EYE ON DESIGN BY DAN GREGORY

Rising to the Occasion

A stair should do more than get you up and down. It can double as a lightwell, storage and display wall, extra seating, and even become a sculptural accent. Here are some examples to help your imagination take “flights.”

This contemporary wood, metal, and  glass Craftsman style stairway gives storage and ciculation a little drama. (Photo and design credits from Sunset).  It recalls stair-shaped Japanese tansu or storage cabinets, like this contmpoary version, below,

which is available  from Berkeley Mills.

Compare it to a more abstract interpretation of the stair-step tansu by architect Jerry Veverka, of our Exclusive Design Studio.

The imaginative use of two scales — larger for the cabinets and display shelves, smaller for the steps themselves — makes this stairway multifunctional and dramatic.

The Greene Brothers created one of the most famous staircase sculptures in their extraordinary design for the Gamble House in Pasadena.

You can see — in the way the polished wood interlocks and overlaps — how the stair is both a stair and a magnificent piece of furniture.

A simpler Shaker-like approach turns the underside of a stair into a chest of drawers.

See how the ends of some of the drawers are shaped to fit the angle of the stair. (Photo by Ctd 2005 through Creative Commons.) Or here’s an example where the step is the storage compartment.

You could add a variation by hinging the tread to make a lift-up lid. (Photo by husin.sani through Creative Commons)

You can find more stair examples at Houseplans.com in Looking Around. This feature was mentioned in an earlier blog and now covers doors and a variety of patterns. More topics are being added regularly.

Now that we have climbed so far, what do you want your stairway to do? Don’t forget that a stair can always double as a a row of seats. Here’s an example by architect Greg La Vardera from Houseplans.com’s Exclusive Studio Collection:

It lifts the focal point of the living area and adds spatial drama. A good stairway turns the room into a stage where anything can happen.