Making the most of your staircase

Staircases tend to be one of two types – elaborate, showstopping and glamorous, or an inconspicuous, unnoticeable practical feature that gets us from A to B in our homes. The good news is that with a little imagination, creativity and interior design know-how, we can ensure these well-used and vital features of our homes get the attention they deserve.

Add a runner to your staircase

Being a part of the home that is frequented with regular traffic, it is not uncommon for the carpet or flooring on a stairway to become worn and possess a tired and shabby look. This common stairway issue can be immediately rectified by simply placing a runner of the stairs.

Stairway runners come in a huge variety of styles, textures and colours, meaning finding one to suit and enhance the style of your home, shouldn’t be difficult. As well as adding style to your interior and meaning walking up and down the stairs is softer and more comfortable, carpet runners act as an effective acoustic tool, reducing the noise level created by staircase traffic.

Adorn staircase walls in framed artwork

The walls that run alongside your staircase are the perfect place to inject some creative colour and style to your home. Don’t hold back in hanging much-loved paintings the kids created when they were at nursery, framed family portraits, or devoting the space to a montage of your favourite artist’s creations.

As anyone walking up and down your stairs will get to see the artwork, a stairway provides a great opportunity to showcase your most revered framed collections.

Get savvy on storage

Stairways, by the nature of their design, provide ample space for storage. With open stairways there can be a tendency to just dump everything from the hoover to the children’s toys underneath, which creates a bit of an eyesore.

Rather that using your stairway as a mere dumping ground for those essential household items, get creative with the storage space by creating stylish shoe racks that slide neatly under the stairs, or placing a fabulously eye-catching coat hanger in the space, which provides a stylish place to hang the family’s coats.

Be bold with colour

Don’t be afraid to be bolder with your choice of colour on your stairway. Instead of opting for ‘safer’, more neutral tones of beiges, greys and whites, introduce more dramatic tones of reds, blue, greens and yellows, to make your staircase stand out.

Make a statement by combining different colours to transform this essential feature of your home from a mundane, disinteresting space to an eye-catching, statement-making, high-impact feature.