Designing the Stairway

As I said, we are about ready to draw some walls around the remainder of the first floor, but first we need to think about the shape and location of the stairway. Why is this important? Well, probably for a few reasons:

• Where the stairs come out on the second floor controls where the upstairs hall is located. A poor location might mean a long hallway (and wasted space--see this design for an example of "poor location"), or it might even mean some spaces upstairs aren't even reachable.
• The stairs should be located in the major traffic flow pattern through the house. (Unless, of course, you are specifically placing stairs in a private, out-of-the-way location.)
• Typically, stairs are also located in the public areas of the house, though many times they lead to private areas, such as bedrooms.

So, what would we like the entry and stairs to look like? Do we want the entry to be two stories high? Do we want the upstairs hall to be open, and overlook the entry? Do we want a straight stairway, an L-shaped stairway, or a U-shaped stairway?

It's typical for a stairway to ascend toward the back, or toward one side or the other. It's less common for a stairway to ascend toward the front of the house, but I have done some designs where this is the case. A stairway might also start to the right or left, but then turn (toward the back) to go up the rest of the way. It could even start toward the front, but then turn through 180° to ascend toward the back. Let's see what I'm talking about.

Straight Stairway

The image below shows a straight stairway/entry combination (in plan view) and a rendered view of that same stairway/entry area. The camera symbol below in the plan shows where the render view perspective is located. You'll also note that I haven't drawn interior walls more than enough to define the entry and the stairs.

Note in the view below the railing alongside the upper hall. The doorway to the bedroom over the garage would be at the top of the stairs to the right, and the master bedroom (following our layout) would be down the hall to the left.

The doorway on the left leads to the living room, most likely. There is a front hall closet (you always need a place where visitors can put their coats), and next to that is a doorway to the downstairs hall. In all probability you'd want to put the basement stairs under the main stairs. The front doors are just out of sight on the front left.

L-Shaped Stairway

The following plan and images illustrate the L-shaped stairway, and give us some idea how it might look. One difference between the straight stair design and this one is that the stairs don't require quite as much depth from front to back. This could be important. However, they do require a bit more width. Everything is a compromise.

There can certainly be more variations on these themes, too. As you can see from the images below, the entire entry/stairway is open to the second floor. It may seem like a lot of wasted space, and the area between the small closet (upper left center of the plan) and the front door can have some part of the second floor over it. This would give us some openness and headroom in the stairwell, but still not cut back so much on the second floor.

In the rendered image below, we can see our L-shaped stairway, with the same railing alongside the upper hall. We can see the door to our over-the-garage bedroom, and of course the master bedroom is down the hall to the left.

Note that the area over the closet makes for a platform that might be used as a plant ledge, or as a place for works of art, etc. Regardless, it's a thought to keep in mind.

This image shows a different perspective, and is what you might see if you stood on the landing and looked back toward the living room.

U-Shaped Stairway

Finally, let's look at how this plan might look with a U-shaped stairway. My thought is to put the bend in the stairway into an "alcove" in the front between the entry and the garage, and in all likelihood the area above the entry won't be open to the second floor, though the stairwell will be, of course. If we look at the prior, completed design, we will see that this is how I designed the stairway.

There are a couple of differences between the finished plan and what's shown below, other than the fact that the stairs, the front doors, and the floors are all different. First, there's a doorway between the front hall and the main downstairs hall (center of the floor plan, below). Also, the finished plan had 9' ceilings, which meant the stairs probably had 2 more risers. We can consider raising our ceilings to give our house a bit more "head room".

This image is from the landing, and it shows what the entry might look like if it wasn't open to the second floor. Obviously, that's the front closet in the center. The doorway to the living room is to the left, and the doorway to the downstairs hall is to the right. Again we have the same railing alongside the upstairs hall.

This final image looks from the living room doorway (more or less) toward the stairs.

What you choose for your design is up to you and your preferences. For this design I will work with both the L-shape and U-shape, and see where each one leads me. So, to finish drawing the first floor walls, click next.

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