The black “bead” is a painted steel rod. The design was inspired by the Pennsylvania architect R. Brognard Okie. You may be familiar with some of his design work of country houses in the region. I have added a few exterior photographs of this house onto our Houzz page to show you the exterior railing that were historically inspired by some of Okie’s work. They were designed with the use of some of today’s technologies to achieve code requirements without sacrificing design. Hopefully the photos will give you some ideas! I would recommend you speak with your local township officials for the numerous height and width requirements to meet code compliancy. I would be happy to talk with you further if you have any questions. Please feel free to contact us directly.

Jessica Fogle
Archer & Buchanan Architecture, Ltd.
610-692-9112
jfogle@archerbuchanan.com

http://www.houzz.com/projects/36490/Canary-Cottage

You could also take a look at our work at Bryn Coed Farm: http://www.houzz.com/projects/128738/Bryn-Coed-Farm

Thank you so much for the response. I am in Charlestown Twp. Our township inspector is stopping by today and I am prepared to ask him a few questions about this type of railing and any code issues. When I am better educated about the code requirements, I would love to contact you with questions about where to get supplies to make this happen. I really appreciate your help with this. And the images you've supplied are perfect, stunning really...but perfect for expressing my wishes to my builder.