is that stairs to a crawl space.........? the built ins could stay and be used or opened into shelves.

Yes it goes to a crawl space, I just have no idea what to do with the area to make it look nice, it's odd ;)

Hi! We once rented a house actually, in Cape Cod that had a similar type of situation. In the hallway they had these stairs that led to nowhere. So what they did was they treated it like a bookshelf. Maybe if you paint the staircase white and put decorations that would be on a bookshelf on the stairs, it would look cool. Hope I helped!

I'm a crazy cat lady (can I claim that with only 2 cats?) so I would probably carpet the stairs and the wall behind them. But a non crazy person could use it as a display area for books, one size or color or type of book on each step, or a collection of related items that grows in intensity from bottom to top. There is some kind of adhesive that can be used on the bottoms of fragile things so kitties can't push them off. Maybe even with a cheap led light on each step to highlight the items and create a nice glow?

Built ins are a double-edged sword. Great design and storage, but can limit your furniture arranging options. You could do the drawer fronts up to match your tall piece, then just place furniture near it that's easily moved for when you need to open a drawer.

I like the quirkiness too, but that's a good idea, don't think my
Husband will do the carpet as I have 3 huge kitty condos for my two spoiled babies :)