Behind the Design: A Stair Runner That Feels Collected, Not Custom
Studio Notes No. 004
Within our Pacific Heights residential remodel project, the curved staircase is more than just a way to move through the home—it’s a sculptural centerpiece. Designed by architect, Ken Linsteadt as a “ribbon unspooling through the house,” it gently connects the Entry to the grand Living Room above.
Within our design, both of those spaces are grounded by remarkable antique rugs: an Antique Khotan—originally from East Turkestan—in the Entry, and a Sultanabad—from the Arak region of Persia—in the Living Room. These elegant, timeworn pieces set the tone for the home: soulful, collected, and warm. So when it came to designing a runner for the staircase, we knew it needed to feel like part of a similar story.
The Challenge: Honoring the Home’s Soul
We first considered sourcing antique rugs and adapting them into a stair runner. But due to the scale of the staircase, this would have required two extremely large scale rugs—an expensive and risky approach that we feared would read too patchworky once sewn together.
Instead, we chose to create something entirely new for the stair runner that still carried the spirit of an antique. We partnered with Woven, a Los Angeles-based atelier known for their deep knowledge of antique rugs and custom fabrication. They assisted us in sourcing an antique rug to serve as the stair runner design foundation. Together, we studied its pattern, scale, and patina to guide our vision for our custom piece.
Bringing the Vision to Life
With Woven’s expertise, we developed a custom pattern inspired by our reference rug. We selected wool yarn poms to closely match its nuanced color palette. These colors were then incorporated into a digital mock-up, helping us visualize the full composition as it would flow across the staircase. From there, Woven produced a series of physical samples. With each round, we refined the details—tweaking color pom selections, amount of strie texture within the patterns ground, and adjusting the distressing to evoke the imperfect beauty of a true antique.
The collaborative process took nearly a full year from start to finish, with incredible patience from our client, who was as invested in the details as we were. When the final runner was installed, they were over the moon—a rewarding culmination of a deeply collaborative and intentional design journey.
Finishing Touches
To ensure a flawless fit, our installer created a full-scale paper template of the staircase. Woven used this to lay out the pattern digitally—every tread, riser, and curve considered with care. To complete the installation, we integrated antiqued brass stair rods sourced from Collier Webb. These subtle accents added just the right amount of polish and period charm, anchoring the runner in place while complementing the home’s warm material palette.
The result is a stair runner that feels as though it has been there as long as the house existed. It quietly connects the antique rugs above and below it, grounding the home’s most prominent architectural gesture in warmth, texture, and character.
See more of our Pacific Heights residential remodel project here.
ABD STUDIO, July 2025
Architect: Ken Linsteadt Architects
Contractor: Upscale Construction
Photographer: Suzanna Scott