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Open-Riser Wood Staircase in Double-Height Void
About Stairs Area Interiors
Common questions from homeowners.
The staircase is an open-riser design in dark stained wood, meaning there is a gap where the solid back of each step would normally be. Open risers were chosen so the stair does not read as a heavy wall cutting through an open-plan floor. Light and views pass straight between the treads. The dark wood gives the flight some weight against the pale marble and grey walls, so it still lands as the main structure in the room.
The balustrade is toughened glass held in a wood frame with a matching wood handrail. Glass was used instead of solid balusters so nothing blocks the sightline through the double-height void. You get the safety of a full barrier without a visual one. The wood cap keeps a warm handhold and ties the railing back to the treads, rather than leaving cold glass edges on their own.
Hanging in the stairwell is a cluster of melt-effect glass pendants in copper and chrome, dropped on thin wires from a ring frame near the skylight. A tall void like this needs a light that works down a long drop, and a scatter of globes at different heights fills that height far better than one fixed pendant. By day the skylight lights the shaft. By evening the pendants take over.
The double-height walls are clad in grey laser-cut screens, panels with a repeating cut-out pattern. On a wall this tall a flat painted finish would have looked bare and shown every mark. The perforated screens break the height into texture and throw soft shadows as the skylight moves through the day. Keeping them grey lets the wood stair stay the thing you look at, not the wall behind it.
The space under the stair is turned into a small pebble garden rather than left dead or boxed in for storage. White pebbles, a face-shaped planter and low greenery sit on a raised wood tray, lit by the skylight above. It is the kind of corner that usually collects clutter, so making it a feature earns its keep. The greenery also softens all the hard wood, glass and stone stacked around it.
Open-riser stairs look light but they do ask for a little thought on safety. The gaps between treads are fine for adults and older children, though a home with toddlers may want the risers partly filled or a temporary gate while they are small. The treads themselves are solid wood with a good depth, so footing is secure. A glass balustrade gives a full-height barrier on the open side. For most family homes they are perfectly safe with normal care.
A wooden open-riser staircase in solid timber is a carpentry job, so most of the cost is the wood and the skill to build it. Solid treads with no risers still need a strong hidden support, since each step carries weight on its own. A glass balustrade and a double-height void add to the figure. The stain and timber species you pick move it further. It costs more than a plain enclosed stair, but it doubles as the centrepiece of the floor.
Upkeep here splits across three things. The wood treads want dusting and an occasional wood-safe polish, and you should wipe spills quickly so they do not mark the stain. The glass panels show fingerprints, so a regular glass-cleaner wipe keeps them clear. The pebble garden needs the odd tidy and watering if the plants are live. The marble floor around the base takes a pH-neutral clean like the rest of the home.