Stairs in living room or not?

wallbash

The living room will 'appear' to be a lot smaller , I would keep the present arrangement.

joansgirl

I have a set up similar to yours and if I had the money and the time I'd definitely do it. It's not just the heat going up the stairs, it's the gale force wind that blows down the stairs that cheeses me off. Most of the houses on my estate are similar and my friend has had it done in her house. It has made her living room look a teeny bit smaller but these houses are very small anyway. She's got 2 grown up sons, a husband and a dog and says there's still plenty of room. Maybe you could hang some old sheets from the ceiling along the line of where you want the wall and then you could see how much space you would lose.

fluffymuffy

We bought a house with a wall between the living room and the stairs. The first thing we did was to take that wall down. It made the room massively bigger.

gazfocus

Thanks for all the replies. The living room will be 3.45m x 4.9m with a wall built and without the wall built there's the width of the stairs but its not really usable space.

@Yorkie1, the stairs would lead into a mini hall then into the porch. There would be a door on the new wall into the living room.

TBagpuss

Like a few PPs, I actively dislike stairs in the LR and don't consider properties with them when I'm househunting.
That said, boxing them off will make the LR feel a lot smaller - will you be able to make use of the under stairs space as a cupboard?
Hanging some sheets / curtains to give you an idea of how the space will feel is a good idea.

mummybearx

Your house sounds very much like mine. We are in a row of 5 cottages, all of them have the stairs curved into the living room apart from ours.

I wouldn't change our layout at all. Having the stairs boxed off keeps the heat in the living room. It stops the noise travelling between upstairs and downstairs. We have a large cupboard under the length of the stairs as well. Two of the neighbours have their stairs totally open with no cupboard, meaning they have extra living room space. But both of them have a sideboard in that space, so it's not really useable space! The other two neighbours have a smaller cupboard, as the stairs curve round so it's a good 2-3ft shorter than mine, as well as more narrow.

X

I_have_spoken

I had (open tread) stairs in my last house (mid terrace) and pondered for years about boxing it in but ultimately didn't want to lose the space in the lounge. Whenever it was cold I closed the upstairs doors to minimise draughts.

Current house has proper hall and door into lounge. It's nicer, but it's a far bigger house.

balletshoes

my last house had stairs in the living room to the upstairs landing. When looking at moving house, I immediately discounted any houses with stairs in the living room. It was the noise from the living room, ie TV or music on, that you can't block out if you have open stairs in the living room, that put me totally off having stairs in the living room.

We have a hall with the stairs, and under-stairs cupboard, in this house, and its ideal for us.

gazfocus

Thanks for all the posts.

We went ahead and got a wall built. Cost us £800 but is well worth it. We've not put all the furniture in place yet as the wall still needs painting but the room doesn't feel much smaller and we've now got an under stairs cupboard and a nice big hallway...definitely the right decision

Katgrit

Hi Gaz,
I'm just wondering if since you closed off your stairs whether you've noticed any difference in heating your home? Is it noticeably warmer as heat isn't escaping? Have you noticed any decrease in your bills from last year? (it may be too soon to tell)

I ask because I'm moving, and thinking of buying a house with open plan stairs in the dining room. I'm expecting the heating bills will be more than I'm used too, but double whammy is the dining room is actually through a (admittedly narrow) archway from the living room. As you've had the same house now with open plan stairs and also with them closed off I'm thinking you'll be able to give me the best picture.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Cheers