Staircases

When you live in a small house, a trick to making it feel bigger is to bring attention to the transitional areas such as this stair case. Simply dressing it up with a runner, wainscoting, artwork and colorful walls makes you experience the space as part of the square footage of your house every time you use it. The tromp l'oiel mural at the top of the stairs, painted by Wendy Chapin of Silver Spring, MD, suggests even more space. She created a "window" for me that leads the eye to a vast valley beyond. The cutout figure she copied from a Vermeer painting invites the viewer to come upstairs. What fun!