Don’t let your stair hall go unnoticed as a bland transition area between principal rooms and private spaces. Pay a little attention to this daily circulation zone and add a few little touches that will instill a sense of visual delight as you ascend and descend the stairs each and every day. A compact table here, a patterned wallpaper there, and a collection of intricately detailed prints will take your stair to another level.
When installing new hardwood floors, you’ve got an opportunity to create art underfoot. Instead of arranging strips of wood in straight lines, you can opt for a custom-laid marquetry pattern to introduce traditional elegance underfoot. Painstakingly installed one piece at a time, this old-world technique requires a skilled craftsman with plenty of patience. If your plan is to finish your floors with a natural clear coat instead of stain, you can accentuate the border of the room by installing a narrow strip of wood in a lighter colour from a different species.
Adding wallpaper to your stair hall brings pattern and texture to an area that might otherwise seem a tad lacklustre. Since wallpaper can be costly to purchase and install, you’ll want to get the maximum life span out of it with minimum concerns about durability. By adding a chair rail profile about 32 inches above the height of the baseboards, you can achieve a two-tone wall treatment by painting the lower section, which is often prone to scrapes and bumps from traffic.