The humble domestic staircase is often viewed purely as a means to an end, a way of accessing different floors, and providing that it’s in a good state of repair, it rarely gets a second thought. The same goes for the hallways and landings that lead to the stairs, functional spaces that take you from A-B. These areas, however, receive the highest volume of daily foot traffic within a home, so shouldn’t we be paying them a bit more attention? 

In this blog, we take a look at the potential design opportunities that these spaces offer. Read on to find out more.

A landing is the flat area that sits at the top of the stairs and leads off into the rooms on that floor. Because this area can often look exactly like a hallway, many people get the two confused.

A hallway on the other hand, is a passageway or corridor in the interior of a building that acts as a walkway between doors and connects the rooms together. As both a hallway and landing are used to connect to other rooms, the main difference is that a landing is always at the top of a flight of stairs.

The hallway sets the scene for your home, welcoming in visitors and creating that all-important first impression. Therefore, our favourite hallways design idea is to start as you mean to go on and make sure that your hall is neat and clutter free. 

The most common niggles with hallways generally revolve around clutter, as the space can easily become a dumping ground for coats, bags, shoes and all manner of random objects that don’t make it in much further than the front door.

Decluttering is the easiest way to open up your hallway and make it feel like an open, airy space. There are numerous effective (not to mention ingenious) solutions to streamlining your hallway.

Other top hallway design ideas include:

• Hang mirrors on the walls to give the illusion of more space.
• Create consistency with flooring leading from the hallway up the stairs and onto the landing.
• Widen narrow hallways with lighter coloured walls.
• Remove heavy curtains from any windows in your hallway to allow the maximum amount of light to enter the room.
• Create a designated storage area for every day coats and shoes and then rehome any other clutter in other areas of the home.

Landings are arguably the most ignored area of the home, as generally they are just a small corridor leading from the stairs into the upstairs rooms. Because of the small space available, many homeowners leave them completely empty. 

However, there are a few different landing design ideas that you can do to make use of this unused space, namely integrating what most homes are crying out for, more storage.

Turning your landing balustrade into a bookcase/storage unit is a great way of combining safety with practicality, as is using dead space above the stairs to integrate shelving. You can also create interest on a longer landing by painting the walls in a feature colour and displaying artwork over the entire walls.

Some staircase configurations feature a stairwell or half landing. Again, this area can be put to good use and can be as easy as positioning a simple plant or ornament in the corner of the bend. Alternatively, the space could be customised to suit your living needs.

If your half landing features a window, make the most of it by creating a window seat. Narrow window sills can be built out to create a hollow bench topped with soft cushions. Factor in a hinged lid for the added benefit of creating a storage area.

Flooring in these areas needs careful consideration, as not only will it have to withstand a lot of wear and tear, it will also have to span a large area and ultimately lead into other rooms. With this in mind, anything that makes too much of a statement may end up being overkill. In general, a simple design is one of the best ideas for flooring on stairs.

Keeping a consistent style throughout will unite the upstairs and downstairs, creating a sense of ‘flow’ within the home. Simple runners are a great way to achieve this effect, as is going for simple statement colours.

Choosing the right lighting for your hallway, stairs and landing can make a big impact, and be a statement in itself.

One of our favourite stair lighting ideas is to use statement lighting. Statement lighting is a light fixture or accessory that stands out from the rest of the room and creates a ‘statement’. It can be a huge chandelier or a vibrant vase on a windowsill, but it needs to be something that is eye-catching, bold, and unique.

Statement lighting can bring even the simplest décor to life, which can be very useful if you don’t have much space to play with. Lighting also has the added benefit of drawing the eye upwards, and ultimately opening up the space.

At Jackson Woodturners, we provide the largest selection of staircase parts anywhere in the UK. We provide top quality parts at trade prices, allowing you to achieve your dream staircase without breaking the bank!

We love to help our clients design the best staircase possible, so if you’re looking for advice on how to design yours, get in touch with a member of our friendly team to discuss your requirements.

What is the trend in stairs in 2024?

Monochromatic staircase designs have started to come back into style in 2024, and provide a timeless look that looks great even when it’s not the peak of fashion. Going for an all white, cream, or grey stairs can create a bright airy staircase that stands out and catches the eye.

If these colours aren’t your style, try going for a single colour that brightens the staircase. Pastels are great for this, as they can still brighten the area whilst creating a splash of colour. 

How can I design a staircase?

We recommend that you start by choosing a style. Whether you want a light, airy feel or a cosy, storage oriented feel will dictate most of your design decisions. At this point it’s also worth considering the other hallways and doorways that the staircase will lead to, as you won’t want to create a clashing design that doesn’t blend well together.

Once this has been decided, you can start to think of ideas that would achieve this. Read our blog above and list out a few ideas for each area. Once you have these, consider how those ideas will interact with each other to create a cohesive style.