opening up a stairway in basement?
 

Hi! We've begun finishing our basement, and are looking for ideas (and photos, since I have a bad imagination) if you have any for the stairwell. We're thinking of doing storage under the landing & lower set of stairs, but under the higher set of stairs, taking out the framing to open up the area a bit. If you look at my photo, that'd be taking out maybe the first 3 on the far right (not load bearing), and maybe a bit of the framing & drywall in the middle.

Has anyone done anything like this? How'd it look?

Thanks for any info (and photos:rolleyes: ) you can share!

Is there anything that you'd like there? As in, a built-in desk, bookshelves, mini-bar, super-closet? I haven't done this, but I have 3D home design software and a really good imagination :)

go for it.
 

Just don't remove any studs under the landing and open it up.
I personaly like the area under the stairs for storage.

phase 1 - demolition. The FUN part!
 

Well, here's what we did yesterday (I use the term "we" incredibly loosely here,since I did....well...nothing :p ).
We'll keep the storage under the landing, but now it's soooo much more open, I'm getting excited thinking about what we'll end up doing with that space - and picking out a railing that'll keep it all nice & open!

Oooh ... great possibilities. I did a real quick drawing with guesstimated measurements. Personally, I'd wrap the bottom step around slightly (see second pic) and put something beautiful there. Everyone is into something different, perhaps one of those small wine tables, a short bookshelf, a sentimental piece of furniture, a comfy chair.

ETA: Need some light there too. I see that socket hanging around in the vicinity, should be able to do something fairly easily.

very cool!
 

thanks for those workups, very cool! I could go nuts with that thing, I think!
Yep, second one is what we're thinking...well, sort of - we'll put a little door there to get to the under-landing storage, and maybe spread the bottom stair or two out even further... and we'll have plenty of electricity - I think your suggestion for a chair is great - that could be a reading "cubby"!
Thanks!

Here's an improvement ... thanks for letting me have some fun too :) Yes, the program is quite addicting. I really needed to think about somebody else's house a bit.

ETA: The lovely model is 5'6", added for scale reference. I assumed an 8' ceiling and sized the stairs accordingly.

You're totally going to laugh...
 

but... the door needs to be behind where your chair is... because where you have the door, I'm putting in a slide. :D

IMO, life is too short to ALWAYS take the stairs!

:D

Ok, this was hard to draw ... replace the chair with a bean-bag, have the slide end into it. :cool:

man, I wish I had that program!
 

actually, the slide will go from the landing down to the right, if that makes sense - it's 5 ft up, so I can get one of those cool outdoor (rated to 250 lbs) ones & stick it right on.
Can't believe my dh finally broke down & said ok! :p