Take a Walk on the Stripe Side

We run and up and down them every day, but do they belong to the ground floor where the kitchen, dining room and living spaces are or to the upstairs with bedrooms and bathrooms. Well the answer is both!

Wherever your staircase is sited in your house, it is the link between the two floors and although an area that you admittedly don’t spend a lot of time in, it’s still a part of your house that should be furnished and loved just like the rest of it.

Here is the perfect opportunity for a bit of fun - add some contrast, texture and of course colour. Let’s turn those bland white painted planks covered in beige carpet into something warm, soft, cosy and inviting.

Stairs are made for stripes! Whether you have a large grand, wide, sweeping ‘Gone with the Wind’ staircase, a simple straight up and down one, or a tiny, awaked, curved cottage one, then stripes will transform them.

Two companies spring to mind, one is Roger Oates who are famous for their stripey runners in an array of wonderful colours. My advice is to always be brave and go bold – if you are going to do this, then do it with bells on! The wooden or stone floor it meets at the bottom is neutral and the carpet it reaches at the top can also be neutral, but make those steps in between become something jolly. This glorious combination of pink, aqua, yellow and blue uplift this otherwise plain staircase in an artist’s house in St Ives, Cornwall. In fact, it was this carpet which set the schemes for the rest of the house with bold oranges and blues downstairs and softer blues, aquas and pinks upstairs.

I work particularly closely with a firm here in the West Country called Fleetwood Fox, who as well as offering a range of standard designs and colours, they also offer a bespoke service. I have these glorious collections of coloured wool threads which I treasure and can handpick the colours to suit a particular scheme. They supply me with 3 or 4 computer printouts using the colours and patterns we have selected and then when we think we are close to our final choice; an actual sample is woven so that we can all be 100% sure.

This tiny, winding staircase belongs to an old thatched farmhouse in Wiltshire and leads to a fairly small landing. With no opportunity to add any furniture into this space, this was the most exciting way to add some interest and colour into this small area. The bold green and red, just add the depth that this area needed.

On the opposite end of the scale, this large staircase is in a big Entrance Hall in a house on Dartmoor. The client wanted to keep the background colours for the scheme soft and gentle, so as not to fight with their bold art collection. This delicate pattern looks so pretty and is offset so well by the oak handrail.

So, show your staircase some love this winter and you will all enjoy it for many, many years to come.