Are you staring at your stairs, wondering how to make them disappear?
Since stairs serve a critical function in our home, allowing us to access different levels in our houses, you can’t make them go away completely.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to hide staircases, making your living room feel more private and isolated.
The type of staircase in your living room will determine the best way for you to hide it. If it is or can be framed for a door, then a door or hanging cloth can be used to hide the stairs.
If most or all of the stairs can be seen from the living room, you’ll need to either wall it off or camouflage the stairwell. This can be done with furniture and crafty decor placement.
Let’s explore the different ways to disguise the stairs exposed in your living room and see which option suits you.
You probably can’t remove your stairs – you need them to access other levels within your home. But you can probably hide them. Let’s take a look at some common solutions to unsightly stairs.
4 Ways To Hide Stairs in Your Living Room
There are solutions here for every budget.
Some fixes will save you a few bucks, while others could cost thousands.
1. Install a Door
Often this can be a fair amount of work, but it is the best option if possible.
A door will completely hide your stairs, add sound-deadening, and categorize your home’s different levels.
Often homeowners will remove a door and its hinges from a jamb to make a space more open. Doing this also eliminates the hassle of opening and closing a door.
If your stairs are at an opening, and there’s already a jamb, you’ll need to purchase the correct size door and hinges and hang the door.
How To Install a New Door
If you’re not lucky enough to have a jamb with the hinges already routed for a door in place, don’t worry. You can still install a door. It’s just going to require a bit more work.
You’ll need quite a few tools and a fair amount of know-how.
If framing for a new door, hanging a door, hanging and finishing drywall, installing trim, and painting is beyond your abilities, so hire a professional. It’s likely to cost thousands of dollars.
Most materials, except the door, will be inexpensive if you do the work yourself. Anticipate several days of work.
Measure the opening to see what size door is appropriate. You’ll likely need to add 2x4s to frame the door and completely enclose the landing.
Frame the opening accordingly, and add drywall to both sides of the wall. Finish the drywall with several coats of joint compound. Make sure the door you purchase swings away from the stairs. Hang the door, ensuring it’s level.
Install any necessary casing and baseboard and apply caulk to it. Paint and finish the door and the drywall.
Finally, install the door hardware.
Nice! You’ve got a new door and completely hidden your stairs from the view of your living room.
2. Build a Wall
This permanent option will require a lot of know-how or hiring a professional. This is an excellent option if most or the entire rise of the stairs is visible from your living room.
Depending on where you live, building a new wall may require permits. Check local laws and building codes and comply with any local regulations.
Use 2x4s to build a wall the length of the stairs. Hang drywall on the new wall, apply fiberglass tape to any joints, and finish with three coats of joint compound. Sand the final coat of joint compound when dry.
Once the drywall is finished, prime and paint the wall.
The materials used when building a new wall are inexpensive. However, this solution involves plenty of labor, and hiring it out is likely expensive.
This solution only serves to hide the rise of the stairs, although it may be possible to frame for and add a door at the landing, as well.
3. Hang a Cloth or Tapestry
Ok, now we’re getting into some inexpensive, temporary solutions. There are limitless ways to go about this, but some hooks and a rod or a tension rod are two of the simplest. Hang the rod, then attach whatever type of cloth you come up with.
What you hang is up to you – it can be as simple as a bedsheet or shower curtain or as involved as a cool tapestry you’ve got lying around.
Pick something that matches or enhances the decorations of your home. The fabric you hang will block the view of the stairs but won’t offer any sound insulation and should probably be considered a temporary fix.
Hanging a “bead door” (remember the 90s?) is another solution offering a semi-transparent view of the stairs.
4. Disguise Your Staircase
This solution can be as simple as rearranging some of your furniture.
If you’ve got an open stairwell you don’t want to look at, can you shove a couch to disguise the view? Or perhaps a tall bookshelf? Or, think of this as an opportunity!
Add lighting and cool decorations to the area below the staircase.
Invest in some plush throw pillows, and mount a TV beneath the stairs – whatever you need to do to make the space sing.
Transform the area from an eyesore to a focal point of your home with clever decorating and by moving around your home’s furniture.
Upgrade Your Stairs
Have you considered upgrading your stairs themselves instead of trying to hide them?
Unless the stairs in your home can be hidden by adding a door, the solutions in this article are either temporary or expensive.
Consider investing money in upgrading your stairs instead.
Musty old carpet could be ripped out for a beautiful tile or classic hardwood.
Balusters and handrails can be replaced with more attractive modern options.
If you think your stairs are an eyesore, consider investing time and money into them, making them a beautiful focal point in your home.
Make Your Stairs Go Away
If your stairs are ugly, or the area of the home they lead to is ugly, and you can see it from your living room, try one of these solutions to hide your stairs.
Adding a door and building a wall are excellent long-term options. But they’re both labor-intensive and expensive (if hired out to a professional).
Hanging a fabric is an easy solution that can be accomplished in a few minutes. However, it might not be the most elegant solution and should probably be considered a temporary fix.
Another option is to move furniture around and add home decor elements to freshen your stairs.
Finally, consider investing in new stair materials, including railings and balusters.
Investing in your stairs is an investment in your home, which is always well spent.
