How to make your stairs a stunning feature
Your stairs take up a lot of space, so turn them into a beautiful and interesting feature instead of accepting them for what they are! Yes, they help you get from A to B, but they’re so much more than that. When done right, they can blend with your existing home style and decor, or even be designed to stand out as a feature item.
Here are some fun ways you can turn your stairs into a feature instead of doing your best to make them blend in.
Use a glass balustrade
Glass is such an incredible material that I actually think is highly underused in interiors. It lets light in, it provides illusions, it makes things disappear.
When your hallways is a long and narrow space that doesn’t get much light, a glass balustrade s the ideal thing to give the illusion of space and to create a wonderfully modern feature staircase. There are tons of companies across Cheshire that can help you to design a bespoke one, including Cheshire Mouldings, or you can DIY the task and try to fit one yourself using ready-cut glass sheets.
Glass can be used to give the illusion that your staircase is floating, and the glass will blend with the surrounding interiors so beautifully. The glass also lets much more light through and reflects it, making your hallway appear lighter too.
Install a runner
This one is a super simple and affordable change (we all know I love a cheap fix). If you have wooden stairs already, the runner can be really easily installed by you, held in place with some carpet tape and some staples.
My biggest advice to anyone installing a runner is to measure the width all the way down your staircase, not just at the top or at the bottom. No one’s stairs are perfectly straight, and you’ll end up with a wonky runner that doesn’t quite look right.
When choosing the material and the colour for your stairs runner, definitely choose something that’s practical and that will be easy to maintain. Go bold with a bright and colourful pattern that makes a statement, or go classy and demure with a modern runner that blends into its surroundings.
Whatever design you choose, runners really help to draw the eye up the stairs, so they’re perfect if you have a small or narrow hallway, and will make it feel bigger than it really is.
Use wallpaper on the stairs
This is such an easy and cheap DIY project that anyone can do with wooden stairs for a finish that’s a little bit different.
With carpet, you’re so limited with your design choices, but there are thousands, probably even hundreds of thousands, of wallpaper designs out there you could choose from.
(Image credit: Future PLC/Jake Curtis)
Ideal Home has a really great guide on how to wallpaper your stairs here.
Use different colours and woods
I’m a big fan of mixing and matching materials and colours to add interest, and the staircase is one of the best places to experiment with this.
A deep mahogany looks great with white spindles, which is exactly what Christine has done from Little House on the Corner:
She lovingly restored her falling apart staircase and made it look incredible with the beautiful contrasting wood that sits in a lovel contrast to the white paint.
Use metals for a change of material
Most staircases are made from wood – wooden steps, wooden spindles, wooden bannister. So mix it up with some metals like copper, brass, gold or steel to make a statement.
I love how this staircase twists upwards, and the use of metal to create a balustrade that appears to bend upwards. The use of metal helps to contrast against the wood steps and the white walls.
Go completely minimalist
If you want your stairs to feel like they’re hardly there and yet still be a feature, I’m kind of obsessed with minimaist stairs with banisters that are barely there.
The floating steps, the thin bannisters: everything about this staircase is so beautiful and so wonderfully thought it, it’s a statement all on its own.
