By AUBREY COHEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Published 4:58 pm, Wednesday, April 9, 2014
These days, modern designer staircases tend to be metal and glass. But a Seattle woodworker just won four of five Stairway Manufacturers' Association national awards for his creations.
"People often have a hard time appreciating it until they see it," Nathie Katzoff, owner of NK Woodworking, said on Wednesday. "They say, 'Oh my god. I never even thought about this. This would be great.'"
Katzoff trained as a shipwright in Maine. After starting his business, a friend who was building a house asked him to create a staircase.
"I fell in love with the complexity, the curvature in handrails and spiral stairs and the ability to be artistically expressive through stairs," he said. "Stairs can be the most sculptural element of a home."
Staircases are also functional, he added. "They're challenging. You have to do structural stuff that looks beautiful."
Most people who build wooden staircases use factory-made parts.
"We actually get logs and mill them up," Katzoff said. He gets much of the wood from local arborists or homeowners, saving it from being chipped or burned as firewood.
Katzoff uses a lot of maple, walnut and sapele (an African wood not available locally), and some elm.
See more pictures at: http://www.seattlepi.com/realestate/article/Local-woodworker-wins-all-but-one-staircase-award-5390037.php#photo-6142350
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