Stairs & Handrails

Stair lighting has a job beyond decoration: it has to show the edge of the tread to someone descending. That points to light that grazes across the going rather than shining back into the eye, which usually means the strip sits under the nosing or inside the handrail, never facing the user.

Handrail detail is the most forgiving position architecturally and the least forgiving optically — the strip is at eye level for anyone on the flight below. Use COB in a channel with a deep diffuser, and keep output lower than instinct suggests.

Exterior steps change the specification entirely: the same detail outdoors needs a wet-rated strip and a listed driver, because water runs down a stair by design.