Floating Staircase Design Ideas II: Cantilevered design & beyond

Samuel J Tan Home & Kitchen, Interior Ideas, Living Room 0

With open plan living becoming norm, the hallway that used to house the staircase is now part of the living space, exposing the staircase itself, leaving it in full view. This gives you an opportunity to truly spruce up the staircase in your home to make it one of a kind. The best place to start is here, showcasing some of the best floating staircase designs.

This is part two of our floating staircase design series, you can visit or revisit part one using the link below.

Table of Contents

16. With wooden fetters

Your floating staircase doesn’t always have to be on show. In fact, you can embellish it with various design elements and make it feel like an inherent part of your interior décor. If you’re wondering how that can happen, then just take a look at this entry above. The staircase is suspended in the background using the cantilever method by anchoring it to the wall. While wooden fetters were used to create a nice backdrop for a floating console in the foreground. The whole setting looks visually appealing and holistic with the stairs effectively screen off behind the wooden fetters.

17. With wood and whites

This entire staircase looks as if it is suspended in a glass box. This is mostly thanks to the white backdrop and support structure. The entire staircase is then surrounded with transparent glass. The wooden treads stand out from the rest of the material scheme. So in contrast with the rest of the surroundings, it feels as if the stairs are floating midair. It’s a really fun concept and it has been beautifully articulated with chunky stairs tread in a colour tone that matches the wooden flooring. It is worth noting that the single supporting structure, the left skirting painted in while is the main support structure for both flights of stairs.

18. With lush forest green and light well

If space is not an issue, a floating staircase in a stairwell that enjoys plenty of light can also be transformed into a jungle escape, a place where lush forest greens and plants of all sizes thrive. These plants can either come off the wall (with wall planters), from the ground, in pots or hanging. The more the merrier. That all-glass balustrade doubles as part enclosure to contain the green and offer support for the handrails.

19. Clever use of lighting

These floating staircases focuses mainly on the use of lighting. Not only those embedded in the treads but also downlight under each step. They give you an idea of what is possible with other floating staircase designs here. It must be said that if lighting is a key element in the design, these will need to be planned into the build to allow for wiring and fittings.

20. Completely open floating wooden steps

Completely open, suspended staircases may not be to everyone’s taste. So far we have seen the use of glass, steel hand rails, wooden fetters, steel rods or a combination of different materials as balustrades. Still, there are those who want a complete minimalist look and are willing to forgo the baluster completely. For them, the examples above with wooden blocks coming out of the wall will suit them down to the ground.

21. Steel rods and steel plates

Here is a floating staircase made completely of steel plates and part suspended by steel rods from the ceiling. It also goes around the bent near the bottom, giving it a completely zero footprint. Each steel plate tread is not only super slim, but is suspended in part being cantilevered into the wall and by three steel rods that are mounted to the ceiling. A matching wall-mounted hand rail is used for user support on the other side.

22. Marble floating staircase

Using the same marble tiles for the floor, this floating marble staircase looks like an extension of the floor. A chrome and glass balustrade is added to offer its user support. Textured tiles and a small rock garden in the footprint of the staircase below complete the look. Such a design is more child friendly given that the glass panel for baluster, handrail and big blocky tread offer closer to traditional staircase design. The bigger riser and deeper tread plus nosing allow even small children to use the stairs confidently.

23. Completely concrete with pebbles under the staircase

A little rough around the edges, literally. This concrete floating staircase continues the finish and material used for the ceiling, wall and floor. Under the staircase is a shallow drop, lined with pebbles, again in the same colour. It offers the impression of an unfinished building site, if you are after that industrial interior and concrete staircase look.

24. With hidden steel frame

Not quite hidden but camouflaged and in plain sight, this round the bend floating staircase uses a metal frame painted in white to go with the colours of the wall and ceiling. The treads used are made from thick cut wood in natural tone. This allows it to stand out from the muted white to give the impression that it is floating. It also matches with the wooden flooring although the under stair section is tiled. Further use of glass panel and wooden handrails let light through and play on the whole floating staircase idea.

25. Ultra slim with chrome finish

The treads on this floating staircase is super slim, almost as slim as those based on metal sheets we seen earlier. Yet it is still able to carry a tile top and offer support for the glass baluster and chrome handrail. The bottom half of the treads are finished in dark gray to complete the chrome effect.

26. Wall mounted cantilever glass stairs

First in our list and definitely won’t be the last is this glass staircase mounted on the wall for a floating effect. Each stair tread is made from multiple cuts of thick tempered glass bound together for extra rigidity.

27. Folded steel standalone staircase

An open staircase design made from a single piece of folded and welded steel, this floating staircase goes beyond cantilevered style and head towards a standalone unit. The only support being a single steel post to support the landing before turning to the next flight of stairs. The second flight of stairs comes with a tubular handrail in case you are scared of heights and needed something to hold on to.

28. Glass and stainless steel finish

Posted by bellastairs

Stainlesss steel covered skirt board and glass balusters are quite common with escalators, but here you find them used generously to hide the main structural frame that supports the glass treads. It also serves to support the glass panels that holds the stainless steel handrail. This is yet another fine example of a glass staircase but instead of a cantilever type that comes off the wall, it is a standalone variety with two flights and a glass landing. A nice touch with this floating staircase is the inclusion of a small steel bar mounted to the bottom side of each tread in place of risers.

29. Standalone steel frame floating staircase

Posted by Shake

The entire staircase is constructed of metal welded together to form a single L-unit with the only mounting points for support being the top and bottom end of the staircase as well as the sides closes to the wall. Chunky as it maybe, the metal side skirting offers plenty of support as cantilevered stairs go with each tread complete with a metal frame secured to the skirting. it is then topped with a solid wood and finished in the same colour as the flooring and base plinth.

30. Standalone concrete floating staircase

Posted by archdaily

From a single standalone staircase made from welded metal above, we move on to a single standalone concrete staircase unit. There are no other supports beyond the top and bottom anchors giving you full access to the under stair area. To complete the industrial look and feel, handrail and baluster made from steel pipes are installed on one side alternately. To make the stairs more approachable, both the handing and treads are given a wooden top.

31. Stairwell with natural light

posted by bisca

With clever use of materials; glass, steel beam, concrete and wood, this next floating staircase featured by Dezeen and posted by Bisca plays on the natural light from the light well above. Based on a free standing design, it gives you an impression of floating treads thanks to the glass balusters and risers. Its landing is supported by an I-beam and the wall while the first five treads are mounted to the glass baluster.

32. The Ultimate : All glass circular floating staircase

One last floating staircase that we would like to share with our readers here is the fully glass floating staircases. These have become an icon in bigger flagship Apple Stores. The one shown above is in New York. They are highly engineered design with nothing but glass being the structural support with a cylindrical center. If you haven’t seen part 1 of this article, use the link below.