After a year in which many of us have spent much more time than we would’ve ideally liked in our own homes, undoubtedly most of us have been left full of ideas aimed at breathing new life into our home living spaces. Whilst many of us naturally have plenty of concrete ideas about how we’d like our bedrooms, lounges and gardens to look; often people find it much harder to brainstorm unique ideas for their staircase and surrounding areas, despite its pivotal position as the centerpiece of the home.
2) White Oak
This classic is here to stay. Known for its innate ability to lighten up any area of the home and its beautiful, deep grain pattern, white oak is an incredible all-rounder and is considered the industry standard in terms of staircase design. Fitting seamlessly into almost any interior style, white oak works beautifully in both traditional and modern settings. It is also an extremely durable hardwood, meaning you can count on its longevity and can expect it to outlast almost any other household instillation.
3) Feature Wallpaper
Having gained increasing popularity over the course of the last couple of years, we only expect to see more and more hallway feature walls popping up in the interior design world over the course of 2021. A feature wallpaper is one of the best ways to express personality and put your own unique stamp on your home. With a plethora of different patterns, colours and styles to choose from, your choice will be truly unique to you, as there are options to match perfectly with every interior style in the book. Pair this with glass panels, allowing natural light to flow onto your new canvas for maximum effect, and you really cannot go wrong.
4) White Oak Doors
Often in the home, having recurring elements helps enforce a sense of carefully considered, cohesive interior style. One of the most effective ways to do this in the stairway and surrounding areas is to match woods, which works particularly well in pairing the inside doors with the material of the staircase. Aside from creating a sense of cohesive home design to match your staircase, interior white oak doors provide a stylish, modern feature in their own right; and you benefit from all the aforementioned bonuses of any white oak instillation, namely longevity, hard-weariness and bright, beautiful grain. As more and more people have begun to discover the standout nature of white oak as a versatile material for interior design, we foresee white oak doors becoming an industry-standard fixture in the modern home as we move into 2021.
5) Embedded Glass
Though over the last few years of seeing glass incorporated into domestic staircase design, the dominant fixture has been bracketed glass; we are now seeing a definitive rise in the popularity of embedded glass as a sleeker, often visually cleaner option in aesthetic style. Swapping metal brackets out in favour of a rebate (channel) in the handrail and base rail, into which the glass sits provides a more seamless look and is favoured by those who simply want to see glass and wood, with no metal components visible. Being as structurally sound as panels fitted with brackets, the choice between embedded and bracketed glass is effectively a stylistic choice and depends entirely upon the opinion and aesthetic choices of the homeowner – both are excellent options in creating a bright, dynamic interior layout, and we expect to see more of both in the coming years.
6) Grey Carpets
Having already become a fixture of modern hallway design, we expect to see more grey carpets popping up in contemporary style homes in the forthcoming year. Often, grey is the perfect choice for the hallway carpet, as it matches with a diverse range of colour palettes and stands out just the right amount; such that whilst being a remarkable and aesthetically pleasing feature in its own right, it doesn’t detract from any of the more standout fixtures of the hallway area (e.g. a beautiful wooden staircase)! Pictured below is an excellent example of a grey carpet used to provide the perfect finishing touch to an elegant hall and stairway.
7) Landing Only Stairs Renovations
Increasingly, many homeowners whose main stairway is bounded either side by walls are choosing to upheave their outdated landing balustrades in favour of many of the more elegant, contemporary aforementioned options. Whilst many with this style of stairway neglect to consider the possibility of a renovation, the effect of undertaking such work can be revelatory in transforming the look and feel of the home. Those considering such a renovation should look in particular at glass options, as often in such houses, maximising upon the flow of natural light throughout the home is a top priority. See below an example of how swapping out an old, outdated 1970’s-style landing balustrade for a modern glass option has the potential to transform an integral area of the home.
8) Black Oak
Though this may seem a slight contradiction (following our impassioned argument for the effectiveness of white oak), we very much endorse the current wave of black oak staircases being incorporated into the industry. Whilst we are in no sense of the word denouncing our previous suggestions, painted black oak has many of its own unique benefits to offer certain home design styles. This one is really down to taste and is often best adjusted to interior styles which rely on extreme contrast, namely between black (or dark grey) and white features. It also benefits from many of the same incredible properties of white oak, with the only real difference being in aesthetics, and so it also makes for an excellent all round choice of material. If you’re diving fully into the sleek, monochrome aesthetic for your interior project, black oak is surely one to consider for your staircase design.
9) Contemporary Design Spindles
Throughout the last few years, we have seen a decline in the popularity of traditional turned spindles, as many are choosing to swap them out in favour of much more effective contemporary designs. Modern technology has allowed the design world to take classic wooden spindle to new heights, as we are now seeing many innovative new shapes come onto the market; a hot favourite at the moment, for example, being the twisted spindle. Such designs create a much more elegant structure, and are positively suited to both traditional and modern homes. In fact, many of those renovating traditional-style homes see the contemporary spindle as the perfect blend of the old and the new: traditional materials and modern design, creating the perfect interior balance in order to preserve the authenticity of the original building, whilst simultaneously benefiting from the best that contemporary interior design has to offer.
10) Contemporary Curve Handrails
Our final top pick for 2021 is an ever-popular staple in contemporary staircase design: the contemporary curve handrail. With many different styles to choose from, we expect to see this style continue to be the most popular choice for many years to come.
