What should we do with this staircase?

[Beakyok]

We are slowly modernising a 1960s horror. Awful house, but great location! We stripped and painted the hall, stairs and landing but unexpectedly (but a brilliant surprise!) we had a baby who is now on the verge of crawling! We can’t decide what to do about the current staircase to make it safe as they also failed modern building regs. We’ve had a quote to replace the railings with spindles at 1.5k or 3k on an all singing and dancing oak and glass one.
My husband thinks glass as it would really bring the house up to date. I can’t decide as it would be me cleaning it and forever wipiNg little finger marks of it if it were glass!
Wise people, what do you suggest?

Spindles. Classic for a reason! We have a similar staircase, although our house is older, and one of our long term plans is to put spindles in instead.

I actually think glass is easier to clean than spindles. My spindles are always bloody dusty and it's so tedious doing each one and between. And the white paint is always dirty from kids! My in-laws have glass and a quick spray with glass cleaner and a microfibre cloth quickly sorts it!

Though the glass does get dirty quicker but quicker to clean....

Personally I would hate glass and would definitely go for spindles but it may depend on what style you are going for in the house. If you're going for ultra modern then glass may fit better, if a more traditional look then spindles are really the best option. I think glass will date in a way that spindles don't as they're classic.

1960s? Could you chipboard over and paint white?

Really it depends what you are doing with the rest of the house, making classic, modern or embracing the 60s vibe.

If you get square or rectangular or circular section spindles rather than than fancy-pants elaborate turned ones, they are no hassle as all to dust - just run the duster down each one, and not even all that often either.

I've seen glass protecting stairs in a house and it was forever covered with dirty marks. Also I think it looks cold and not very homely.

Personally I love the 60's style. I think it's beautiful. But I get the crawling baby concern.

Isn't that solved with a stair gate?

@tilder I assume OP's concern is the open space at the bottom of the railing around the stairwell on the 2nd floor.

Personally I'd hate constantly having fingerprints all over glass with a little one. And it's too modern for my taste. We're planning on something like this (when we finally move into the house we started buying pre-covid)

Thank you. I don’t think the hallway is ‘grand’ enough to warrant the expense!

Fair point about the landing.

There are temporary solutions (may not be very attractive or temporary, ours has been in place 5 years) if you wanted to keep them. It just needs something to block the gap.

If you hate it and want to spend the money I would go with spindles. I would oil not paint. Painting them is a fiddly job.

Get modern spindles and a lambswool duster for in between if you're worried about dust. We have knee-to-ceiling windows and glass doors downstairs- when you have a toddler in the house their little handprints get everywhere. Why are their hands always sticky?! Even with safety glass I worry about breakages with falling hoovers or manoeuvring furniture, suitcases etc about. And that's before considering the elbow grease required in getting a streak free clean.

Glass

How about something a bit different like this type of thing? You could even extend them to be the banisters at the top floor too. Would be modern but also tie in with the mid century 1960s vibe of your house. And prob cheaper than glass.

Oak and glass might look super modern now, but it will date really quickly. Much better to go for a classic like straight spindles. Or even a Perspex panel fixed over the gaps in the 1960s one. I would try to keep period features wherever possible!

Fill in the gaps with horizontal Metal rods in chrome.

We had stairs like that in a 70s house. When dd was born we bought panels of white trellis and tacked them into place with panel pins.

When she was older, we took them out.

I would keep it simple. Leave the newel posts and infill with a chunky handrail, square stop chamfered spindles painted to match thd wood work. You could do it in oak as well with the newels clad in oak strips. Price seems crazy.. Price the materials 150 for sofrwood, 200 joiner, then decoration or circa 350 materials +200 labour for oak. Glass infill would be more £ because glass would be bespoke

Block sections of thin ply, paint it white first.
Then you can take off at a later date and retain the feature staircase.

I like your original staircase best... It's the correct era for the house and much nicer than either glass which will date very quickly or turned spindles which are the wrong era for the house.

But seeing as you don't think the originals are safe, I think something like Livingoffcoffee's photo would suit the house best.

I'm assuming it is the gap at the bottom that is causing you concern?

You could consider adding a rail dividing the space at the bottom, running parallel to the existing wooden slats. It could be the same thickness as the existing slats and as that would be fairly thin (1/2" - 3/4") it would be best made from steel - you can get square section steel easily, it would not need to be custom made. It could be fitted into the posts at each end and attached to the uprights in the middle.
Use a metal primer and then paint with the same paint as you have used on the rest of the stairs. It could be removed without much work in the future if you wanted too.

You could divide the other gaps too if that gave it a more balanced look.

Look at images for horizontal banisters (also often spelt with two 'n's!)

The staircase is fab. Agree a temporary solution, extra parallel rails, panels, remove when no longer necessary.

We have horizontal slats (although 1930s) and they are dangerous as a baby or small child could get their body through or get stuck in them. They also act as a ladder 😱. We are replacing our staircase and the new one will have oak spindles and banister, but quite clean lines. I think that will last better and be more fitting with the era of the house than glass.

Good point about the 'ladder facility' of horizontal slats. I hadn't thought of that.

We had one of these - chose spindles it looked fab

Lots of ideas, thanks. I think we are leaning towards a temporary fix to stop the little one from crawling under it or using it as a ladder in the future. As my mum keeps pointing out, they had children in the 1960/70s too and managed to keep them safe! 😂 Plus it’ll be much cheaper!

We have a 1960s house and have actually relocated our stairs as they were against building regs and in the worst place ever! When we first moved in our DD was 18 months and had to put card in the spindles as she would have fit right through. We now have square wood spindles which look great and give it a country cottage feel. I'd avoid glass as I feel like it will date and kids and finger marks are awful. We've inherited gloss kitchen cabinets and it drives me up the wall.

We were the same, location and everything about the house was brill, just the slight 1960s look not so great. Hoping to update with render!