The Design Details That Transformed This Staircase Into a Piece of Art

Positioned at the center of the home, the staircase connects all three levels while dividing the northern and southern portions of the house.

This intentional design move supports the home’s Passive House principles, allowing natural light to flood in from both directions while the staircase acts as an extra wall, dividing the space into smaller sections to improve temperature regulation.

But this design choice initially gave the homeowners pause. Worried that their young children might fall from the staircase’s open sides, they opted to close off the sides of the stairs and raise the handrails to 42 inches. This however, made the space feel dark and heavy.

Searching for a solution, they stumbled across videos of families using colorful woven nets as playroom barriers.

They proposed adding something similar for both safety and style.

Working with artisan retailer Treenet Collective, the team sourced a rainbow woven netting that could serve as a protective guardrail while also injecting some personality into the space.“The problem became that, structurally, the way it needed to be attached was just really inelegant,” Buelow says. “So instead of making it something you could actually climb or use, we turned it into a purely visual, really enticing piece. We worked closely with Treenet Collective to create the design solution you see now.”

In keeping with the home’s net-positive performance goals, every architectural choice was designed to maximize energy efficiency.

Having access to natural light was an important part of that strategy.

Large triple-paned windows line the staircase, flooding the space with daylight while maintaining superior insulation year-round.

“The stairwell was designed to separate the house into the north and south sides,” Buelow explains. “That’s part of the passive design strategy that brings light deep into parts of the house that otherwise wouldn’t receive it.”