I am the type of person who notices every detail of a home's decor and architecture. I am sure that many of you are the same way! Since I hope to build a house at some point in the future, I always pay close attention to floorplans and placement of architectural features.
My current obsession is where people put their stairs. In most traditional floorplans (in Atlanta), it seems as if the stairs are always front and center as soon as you walk through the front door. My preference is to be able to see to the back of the house once you walk through the front (there is a term for this, but I can't recall what it is), but this often poses a challenge for stair placement.
Stairs front and center, from an Atlanta real estate listing. No view to the back of the house.
Another picture from an Atlanta real estate listing. There is a view to the back, but a table blocks the view and the flow.
This is from Cote de Texas blog, interior design by Joni Webb. The stairs are in the front hall, but this floorplan allows for a nice view to the back of the house.
This front hall is not huge, but it seems to work well. The stairwell curves around close to the front door, and there is no door on the left of the hall (the master is to the left of the living room, and goes to the front of the house, so the front hall is closed off on the left side). The dining room is on the right. There is a view to the living room, which spans across part of the back of the house.
The front hall here is a room unto itself! The stairs are the main feature, and it looks like there is a second floor balcony that overlooks the front hall. An arched door opens to a hall and the living room. This seems like a lot of wasted space to me, but it might just be the angle of the picture.
Some floorplans tuck the stair to the side. I definitely gravitate to this arrangement.
From an Atlanta real state listing.
Another Atlanta real estate listing (I have been collecting these for a while!). The dining room and home office are immediately to the right and left of the front door, and the hall opens into the living room. The stairs are tucked in between the front door and the living room.
These stairs spill into the front hall, and definitely have presence, but they do not define the entry. Architectural design by Pak-Heydt Associates.
This stair set up shown below seems to combine the best of both worlds. It is somewhat tucked off to the side, but perhaps feels this way because it does not have a bannister and spindles. There is a nice, wide arched opening to the living room. The whole house seems to be on a smaller scale, which is appealing. This is one of my favorite pictures from my entryway files. The design is by Philip Sides of Alabama.
Somehow or other, a few other stairs made it into my files because of their grandeur. Here is a home with interior design by Suzanne Kasler.
The picture below is from a classic High Georgian home, correct in every detail. The architectural design is by Yong Pak of Pak-Heydt Associates. It appears that there are no stairs at all in this entryway. Instead, there is a two story domed rotunda with a skylight. It is possible that the stairs are somewhere out of view of the picture.
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