Hi, I'll never understand why builders do this type of thing. Well, I'm going to assume it's in an entry area? If so, keep your eyes peeled for a beautiful piece of sculpture, or something interesting you may find in your travels. Resist the temptation to stick a plant on it. After you have kids, take down the sculpture and replace with safety bumper

There's a closet in that corner...yes? There's an outlet, so I suppose a lamp and glass piece.

It's not quite visible from the front entrance to our house. There's not a closet near this space; directly above it is a second floor landing. I draped a sheet over our banister since we're doing a little remodeling currently. I suppose an outlet beckons to have a lamp plugged into it which would be a nice way to light the stairs at night. I'll screw it in to avoid any accidents by mischievous kiddos. :)

I would ignore it completely. It is standing all alone so why bring attention to something that appears to have no use. It looks like the upper stair railing and spindles should have gone to the full 90 degree angle/corner. Oops!

I always like night lights near stairs. Maybe a squat round ginger jar lamp.

How about some pillows and a lamp hung or clamped to spindles. I know some kiddos who would love a little reading spot like this!

There's bound to be something you'd enjoy seeing there.... ?

Home Goods has low prices on these almost night lights. If 2 plug-ins, buy 2. Something decorative in between them?

I would leave it as is.

But something a little quirky could be art or vase thats light and soft and doesnt necessarily break when dropped

replace railing so it follows the 90 degrees

A lamp that glows softly for the staircase. So the bulb can not be seen

All great ideas, thanks everyone! I think I'll put a lamp there for now and use it as a landing spot for stuff that needs to go up or down. With kids I'm sure I'll be using it A LOT. :)

If that were my home I'd have something done to rework it. Maybe extend the upper railing to 90 degrees, as soosun2 mentioned, to fix this. Not a great stairway design.

Probably easy to find a pretty basket for that function [of the up and down destination!]. If 2 or 3 fit, would be ok.