Stairs to nowhere

7 years ago

Hi all, we are buying a house that has two staircases to the second floor. The previous owner closed up the back stairwell and built a laundry room on the second floor. Since there is another stairwell its not a problem. This stairwell has a door at the bottom right next to the kitchen. The stairwell cannot be removed as it is right above the stairs to the basement. Looking for creative ideas of using this space. One idea was to build a pantry at the bottom of the stairs.

Have any of you ever seen or done anything like this?

Attached is a picture of the stairwell. The wall to the left (with the hand:) will be coming down as I am opening up the space for the kitchen. So the left wall will have kitchen cabinets on the other side. On the right is an office. So bookcases are needed in there. Thank you for your help.

Featured Answer

CLC

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

I think a pantry or storage closet is a great idea. Even if you don’t use it as your ”main pantry/food storage,” you could always use it as a place to store bulk food items and/or paper products (plates, paper towels, napkins), bottled water and/or soda, etc.

If this were my home, I would take the door off, and wall off the stairs at the second step. You could use the resulting nook to create a “command center”.....mainly a central place to keep mail, calendar, recipes, junk drawer, and a dock to charge phones/devices.

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Comments (7)

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JudyG Designs
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
The staircase to nowhere probably indicates that the house was occupied by multiple families at one time….

There is never enough storage in a kitchen, especially if you want the counters kept bare.

For some reason I can’t copy this pintrest idea..

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUKYGCKFy31/
Devorah Brody thanked JudyG Designs
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Wendling Designs
7 years ago
Hi Devorah. A pantry would work great in that location. You can keep the door where it is and install pull out shelves, drawers or baskets. The depth of these "pull outs" would vary depending on the location within the pantry. Another option would be to continue the kitchen cabinetry around. The base cabinet would have a false front on it (inoperable). You could then wrap the countertop around on top of the new base cabinet with the false front. It appears that this new countertop could be approximately 24 inches deep. An upper cabinet or shelves (possibly for cookbooks) could be added above. Since this base cabinet would only take up about 24 inches the the staircase the remaining space could be used for built-in shelving in the office for books. And then there's the option of creating a compartment for a hidden safe. Hope this is helpful.

Debra Wendling

Architect

Wendling Designs
Devorah Brody thanked Wendling Designs
Devorah Brody
Original Author
7 years ago
Wendling Designs, I love these ideas. Do you have pictures for the built in shelves?
Devorah Brody
Original Author
7 years ago
Loving these ideas. If anyone has pictures, I would be grateful, as i am a visual learner. Thanx
PRO
Wendling Designs
7 years ago

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just_jls
7 years ago
My parents had the exact same setup. as they had a bathroom next to the old staircase, they used it as storage for towels, cleaning supplies and toiletries. My dad just finished putting pullouts in to make things more accessible now that they are older and can't reach as well.
Devorah Brody thanked just_jls