Curving end of straight staircase!

[Mug-o-Latte]

I have a straight staircase, that comes down from a dormer loft conversion, which ends only 69 cm away from a wall:

Stairs]]]]] <---> Wall

So the gap betwen the baluster at the bottom of the stairs and the wall is only 69cm.

This leaves a rather small passage in which to walk through. I would like to remove the baluster from the bottom step, and move it up one step, and then widen the bottom step and put in a curved bottom step, to soften the end. This will take tha gap to about 1m, though the bottom stair will still be 69cm away from the opposite wall (Hope this makes sense!).

In order to do this, it it just a case of pulling off the old baluster, sawing 20cm off the banister, and then re-fixing the old baluster onto the step above, or does the baluster need to go all the way down to the ground?

I would then remove the bottom step and replace it with a piece of plywood cut to the new shape of the bottom stair, so that it extends out in a curve.

The bottom step would look something like this

but the baluster would come down to the step above, leaving a wider gap.

Is this a daft idea? Any other ideas for increasing the gap without replacing the whole staircase, or knocking down the wall (which is supporting)?

Cheers,
MOL.




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[chappers]

If your staircase is of a similar design to the one in the picture then you will need a curtail step on the second tread to take the volutes which support the end of the handrail, without sufficient supports the handrail will be very flimsy.
If your staircase has a closed string and newel, ie you cant see the end of the treads as they are housed into the string. Then you could cut off the newel and build a new one which straddles the string a bit further up, then you could extend the bottom tread all the way over to your wall and create a quarter landing bottom tread.
Any chance of a photo of your staircase as it is