How to Build a Closed Off Wall and New Railing/Banister

Completed new wall and banister.

Here is a look at view from the family room into the kitchen when we moved in.

Here is from the kitchen down into the family room before when we moved in.

I gutted the lower level from the kitchen to build the walls out and install proper insulation. In the process I decided to close off the family room from the kitchen because of future plans to add a peninsula along that wall in the kitchen. 2x2s were screwed to the lower wall and screwed into the joist above to have a flat surface for drywall in the family  room.

A small 2x4 wall was screwed down through the tile floor into the joist of the kitchen floor and up into the joist of the bedroom level creating a flat drywall-able wall for the kitchen. We had a small leak int he kitchen roof so that was taken care of at the same time.

After drywall was installed.

I bought off the shelf railing, base rail and spindles from home depot to create this. I added the spacer strip between spindles with some glue to hold them in place. The bottom has the screws going up through the bottom into the bottom of the spindles and the top is tacked with a couple finishing brad nails toe-nailed in both directions, along with the spacers.

The bigger spindles were added to either end with counter sunk holes through the big spindle into the top and bottom railing. They were filled with puddy as these will be painted.

The whole assembly was spray painted with a couple cans of white gloss spray paint and light sanding in between coats. The wall piece was simply screwed into a stud and puddied over to hide the screws.

The post in the middle of the kitchen got 2 6 inch lag bolts in the bottom (pre-drilled of course) from the basement as much in the joist as possible.