Do you have a flair for the dramatic? Do you want to give your home a visually arresting focal point? Do you like entering a room dynamically?
If you said yes to any of those questions, you can achieve all three by improving the visual appeal of your home’s staircase. By making this structure captivating, your house will gain a visual center that will draw the eyes of any of your guests. With their attention focused on the staircase, you can descend in a truly dynamic fashion, as befits your dramatic personality.
Here are a few design ideas that can turn your stairs from mere flights of steps to flights of fancy.
Flights of Fancy
Staircases, whether they’re conventional or spiral, guide the eye along their path. The trick is to make a viewer’s gaze stay on the staircase instead of glossing over it like they would for uninteresting architectural features.
Interesting objects can pique a guest’s eyes. If you travel extensively or are skillful in painting, you can hang pictures from your trips or framed works of art along the stairs. A more direct approach would be to install hardware that attracts attention. Beautifully sculpted wooden banisters or exquisite railings of wrought iron could make your staircase safer and more beautiful.
You can also use colors that will interest the viewer to enhance your staircase’s beauty.
One of the most startling of all color combinations is black and white. The colors contrast one another in a dynamic and fundamental way, and you can use patterned wallpaper or paint to replicate this interplay on your steps. If you prefer a bolder and more eccentric way to do so, you can install zebra-patterned carpets on your staircase.
The transition from one color to another provides a visually engaging spectacle. You could use paint to decorate your staircase in a stylish ombre pattern. Choose colors that combine explosively or simply paint the light-to-dark spectrum of a single color. The transition of hues will draw people’s eyes to where you want them to go.
Practical Considerations
Once you have a fanciful design in mind, you should remember the practical matters that govern staircase construction. Because of their steep nature and elevation, staircases can become hazardous to your health if they aren’t up to code.
The following are important measurements for staircases:
- The vertical part of a step, or riser, should be at most 7 ¾ inches high. This code exists to avoid staircases that are too difficult to climb up on and too steep to safely walk down on.
- The horizontal side of a step, where you place your feet, is the tread. According to specifications, it should be at least 10 or 11 inches deep. This limit keeps stairs from being too small to accommodate your foot and give it enough space, so you don’t slip when walking on it.
- The staircase should be at least 36 inches wide. A narrow staircase doesn’t allow other people to use it at the same time, which can be hazardous during an emergency, and make it hard to carry objects up and down.
Always take safety into account when dealing with staircases. After all, you don’t want your dramatic descent to turn into a fatal fall. If you remember to take these critical numbers into account, you can enjoy greeting your guests from atop your captivating new staircase as you descend dramatically.
