Stairs

The entry and stairs have been an ongoing dilemma.  Lots of competing objectives, such as making it look great and open, but providing an air lock.

My current thinking is to try and avoid all those competing objectives and focus on the top three, namely:

·    Do something reasonably economical while still achieving a high end look, if anything we propose sounds expensive and there is a better way, tell us!

·    Make the entry feel as open as possible

·    Give us some storage near the entry

Given those three objectives, some of the conflicts get resolved. 

1) The stairs will be closed in, we will have storage under them.  I know it makes the area feel less open but I'm pretty confident a closed stair will be cheaper to build and we want the storage.  I am particularly excited about what we might be able to achieve storage wise under the landing.  A great place to hang keys and the like right near the front door.

2) We will have glass ballustrades and a square profile stainless steel handrail.  The glass will help to make it feel more open and add to the look.

So, a couple of pics to illustrate our thoughts.  We're basically taking little bits from each stair design and putting together our own.

We like the clean glass connection with the stringer here (i.e. sitting in a grove in the stringer with no visible hardware), but in ours the stringer would sit on top of the plaster wall (or whatever material we decide to finish that feature wall with) and the risers would be closed as below.  We would prefer a square profile brushed stainless steel handrail.

We like the riser and tread effect of these (as in the approx. 2/3 tread material / 1/3 alternate material riser), with the wood bit in a darker stain and the white in whatever finish we choose for the stringer as illustrated above.

I am imagining we might put some very low wattage led light strips (given how much length there will be overall) under the upper riser lips.

We are imagining the first two stairs, or landings being platforms, no stringer or balustrade (they are under the 1m BCA requirement).  The double height exposed portion of the front of the second landing would be finished in the same material as the lower third of the risers (indicated in red).

Black area is stud wall to stringer height.

I imagine the stringer and glass balustrade would continue over the upper landing.

Under the end of the stairs we would like a small storage nook and access to the under stair storage area.  The blue box indicates a shallow storage unit, something like 600 high cupboard, a shallow draw or two with key hanging and shelves above (detailed design to follow).

Thee grey box indicate a door providing access to the under stair storage.

The door to the left is through to the family room.  The first set of sliding glass doors on the right are to the outdoor paved area, the second cavity door is into the living area.  Upstairs is the parents zone!  See the design page for more details