LEGO Banister - a little home makeover

[gifinim]

Browsing the web once I saw pictures of a staircase banister and railing that someone had built out of LEGO as part of a professional interior design makeover and thought "I WANT ONE!!!!". Now I'm finally in a place I can do it, space wise, so...

The LEGO-less banister and the first pile of bricks.

The first lot of bricks after some playing to get the colours looking ok. Originally I was going to use more colours than just red, yellow and blue but it looked too fussy. Some more colours will appear further up, especially when my kids get involved.

After a few more BrickLink orders it's looking much better. The large bricks are from the LEGO Discovery Center in Manchester and help disguise the bits where this wall of bricks ties to the uprights of the banister. So far it's not shown any sign of wanting to fall off as I've walked up the stairs so fingers crossed!

I've got a few hundred more bricks to add, and more on the way, so I'll try and post more pics at the weekend. The best part is I live in a three storey house so I've got another set of stairs - if anyone has a pile of white 1 x 6 bricks going spare, let me know :-)

[Pizzareno]

Looks great. Can you put sloped bricks on the bottom or is there nothing that fits at quite the right angle?

[Deathleech]

Nifty idea. You said it hasn't fallen over but what if someone bumps it through the rails? Do you have any plans to secure it, especially with kids around?

[TheLazyChicken]

Very nice lego banister! Good job and can't wait to see more!

[gifinim]

^ Thank you all for the kind words!

@Pizzareno - Inverted 1 x 2 slopes will fit some of the gaps and I'm going to see how cheese slopes held in with half technic pins look. I think I need to do that before adding too many more layers!

@Deathleech - It is fixed to the wooden uprights with 1 x 6 and 1 x 4 bricks forming a box around the wood. I'll post photos to show it, it's easier then explaining it with words. It will take a hard knock from behind without breaking (I hit it with the vacuum cleaner by accident!) so hopefully it will be sturdy enough. If it breaks I'll just put it back together in a different pattern

[gifinim]

Finally got the chance to add some more bricks this weekend, with a little help too.

We're now about a third of the way up - I hope!

And of course, I'm one brick short of finishing the third window

Luckily just under a thousand more white bricks arrived today, so a quick clean and they'll be added too.

Comments welcome!

[splatman]

If slopes cannot completely fill the gaps on the bottom, try this: 2 or 3 rows of bricks, or bricks and plates, with tiles on top, as long as the stairway, resting on top of the stringer, covering up the gaps, secured to the wall wherever the center of a brick in the sloping rows lines up with the center of a brick in the wall with a technic pin thru technic bricks. Use bricks with pin in the sloping rows to make hidden connections. Do the same at the top.

Edit: By "rows", I did not mean width/thickness. I should have said "courses" (actual masonry term). So, think of a wall 1-row thick, 3 courses high, joined along the bottom of the wall, like a piece of molding.

Thought I'd clear up any misunderstanding.

Edited February 5, 2014 by splatman

[gifinim]

@splatman - nice idea but there isn't enough room for another brick width, it's only one brick wide. A mix of inverted slope bricks and upside down cheese bricks held in with technic half pins will make the bottom smoother, and the top of the wall will be finished with 1x2 slopes and cheese bricks. Unfortunately the angle on the banister doesn't quite match anything I can do in Lego but it will be close. If the available space was a little wider it would be much easier!

[elleana]

This is awesome. I'm scratching my head thinking of something similar I can do at home.

[gifinim]

Had a good chance to add some more layers with the kids help yesterday.

Several hundred more bricks arrived today. At this rate it will take until after Easter to finish!

[Hrw-Amen]

Looks good, I see you have put some slopes onto it to make it more flush.

I know that a mass of LEGO is rather 'massive' and I am wonderin what effect this extra mass will have on the structural integrity of your staircase, is this something you have considered, you would not want the whole structure collapsing?

[Mikuri]

Just looking at it makes me scared it will fall if you hit it, even a little. I mean, I often drop items in the stairs and it might hit the wall anytime x)

[gifinim]

We finally put the last few bricks in to the LEGO stair wall!

The edges have been smoothed a little by 1x2 normal and inverted slopes and cheese slopes but it's impossible to get a perfectly neat fit due to the angle of the woodwork. There are spots for other bricks or minifigs to be fitted to (extra decoration space for Halloween and Christmas!) and the windows help lighten the load and allow light to the stairs. Because most of the bricks are white it's actually made the hall a little brighter.

For those concerned it's quickly going to become a pile of broken LEGO at the slightest knock - it is tied to the uprights in lots of places like this:

It's been prodded, poked and kicked a few times as we've been building it and the kids have been hurtling up and down the stairs and so far there's been no movement or loss of bricks.

There are no plans to do the same thing to the stairs side yet - we need to let the BrickLink stores fill up again before we can do that

[kinggregus]

What you did is super cool. I am sure you had a great time with your kids.

[legolijntje]

That looks cool. I like to idea to include some windows for some seasonal and other content

[TheBrickPal]

Creative use of space! I cannot wait to see the finished product.

[Superkalle]

[Sir_Basil_Ashton]

I really like the way this has turned out. It looks pretty sturdy as well. How many bricks are you up to now?

[gifinim]

@Puffle Pal26 - It IS finished, don't make me do any more!

@Sir_Basil_Ashton - Lots! I deliberately didn't count how many there are as then I'd have an idea of the cost! If I get bored one wet Sunday afternoon I'll count them then :-)

To all - thank you for the kind comments!

[weavil]

I want to buy a two or three story house now! Because that looks great!! What do other people say when they see it?

[iamwhoiam]

Looks great!

[Kristel]

Looks fantastic!

[Boettner Builds]

This is PDA (Pretty Damn Awesome)!!!!

[gifinim]

Thank you all

[Pizzareno]

This is so cool. Do you have any idea how many bricks you used? I am glad to see the slopes make such a difference to the bottom of the wall. And nice to see an all LEGO solution to tying it down.