Stairways {DIY Design Inspirations}

Since I was a little girl I have had a thing for stairs. Maybe it was because of when Annie danced on the grand stairs of Daddy Warbucks with the servants singing about how much she was going to like it there (uh, yeah, obviously!). Or perhaps it was because I thought if you had a great pair of stairs to hang your Christmas garland it meant you were doing pretty good and could afford to wear Ralph Lauren rugby shirts. It certainly meant you could take one of those awesome pictures with your whole family lined up on the stairs; which I also thought meant your family really loved you...Anyway, yes, I had an abnormal thing for stairs but I still think stairs are pretty awesome - even though I have completely gotten passed associating them with my self-worth. Here are my picks on some that would make me feel pretty happy to traverse up and down on a daily basis as well as some fabulous DIY inspirations.

Stairs to gawk at:

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I seriously can't imagine how walking up these stairs everyday wouldn't be inspiring. It would be extra amazing if they made piano noises like the piano from FAO Schwartz in the movie Big; but that could be very dangerous on drinking nights - there's a lot of concrete steps there. 

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You can never go wrong with a lovely and classic design such as this.

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This is so gorgeous. I just want to grab a navajo throw and curl up and take a nice little nap with all this warm, warm wood. So lovely!

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In my imaginary life where I live in a loft somewhere really urban and I don't have children (though I actually never fantasize about not having my children!! but let's pretend I do for the sake of my loft fantasy) I would maybe have stairs like these. In my real life with twin toddlers...these would be my worst nightmare. Pretty cool though, no?

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Modern Designs with rich wood as the nexus always gets me. every. time. 

Stair to inspire (DIY projects):

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Money may not buy happiness but I do believe a little bit of paint can.

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I love this idea of painting your railings a gradiating color scheme. However, even the little sample cans of paint are around 6 bucks and this has about 12 colors in it. So you may want to play around with the idea and how to get this look using left over paint or less colors.

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This is such a fantastic way to use wallpaper and spruce up your staircase! In fact I don't know if they make really cool contact paper these days; I am sure somewhere on the world wide web there would be some to be found which would be great for the renters out there who can't paint their stairs or apply wallpaper to them. Well, here's the best I could come up with, I found it here and they seem to have the best selection. Am I the only person that see contact paper as a multipurpose item that should come in a variety of fabulous designer prints?

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If, however, like me, you do have children and a staircase that is 20 feet wide (unlike me), I suggest you turn off your computer right now and go make a shelving unit like this one.

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Yep, that would be pretty awesome.

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Add a bold floor/stair runner to a bright and neutral background. This isn't too difficult to do. You just need to take good measurements and get a staple gun for the grooves between the steps.

So we started outside let's end outside. And while we are at it let's scratch that old loft fantasy where I have to un-imagine my childrens and let's pretend like I live here...

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I would really love to have a set of stairs like this in my life.

What is your favorite design?