The beauty is in the details. The upper anchor point for the handrail is actually hidden.
A steel L-bracket is screwed onto the top of the railing. Next, a 3" lag bolt is driven into the ceiling joist and then 2 screws are driven into the wall.
After that, to cover the bracket the oak finish trim slides up into place and gets screwed into the wall. Finally the trim screw holes are covered with plugs and sanded smooth.
Below are 2 pictures; on the left is the finished look and on the right is the handrail being setup earlier on the table saw. The trim piece is temporarily in place to show how the trim covers the bracket. You can see three holes on the bracket for making the screw attachments to the house.
For the ballusters I cut a dado into the handrail and secured them with finish nails. In this photo you can still see white paste covering the holes near the top. This paste shrinks as it dries.
This photo show the Newel post dadoed over the wall panel. No gaps
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