18 January 2019
Staircases are often one of the busiest parts of the home. Used by people every single day, we often see stairs as a functional necessity that plays a vital role in the flow of the home. However, when it comes to interior design, it is one of the last parts of the house that we consider to be a design feature.
Often, the reason we leave it out of our home decor plans is related to its function. Thanks to their unique shape, stairs can often be awkward to incorporate into the style of a room, an issue made even more challenging when space is limited. However, there is still plenty that can be done to incorporate the unique style of your property into an enclosed staircase. Here are a few style ideas to help your stairway stand out, regardless of space and size.
Depending on how enclosed your staircase is, it might at times feel like it’s entirely separated from the rest of the house. Often, that can lead us to instinctively search for ways to make it feel more connected to the adjacent rooms, flooring type or wall finish. However, consider taking it the other way and making it stand out. That way, your staircase will take on its own extravagant style. Ironically, making the staircase stand out can also help the stair to connect with the rest of the property!
By using sharp colours on the inside walls running along the staircases, a compact stairwell will feel like a special part of the home, with a style that is unique but that feeds into the overall décor of the property. The same effect can be achieved with patterned wallpaper, while the added texture of this method can be the perfect addition for certain interior styles.
Following on from the point above, if you do not wish to give your enclosed stairwell a vibrant coat of paint, then using decorations along the staircase can deliver a similar outcome. A problem many enclosed stairways have with this point is that there is just not enough space on or around the stair for decorations, or excess decorations risk creating a cluttered feel. This lack of room is often the reason why enclosed staircases are left plain and empty, ignored in interior design. However, the lack of space doesn’t mean that you cannot decorate enclosed stairs with style.
Objects and ornaments make great statement pieces along staircases. When a lack of space is available, this will often come in the form of photo frames and canvas art. These are perfect for creating eye-catching scenes but, crucially, don’t take up that vital walking space. In the same way, thin ornaments – such as plates or other mementoes – that can hang on walls add a bit of character to a once plain space. This design idea is something that can be done relatively quickly and will help to create some individual charm that connects emotionally with the people in your home.
This point works particularly well for extremely enclosed staircases, such as those with two or more walls around it. In this situation, the stair is like a hallway of its own, and traversing it can feel isolating or oppressive. A smart way of solving this issue is to increase the amount of light on the staircase or the stairwell itself, visually increasing the feel of the available space. The most interesting way of adding a light effect is to introduce lights on the staircase itself, highlighting the journey and emphasising your staircase as a decorative feature in your home.
There is a plethora of LED lights available on the market, with various shapes and colours and sizes. With expert advice, LED lights can be incorporated into any new stair design. Whether the lights are incorporated into the wall-side stringers or positioned underneath the treads, or even incorporated into treads or risers in a unique fashion, the design options are endless.
There are other ways your staircase can highlight the journey up. Straightforward design tweaks include numbering the steps or putting a feel-good message on the staircase’s risers, which both work alongside the path of the user. Combining the diagonal nature of the stairs into your wallpaper
design is another way of giving emphasis to the act, and you will be surprised by how quickly this transforms the entire feel of your enclosed stairwell.
