When my wife was pregnant she started to struggle to go up and down on the stairs at home as they are quite narrow and steep. The solution was simple, we needed a handrail. The only problem was (as always) we were a little tight on budget and even the cheapest handrail sets were over £70 and at least they were ugly.
I was wondering in a timberyard and I found these nearly round lengths of timber and asked about them. They were wood rolls/king rolls and lead workers are using them when they join two sheets of lead on a flat or angled roof. The best thing is that you can buy them for less than £25! I also ordered a sets of handrail fixing for about £10 and tadaaa, we had a handrail. It took me a good 2-3 hours of sanding/clear varnishing and probably another 30 minutes to fit it, but it was still the cheapest way of getting a handrail done.
Screw it! 