5 Key Factors to Consider When Choosing Custom Handrails

Custom handrails can add charm, beauty, and a sense of luxuriousness to any home or business, and they allow for unique functional benefits that you can pick and choose depending on your needs. 

However, because they’re custom and leave a lot of room for personal design choices with various pros and cons to each choice, it can be a little overwhelming to order custom handrails. Where do you start? What are the most important things to consider? 

Today, we’re going to go over five important factors to consider when choosing custom handrails for your home.

1. Get Your Measurements Right

First and foremost, you need to know the measurements of the area where you’re adding the handrail. You don’t want to eyeball it and hope for the best just to make adjustments later or end up with a handrail that doesn’t match your space perfectly. 

Luckily, this is pretty simple and doesn’t require anything special. Just figure out where you want to install the handrail, determine whether it’s going to be mounted to the wall or installed along the flooring (depending on the type of handrail you want), and start by measuring the space from end to end to figure out the length of the railing you’ll need. 

Also, if there are specific mounting points you’ll need to use, make sure you measure where they’ll be along the rail to ensure that the rail is set up to be installed as easily as possible. 

2. Consider the Environment the Handrail Will Be In

One thing that tends to be forgotten about until it’s too late is choosing the right material and matching it to the surroundings. 

Different materials handle different abuse and neglect in various ways. If you choose a metal that is prone to corrosion and it’s not properly coated, it will corrode fairly quickly and seem as if it wasn’t the high-quality product you thought it was. 

However, it was just the natural way the environment affected it. In comparison, if you have a material such as wood that is prone to soaking in oils and dirt from hands, and you put it in a high-traffic area such as a restaurant’s entryway, it will likely change and age a lot faster than you’d expect. 

That can add charm, but we’ll talk about that shortly. In comparison, a steel handrail will look the same in ten years as it did when you bought it, regardless of how many people are touching it every day. 

There are a lot of things to consider in this category, depending on whether it will be inside or outside, how much traffic it will see every day, if it’s outside, the type of weather you have most often will be important, etc. 

You can check the various qualities of different materials to see what will work best depending on the various factors you expect it to deal with. 

3. Long-Term Expectations

As we briefly mentioned earlier, some materials might change over time with age. Wood is a great example of this. Especially if it’s minimally treated. The more people touch it, the more slowly it absorbs oils from your hands and changes its appearance. 

Wood isn’t the only material that does that, though. Brass can oxidize and develop a patina that adds lots of charm to the handrail, aluminum can oxidize, and it doesn’t look quite as good when it happens, steel loses some of its luster but can be buffed back to its original appearance with ease, etc. 

How a railing is going to look in the long term is just as important as what it looks like when you’re going over design pictures for the immediate results. If you’re a homeowner, having a handrail that ages well and adds charm to your home is a positive thing. In a professional business environment, something that maintains its appearance with minimal maintenance is more desirable. 

4. Design Elements and the Space You’re Installing It In

One of the main benefits of custom handrails is that they offer a truly unique and luxurious look - something far more distinctive than the mass-produced options you see everywhere. However, while that’s a major benefit, it’s also a huge drawback in one way. 

You need to have at least a basic understanding of how design elements work together. 

The space where you’ll be installing the handrail likely already has its own design elements. Let’s use an interior handrail in a vintage home design as an example. 

Imagine that the home has lots of luxurious embellishments, old-timey decor choices, and similar signs of luxury from yesteryear. If you were to choose a custom handrail that looks like it belongs in the stairwell to a modern business, it would look entirely out of place and detract from the overall aesthetic of the home. 

However, if you choose something that is brass, has more embellishments on it, and generally fits the vibe of the home, it would add a sense of cohesion and beauty. 

This usually isn’t too difficult to factor into your choice. Especially if you have a rather standard environment, you’ll be installing the handrail. However, the more niche the area you’re putting it in, the more you’ll want to focus on the finer details to get something that matches.

5. Factor in Your Budget

Finally, your budget is a key factor in every purchase you make, and when you’re working with custom builds, it’s even more important to define it early in the process and monitor whether or not you’re sticking to it. 

Purchasing a custom handrail is a lot different than buying one off a shelf. Each choice you make can significantly affect the final price. If you don’t set a clear budget and keep track of how your design decisions impact the cost, you could end up with a bill that’s much higher than expected - or miss out on adding extra embellishments you didn’t realize you could afford.

Just be sure that your design is always in accordance with current building codes, as this can affect both the cost and your options.

Get Your Custom Handrail from Integrated Metal Designs

If you’re looking for the perfect custom handrail to accent your space and add both functional and visual value, try Integrated Metal Designs! We’ll guide you through every step of the process to ensure your design fits your vision. 

In addition to custom handrails, we also offer beautifully crafted custom range hoods to complement your kitchen or any other space. 

Contact us today to start creating the custom design you’ve been dreaming of.