How to decorate tall staircase wall?

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I'm really stumped. The pics we have up are temporary, I know they aren't right. If I do a grouping/gallery, I struggle with how high to go. Too high or two low, either way seems awkward. I've also though of jazzing area up with wallpaper stair risers (like Cover of Serena & Lily spring catalog). If I did that with cool patterns, maybe painted steps and rail white, possibly added wainscoting, so the risers were the focus, would I even need wall art?

Or another way to go, add a huge stencil to the space (subtle, like sheen of same paint color)? Color is SW Rainwashed. Much lighter than in pics. It's like a pale beachy aqua.

I'm stumped and very open. When you walk in the front door, you are looking right up the stairs, so creative risers would probably have a big impact.

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Upper flight

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And, finally, this blank half wall visible from foyer. Pardon the laundry hanging over edge.

[lemondrop]

I like the idea of creative stair risers, but I don't know that it would elminate the need for some wall art. Your walls might still look bare without it.

Stenciling sounds like a good idea, but probably not in combo with the stair risers. To get the impact you want, you'll probably want to do more than a different sheen. Otherwise, it won't have much of an impact. Using a different sheen does look good, but it still looks a little blank.

If I were you, I'd probably do the stencil in a different sheen and pick out some of my fave B&W photography pieces. If you go large enough, you could probably have one on the lower flight and two or three on the upper flight. The half wall would probably look best with the same stencil but no artwork. You could still do the patterned risers with this and it would looke great.

[Deleted]

Thanks, Lemon. So, if I do photos, larger than these frames? These are 25x25" and hold an 8 x 10".

[lemondrop]

May 29, 2012 14:02:53 GMT -5 @vanessadoof said:

Thanks, Lemon. So, if I do photos, larger than these frames? These are 25x25" and hold an 8 x 10".

Holy crap! Your walls are way bigger than I thought. If that's the case, you could probably do a similar size but with a larger photo opening. The small openings in those mats don't allow the photos to make much of a statement. Also, you would need to do more than one or three. Maybe a grouping of four in the lower portion (two on top row, two on bottom row) and a similar grouping of six to eight up top.

[lemondrop]

Also, I've never stenciled before, but I've heard it's really time consuming. A larger, simpler pattern would make it a lot easier on you.

[vanillahip]

So my stairwell is tiny compared to yours, but this is what I did (provided the pic uploads ok lol) this way I avoided the whole too high/ too low worry by just filling the whole wall! If you did something similar, stick with bigger frames (8x10 would be small on your wall) and I'd do it only on the first wall going up. Then leave the other 2 blank so you don't have competing focal points, kwim?