Customising Stair Balustrades to Suit Your Home’s Design

July 21, 2025June 12, 2024 by Adam Blundell

The staircase is not just a structural necessity—it’s also a central feature of your home’s aesthetic, offering a unique opportunity to showcase your personal style. Whether you’re drawn to the charm of traditional designs or the sleek appeal of modern minimalism, customising your balustrade can dramatically enhance your home’s interior. This article aims to give you all the information you need about the most popular styles to help you make the right choice.

Metal Balustrades

Metal balustrades are renowned for their durability and safety, making them an excellent choice for any home. Whether it’s the classic appeal of wrought iron or the sleek, modern look of brushed chrome, metal balustrades can seamlessly integrate into various architectural styles.

Benefits of Metal Balustrades

Each metal type brings its own unique flair. Wrought iron is perfect for traditional or Victorian-style homes, offering intricate designs, while brushed chrome or stainless steel works excellently in contemporary settings due to their clean lines and reflective surface.

Durability and Safety: Known for their strength, metal balustrades provide a secure barrier.
Elegance: Offers a sophisticated look that can be integrated into both traditional and modern designs.
Variety of Metals: Includes options like wrought iron for classic styles and brushed chrome for a more contemporary feel.
Customisable Designs: Metal can be moulded into intricate patterns or sleek, simple lines.

Glass Balustrades

One of the standout benefits of glass balustrades is their ability to bring more natural light into your home and create an illusion of more space. This makes them especially valuable in smaller homes or darker spaces.

Benefits of Glass Balustrades

Glass is versatile and pairs beautifully with other materials like wood or metal, providing endless design possibilities. It enhances the visual flow and continuity between different levels of your home.

Natural Light: Allows light to flow more freely through spaces, brightening areas and creating an airy feel.
Illusion of Space: Makes areas appear larger by not obstructing views with opaque materials.
Versatile Pairings: Complements and enhances other materials such as wood or metal.
Safety: Made from toughened, tempered glass to ensure durability and resist impact.
Safety and Durability: Glass balustrades are made from toughened glass which is specifically designed to be durable and safe.
Aesthetic Appeal: Offers a clean, modern look that can integrate seamlessly into any décor.

Wooden Balustrades

For those who appreciate the warmth and organic feel of wood, wooden balustrades offer a timeless appeal. They are particularly effective in traditional or rustic interiors but can be adapted to more modern tastes through painting or staining.

Benefits of Wooden Balustrades

Wood offers great versatility in terms of finishes and can be easily refreshed with new paint or varnish. For a more distinct look, consider adding stylish runners or carpeting to enhance the wooden stairs’ visual appeal.

Warmth and Tradition: Brings a natural, warm element to interiors, suitable for classic and rustic themes.
Customisation: Easily adaptable through stains, paints, or varnishes.
Variety of Wood Types: Offers multiple choices from oak to pine, each providing different visual effects and strengths.
Cost-Effective: Generally, more affordable than some other materials, depending on the type of wood used.

Discover Glass Balustrades at Express Toughening

While there are many ways to customise your staircase, incorporating glass elements remains our top recommendation due to its transformative impact on both light and space. Shop our glass balustrades online or contact our team for personalised advice on bespoke glass solutions.

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What Our Customers Say

Andrew Cooke

Superb customer service from the Express Toughening team – when I made a mistake on my order online, they dealt with the issue quickly organising partial refund immediately. My order arrived quickly and their courier messaged me before delivery to check I was in. Quality product at the best price I found online.

Kiron Kular

A massive Thankyou to Helen from Express Toughening for being so patient, co-operative and helpful with my orders. She resolved a re-make without any fuss and in an extremely timely manner. If you want glass – go to Express Toughening and ask for Helen!

Andy Beviere

Extremely easy company to deal with, glass ordered weeks ago and asked for a specific delivery date due to glass testing and no one being onsite. Delivered on time and when asked for other types glass stated they couldn’t help but recommended an equally helpful company!!

Wouldn’t hesitate to use again.

Brian White

I’ve used Express Toughening twice now and have been very impressed with the glass they have supplied and also the helpfulness of the staff. The first job was a couple of years ago when they supplied me with a 6mm satin frosted toughened glass door for our shower room. From my measurements they supplied a fabulous door which had the hinge and lock holes cut out and also took into account the out of square measurement of the door frame. It fitted a treat and is stunning to look at.

More recently (late last year) they supplied me with painted toughened glass splash backs (7 items altogether in 6mm glass with the biggest being 2.1 metres long), all cut to my sizes and with numerous switch and socket cut-outs. My local glass supplier said they could not cut out the close together sockets and switches, but Express did and got it spot on!

As with the glass door, the splash backs were delivered to me by Expresses’ own transport and without any problems and quality issues.

After the scary bit of fitting them all the result is faultless and stunning. Thanks go to Alex who helped me with the ordering process and technical aspects of glass splash backs.

David Convery

4mm toughened glass for greenhouse. Although slightly dubious about ordering from a company I’ve never heard of and not local (300mile away) I’m so glad I took the plunge. A great customer service from Helen and the team from start to finish, clearly there was nothing for me to worry about.

Their website is easy to use and made ordering online a doddle and for those shapes, they don’t have on their website a quick email and rough diagram sorted any issues there. All glass arrived on time well packed and with no breakages.

It’s a company I wouldn’t hesitate to use again and I’d definitely recommend it to others who need quality glass cut to size.

Tony Fields

Excellent product.
Exactly what it says on the tin.
Brilliant, friendly service from Helen.
Definitely recommended.
(And we’re on the Scottish border)

Tony Owen

Fantastic service, fantastic prices and fantastic products – I could not recommend Express Toughening highly enough – I got an immediate response to my request for a quotation, and Helen was so helpful in answering my questions. Order placement was easy and everything arrived exactly on time and as promised. I won’t look anywhere else for my next order – great prices (way cheaper than other quotes) and great service!

Thank you!

Sam Richardson

We have been using Express toughening for a number of years, mainly for glass screens and Toughened Glass for balustrade. The company are always reliable, deliveries always on time and friendly helpful service.