I would showcase a very cool sculptural piece here. Who's your favorite artist? Animal? Thing to do? Find what moves you or makes you smile than put it in here. Just my 2 cents ; )

You have to wonder, don’t you, what in the world the architect and/or builder were thinking by putting something like that up there?!? First of all, it looks like it would be very difficult to access safely. Even dangerous. But, that’s just me, and I have a real fear of heights. You couldn’t pay me enough to crawl into that space! It also looks like it would be a big dust catcher for anything you did put up there. If it isn’t as hard to access as it looks, I’d either store out-of-season clothes in neutral colored, covered baskets up there to make it at least useful, or put up a large, hopefully lightweight statue of something that you like in the middle front of that. But it would still have to be dusted.

What rooms are on the other side? If closed in could it be an additional little sleeping loft or storage area for adjacent bedroom? If I were a kid I would think it very cool to have a ladder to an area like that.

I would remove that and increase the height of the entry way and hang an interesting lighting fixture.

Remove it and hang a cool chandelier?

The home was built by a custom home builder who had a bronzed statue of a tiger. Not exactly our taste. It is pretty high up and not very safe to access (we do so occasionally to dust and or retrieve a stray toy). It does catch dust. We have indeed considered opening it up and/or closing it off and just making it a wall for art.

Is there anything structural inside that area?

Suero, I don't think so.

I would either remove it or build a wall on the front and cut the wall on the left to turn it into a storage nook, if that makes sense. I'm no expert though so just my 2 cents.

justerrilynn, those are really neat! Our master bedroom is on one side (kitchen on the other).

My first choice would probably be to remove, but if we are thinking of creative uses...

I would close it off and open it up to the master. Then I would fill it with cushions and a small bookshelf and make it a reading nook. I love little reading nooks.

It looks taller than this, but same idea.

On the kitchen side, is it in a spot that it could be useful storage space for the kitchen?

I would close it off and ad it to the master bedroom. Even if it just becomes a closet it still would be more useable and better looking. Unless you could get another bronze tiger ; )

I totally agree with Lynne. When I saw it I said, almost word for word, everything she mentioned to my husband. Looks like a death trap to me and I would get rid of it.

Misc. storage space isn't a bad idea. I would access it from the master. You could store seasonal clothes or even random stuff like Christmas decorations in these. It's a fairly large space. I would make the the door to it inconspicuous like use a large painting that slides or hinges. Like the classic safe behind the painting.

I'd put up sheetrock! LOL! What was someone thinking?

I hate trying to access it! That would be the concern with storage -- we had discussed that at one point. We really hadn't considered removing it though and adding a chandelier! Seems like the most simple solution too. I like the idea that it would leave the space open.

I would do as others suggested, put a wall up so the opening isn't visible from the stairway at all; add a chandelier in front of the new wall and add an access from the master bedroom to use as extra storage. The access from the master could be as simple as a closet door or elaborate pull out shelving. Someone mentioned Christmas storage, what an excellent idea! You can't have too much storage space and accessing it from the master is the safe way. From the current opening it wouldn't be a good idea at all. You should check first to see if the floor can handle the weight of whatever you are storing. It sounds like it can, after all a bronzed statue of a tiger was there previously and presumably it was heavy.

Awesome visuals!!

I LOVE Justerrilynn’s suggestion of sheetrocking the front and opening up a side door access from either your bedroom or kitchen. Ugh, I can’t even look at your original photo without starting to shiver!