apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Oh, dear lord, I'm salivating...

that is super clever!

HOLY COW.

I'm dizzy!

It's cool looking, but can't stop thinking about dust and vacuuming (but I have some furry kitties).

amazing. I'm sure that didn't cost anymore than $50 or so...

Incredible! I don't think I'd have enough books...

Holy canoli! It's a great idea. But I agree with Vanessa. It would be a hassle to clean. I would put doors over each shelf for a cleaner look.

I'm surprised that they own that many books of a certain height. The profile of my books/mags on my shelves is much more uneven. I actually hate our one non-adjustable bookcase b/c my Real Simple mags don't fit.

And I agree that I would prefer doors to cover the books. The sight of all the books within the staircase is visually dizzying for me.

OMG......this looks like the most frightening place to fall and NEVER get up. The treads look like a disaster in the making!
Would never be allowed by code in new construction in the US>

I agree with many.
Very great use of space.
Fun space.
Dangerous space: if not for completely sliding down the whole thing, but for the many many shin bruises.. I love it though.

It looks amazing, but a little dangerous. I keep thinking about having to go down those steps in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.

definitely clever - but I would not want to attempt to carry anything up or down those stairs.

That is unspeakably nifty.

I'd really love to read something that explains why this kind of stairway, with oddly shaped steps, is a good idea. It's interesting to look at but I get nervous just looking at it, and I'm not afraid of heights or stairs. I really love the idea of books all along the side, and the rounded edges of the setup are totally gorgeous.

It's very cool, but man, that first photo caused a world of vertigo!

i
love
this.

I really like the staircase, but just to be fair the idea of right-left staircase is not a new idea.

this is so cool!

That is what the building code calls an "Alternating Tread Device". The theory being that on a regular stair, you only really use half of each step (the left or right half) to step on. Recognizing this, you can essentially delete half of each step (hence in this case the funny shaped treads) and compress the length of the stair, which works great for tight spaces.

Walk up your stair really slowly and pay attention to where you place each foot...if you step on the first step wiht your left foot, your right foot doesn't also go to the first step but directly to the second. So if you look at the very first picture, where you are looking down the stair, you step only on the larger sized treads.

BC - thanks for overexplaining how we climb stairs.
You however forgot about younger people (or those in a rush) who take stairs 2 at a time.
Also my elderly mother does infact lift her left foot onto the first stair followed by the right, onto the same first stair.

I still however think this is a reasonably cool idea provided, as stated earlier, all your books are of the same height. Again mine are not.

Pretty cool idea I guess however if it were only 1/4 or 1/2 occupied with books it'd look weird.

i love the stair treads. looking down on them, they look like tabbed file folders.

There is no handrail either

It's really lovely... too bad it doesn't meet NYC Building Codes!!

that first picture is amazing...but terrifying...

doesn't seem any more treacherous than the ladder leading up to my loft!

Heehee, I just emailed this link to my husband which i titled, "this staircase is hot" and having been someone who grew up in a victorian house, you certainly get used to narrow, steep staircases.

Keep in mind that the people who were meant to go up and down those stairs were the "help" and who cares if they bruise their shins! Kidding!!! (my bedroom growing up was intended to be the maids room.)

What I love about these stairs is that they feed into two separate OCD areas for me: the need to horde books and the compulsion to walk up and down the stairs exactly the same way every time.

It looks even more beautiful in these close ups

The engineer in me loves this shelving solution. The book lover can only think about how the steps would need to be vacuumed quite often. Perhaps, a groove or berm just in front of the books as a barrier to dirt and dust would help?

I'm envisioning a night of partying, and happily stumbling to bed. And then the room begins to spin and then realizing too late that I have to go back down those stairs to get to a bathroom. Which is worse - potentially hurling on my staircase and splashing the books or just opening a window to preserve the precious novels... ?

I absolutely love this. It has to be so peaceful sleeping above all of those wonderful, noise-absorbing books!

The missus and I wanted to put bookshelves into our foyer staircase, but we decided it would make them too cramped (since we didn't have them special built, extra wide.) Now our decision seems especially unambitious.

I also like a drink or ten :o) and while it looks great, and the shelves would majorly solve my book/mag addiction, the fractured skull (when I stumble to the kitchen, about 4am, for some OJ) would not be worth it.

That said, you stick an OFFICE up them steps, ie a place no sane person tries to go when tipsy, and I'd be good to go without any breakages!

Thankyou for the much more detailed photographs of the book case staircase. Lesley from London and I have been trying to decipher publishers and titles over on the Veronika and Sebastian apartment page. From the top I get Pan paperbacks from the late 50s through to the 70's followed by Penguins (orange spine) Olympia Press (Foursquare imprint) (green and white spines) Chatto and Windus Phoenix Library (interwar - green and blue gilt spines); Johnathan Cape Traveller's Library (interwar - blue spines) some early Doubleday and Oxford World Classics (grey and green dustjacketed spines) followed by some post war Modern Library editions and Everyman editions (red and yellow spines). The next shelf down are all Penguin Pelicans (blue spines) dating from the 30s onwards and a three Pan Pipers (white spines black type) beneath that is a mixture but there is a group of Kegan Paul's Today and Tomorrow Series (purple spines with white labels) from the 1920s and maybe some of their red spined Psyche Miniature series. The second last shelf look like modern semiotext(e)s (US imprint) followed by old Fontana modern masters (black spines/white text) then a mixture of titles including some more Pelicans and a couple of Granada editions of Aldous Huxley - one of the few titles that can be made out.

This is just super awsome! i love the comment about i bet it only cost 50 dollars to make,that's a hoot. I think it is easy to see that this awsome idea is bad for drinkers and the elderly other then that this makes me wish i had a second story. Well a second story and a ton of money :)


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You're design is clever and your carpenter is a genius!

Please notice that the intermediate steps curve around and end halfway along the wall - meaning taller books and magazines can be stored there. The current arrangement of books must be meant to display the pure design intent, but the versatility of the shelves extends to even larger formats.

Hey guys,

It's really the ANGLE of the photo that makes the staircase look so intimidating/scary.

The staircase, taken from a more pedestrian view, looks much more manageable and normal:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/ny/vs4.jpg

What a great idea! I'm not sure that it's dangerous as some have mentioned. One might have to adapt to the ever-so-slightly different configuration, but what's bad about that?!

I want to live in that flat. An ingenious idea!

I don't get the "terror" of the other posters. It doesn't look any more dangerous than the traditional spiral that I have...
You can bust your can on any staircase..

Wow! definately welll thought out. I could really incorporate this idea in our domestic Shelving projects.

Would really take off in the commercial & retail shelving world.

This is an interesting idea and I think it would work great as parts of my kitchen furniture, I didn't see the stairs designs for kitchens so far, I should count on my creativity.

This is just about as close to my IDEAL bookcase as I've ever seen. My boyfriend is a pHd English student and I am an avid reader. I already have three bookshelves squeezed into my tiny apartment, and he is moving in with me in Dec. We've been talking about how to get it all to fit into my apartment. That's a really great idea.

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