Two-Story Loft & Lighted Stair Glass Railing

This Folsom home is built around a two-story great room, and the upstairs loft looks straight down into it. The railing had to protect the loft edge and the staircase without putting a fence between the two floors.

What we did

We ran frameless tempered glass the full length of the loft edge, so the upstairs reads as part of the great room, then continued it straight down the staircase, custom-cutting each panel to the stair angle. A continuous black handrail ties into the home's fixtures, and we kept the hardware minimal on purpose: the tread lighting does the work of defining the stair at night, not the railing.

The result

From the ground floor, the loft rail nearly disappears and the ceiling height does the talking. On the stairs, the lighted treads glow through the glass instead of hiding behind balusters. It's the difference between a two-story room and two stacked rooms.