, Our Eyes Open to Stairways Everywhere

As a jewelry designer by trade, I have a great love of beauty, design and craft and use of quality materials. I see a beautiful stair as, similar to jewelry, the final accessory that completes the outfit, or in this case, the mystique of a building. In many cases, stairs, like jewelry, can become the primary expression of beauty and uniqueness that completes a design or a look.

Looking to be inspired? Head to Iowa. On a recent business trip there with Shawn and Marilyn Christman, owners of Seattle Stair and Design, we detoured to the local university with its historic buildings and Iowa’s original capitol building, circa 1856. We strolled through the buildings, discovering grand stair after grand stair of wood, cast iron and steel, and tile. The capitol building itself has the most beautiful spiral stair.

It was fascinating to watch Shawn, a master, measuring and examining each detail of these creations. He jumped into master teacher mode and used it as an opportunity to share with me detailed explanations of the design and building techniques that were used, what is changed from today, code issues, craftsmanship, materials, and more. I felt incredibly lucky to have this first hand, apprentice like training handed to me as I too was taken by the beauty and craftsmanship of these historic, grand staircases.

–Phoebe, Seattle Stair
Photo from Old Capitol Museum, Iowa.

Dilemma Leads to Invention: a New Way of Building Stairs

Back in 1982 on a project nearing completion on Whidbey Island, Shawn Christman arrived on the jobsite to find a staircase substructure framed with the kind of warped, wet scrap lumber leftover at the end of a job. Nothing was true. Absolutely nothing was plumb. It was nearly impossible for Shawn and his small team from the then four-year old Seattle Stair to come in with their hardwoods and finesse a usable and attractive stair out of the mess.

This maddening experience propelled Shawn to invent a better way to build a stair.

Research led him to an old-time stair-maker whose work had landed in the Smithsonian. Shawn studied the century’s old technique of designing a theoretically perfect construct to fit the hole (here, a stairwell). He spent years perfecting the process where he and his crew would come in and measure that hole then “disappear” back to their studio for a few months to create a hand-in-glove structure that would be brought back to the job site, installed, and best yet fit perfectly and be pleasing to the eye. When factoring in the complicated geometry and artistic rigors this is no small feat.