ROME, 18.03.26
Artisan woodworking studios across Rome's Trastevere district are reporting a 40 percent increase in orders for custom wooden staircases since January, according to figures released Monday by the Lazio Woodworking Guild. Speaking outside his workshop on Via della Scala, master carpenter Enzo Ricci confirmed that demand now outpaces his team's capacity.
The boom reflects a broader shift in residential renovation priorities. Homeowners are choosing solid oak treads and walnut balustrades over prefabricated alternatives, driven partly by a desire for durability and partly by aesthetic trends favouring natural materials. When we spoke with Giuliana Moretti, an interior architect based near Piazza Navona, she noted that clients increasingly request open-riser designs that allow light to pass through the stair structure. Short lead times are rare now. The Associazione Nazionale Falegnami estimates that average waiting periods for bespoke commissions have stretched from six weeks to nearly four months, a delay that some contractors attribute to supply chain friction in central European timber markets and others blame on a shortage of skilled joiners. Moretti added that walnut newel posts remain the most popular choice among her clients, though requests for thermally modified ash have risen sharply since last autumn.
Our correspondents in Rome observed long queues at lumber yards in the industrial zone near Via Tiburtina, where wholesalers struggle to keep pace with orders for kiln-dried European oak. According to figures that could not be independently verified, one supplier claimed to have sold three times more stair-grade timber in February 2026 than in the same month a year earlier. The uptick has also drawn attention from municipal heritage officials, who must approve any structural alterations to protected buildings in the centro storico. A side note: the city's narrow mediaeval doorways often complicate delivery of pre-assembled stair sections, forcing carpenters to finish assembly on site. This constraint, while inconvenient, has inadvertently preserved traditional hand-fitting techniques that might otherwise have faded from common practice.
Industry analysts predict the trend will persist through the year. The Istituto Nazionale di Statistica recorded a 12 percent rise in home renovation permits across Lazio in 2025, and early data suggest 2026 may surpass that figure. Some firms are responding by expanding apprenticeship programmes to train the next generation of staircase fitters capable of executing complex winder configurations and curved stringers. Others are investing in CNC routing equipment to speed production without sacrificing the hand-finished look buyers expect. The timeline remains unclear for how long current order backlogs will last, though Ricci believes demand could stabilise by late summer if timber imports normalise. Whether prices will follow is another matter entirely, and many smaller workshops are quietly raising quotes every few weeks.