A friend of mine enclosed the area under the stairs and then slipped in her extra refrigerator opposite the stair landing. It fit perfectly and keep it out of the way. We have always enclosed this area and used it as closet storage but there is wasted space due to the incline of the stairs. But cubbies are a good idea and I love the wet bar.

clg - That's the one place online I found that had the double rounded first step in cumaru! I'm worried about the matching of the wood, and the quality. I didn't see any online reviews of the company. Do you (or anyone) have any experience with them? Mairin - Funny - I've been following your progress (and lusting after your potential countertops!) as we seem to have a similar style. I can't wait to see your pictures! Please share when you can! We considered iron balusters too, but a stairman mentioned that our stair area is rather small and they may not look good there. That lead us to wood. Raehelen - wow - your registers look great! You'd never know it's not the same wood. My concern is that the step is 5" wide so if it's a little off, there's a lot of space to notice it. (And I'm not sure if my floor guy is as good as yours!) We've already contracted for all wood stairs, including risers, the "catch" is it was presented as "in your choice of any wood we carry". We didn't realize they didn't carry the steps we need in all the flooring woods. We could try and take the stairs out of the contract price, but I really have the same issue either way. Even if I order the stair parts on line myself, and have someone else install (I'm a diy'er, but more on the painting level!) I'm still unsure the floor would match the stairs. My biggest issue is the first step. This step is right inside the front door - literally 6 feet from the door, so it's really visible. There are railings in both the kitchen and the stairway that need to match, but I am a little more comfortable trying to stain a different wood to match those. Has anyone done all wood steps in a different wood and tried to match the stain?

Not sure if this will help, but we had our carpeted stairway converted to hardwood last year as part of our first floor remodel. Ours is open for 5 stairs at the bottom. In addition to the stairs, we had a new newel post, ballisters, and hand rail installed, some of which is cherry. The price we paid ($5,950) also included all new trim on the first floor (8 windows, 6 doorways, plus baseboards in 4 rooms).

If you have a knee-wall on the open side of your staircase, I am assuming you want to put the glass on top of that.....how much glass are we talking? Probably not as much as you showed in the pictures. I think it would look nice and so what if it gets smudged....little ones like to help mom or dad clean. Just as someone mentioned....tell your contractor what you want, give them measurements and they can get it done. I would probably use a thicker glass but your contractor can help with that. Would like to see pictures when you are done.