Heavenly Stairways

I recently read about Thom Filicia’s “Designer Visions,” show-house apartment, which was covered on the House Beautiful Web site.

Besides the fact that Trish and I – and everyone else – were wowed by him when he was in High Point last month (see Trish’s blog for more), I also fell for his cool stairway with the rope “banister.” I never would have thought of that.

And here’s a stairway in honor of the story on organization we’re preparing for our upcoming issue. Why not make the risers and stairwell into book cases? So brilliant, I want to cry.

From above, looking down

What’s even more brilliant is that these homeowners color-coordinate their books, so they make a design statement as you climb up and down the stairs.

I’m bummed the stairway is in London and not in DC, where we could put it in the magazine. Apartment Therapy gave the house some nice coverage in this article here.

And while we’re in Europe, check out this staircase by a Stockholm architect, made with prefab pine kitchen worktops. I’m sure it would never pass code in the United States, but boy is it cool to look at. Apartment Therapy also covered this one here.

Moving on to Australia, where this beauty comes from these architects:

And once again, Apartment Therapy has uncovered another WAY COOL staircase here, also in Australia, which fulfills every child’s deepest wish to climb on the kitchen counter.

Back in the US, I’m loving what one of my favorite design bloggers, Janell of Isabella & Max Rooms, did with her own sweeping staircase. The paint, along with the quiet yet solid design, is just beautiful to look at.

I get the same contented feeling with this staircase, which was profiled on the PointClickHome site.

And this stairway would wipe the worst of moods away as I climbed to my private quarters each night. (From this feature in Architectural Digest)

The staircase above is so spectacular, in fact, that it got its own tower:

We would love to do a future magazine spread on fabulous staircases in our own area. Designers (and design-savvy homeowners), please let us know what you’ve got!