A stair parts measurement question

[Sam Murdoch]

What is a good measurement from the top of a handrail to the flat top of a newel or landing posts on a stairway? No matter the height of the handrail or for that matter, how tall the post is overall - I am just asking about a good relationship here.
4 7/8" looks too tall but is 1-1/2" too short?

Since we don't have a conventional stairway in my house I am asking if some of you could measure what looks good and works in your house. I'd like to avoid needing to create full scale mock-ups so I'm looking for a target number that others have worked with that looks right. Thanks very much for your input.


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[Thomas Bank]

All about proportions - what "looks" right.

[Sam Murdoch]

Well, no help here so I did some more Googling and found a thread on Fine Woodworking that discussed this very issue. Also did a few full scale drawings. Still if anyone is inclined to measure their existing post to handrail dimension and report if you think it looks good - I would be glad to have the info to confirm my research. Thanks.

[Dave Richards]

Well, I took a picture of mine. It's nothing special. Came with the house. I figured it wasn't fancy enough so I didn't bother measuring it until now.

[kevin nee]

Hi, Mine is 2 1/4" house is 150 years old nothing special but looks OK

[Sam Murdoch]

Thank you guys. I am going down the road of 1-1/2" but I am happy to see that I can sneak that up to as close as 1/2" based on Dave's photo. I started bigger but the client was concerned and asked me to downscale, the newel posts in particular, so I am going to oblige . Thomas is right of course, what looks good is good, but I needed a starting point. The Fine Woodworking crowd basically said you can't go wrong with 1-1/2". Dave's photo shows me that I can cheat that pretty hard. Thanks again.