How to Mix Wood & Iron Balusters in a Stair Rail
- 1). Fill the bathtub with six inches of water. Place all of the dowels into the water so that they become pliable. Prepare the worktable by laying the paint drop cloth across the top. Set the chip brush and the paint onto the worktable within arm's reach. Leave a space vacant for the dowels. Check the dowels after 30 minutes to determine if they have become pliable.
- 2). Remove the dowels from the water and dry each one separately with the cotton rag. Remove any lint or fibers from the dowels. Place the dowels onto the table in a row. Paint each dowel with light brushstrokes. Avoid saturating the dowel with paint. Allow the paint on each dowel to dry to the touch. Roll each dowel and paint the back side. Permit the paint to dry to the touch on the back side also.
- 3). Move the worktable to the stairway. Cut the satin cord into 18-inch lengths. Pin one piece to each end of each dowel. Hold the first dowel in place next to the iron baluster, with the center of each aligned. Begin to slowly wrap the dowel around the baluster.
- 4). Reach for the cord as the end of the dowel is wrapped to the baluster. Ask someone to assist by holding the middle of the dowel in place while the full length of the cord is tightly wrapped around the dowel and the baluster. Hold the cord in place on the top of the dowel and screw the decorative finial into the dowel's end over the cord ends.
- 5). Begin from the middle and work toward the bottom of the baluster again wrapping the dowel around the baluster. Situate the dowel at the bottom end and again wrap a piece of the cut cord around both the dowel and baluster. Finish the bottom in the same manner as the top. Proceed baluster by baluster with the process.
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