Okay, I'm asking forgiveness in advance for opinionated comments: In everyday living, exterior stairs get wet, slippery, cold, icy. And, unless exquisitely designed (to be a statement of elegance), they look tacky. Statements of elegance are quite often inconvenient to live with, although one can bask in the initial admiration of visitors. I know that in some areas, exterior stairs are a... neighborhood tradition; a statement of necessity. And all too often, they look it. I think the architect's foyer is rather big, but oh my, the opportunity to make a decorating statement!! OTOH, I suspect 12x14 may be in proportion to the house. The architect needs to bend his brain so that the top of the staircase does not interfere with your views. I do hope someone has realized that an elevator would be of even greater use, especially if anyone breaks a leg, brings in the groceries or hauls out the trash. And if DW wants a traditional entry, an elevator could certainly take one up to the usual doorway.

I just looked again at the trap door space, and gave it some more thought. Here's my take: Stain treads a dark shade Match floor color to stain Paint risers white Paint trap door AND bottom stair same as floor Beware! You may need a small colorful rug under the last stair/on floor(hard to see stair at night) For the rails,etc. The most common/best,imo, look is white paint on the rails and stain on post and newel. Oh! New thought re. last stair: Stain it in a light honey and stencil a design in floor color.It will stand out( for safety) and neat effect! Hmmm, you could instead, treat that trap door with that special effect. It's going to be charming, whatever you do.

I did our basement stairway same as in the pic. It's basically a wall built adjacent to the stairs, then attached to the side of the stairway and floor. It's not hard to do. With a fully enclosed wall, you probably have a floor-to-ceiling post at the bottom, which would need to be removed, and then you would likely have to attach to the stairs instead. You can start by removing the drywall and possibly just making adjustments to the existing wall.

Things to consider in your stairs design: build by code or build by comfort? Read what the code says in your area for minimum rise and tread. Based on your ceiling height, the run and width of the stairs will be the minimum square feet. We built with 'aging in place' considerations so wanted our stairs to be easy to climb, that is, a slow rate of rise. This was listed as a requirement for our design when we started working with an architect. We did a rise less than code (we did 7.25") and a tread of 12". Our stairs are 4' wide and the run is 14'1" with 9 foot ceiling height between floors. They are very comfortable to climb. A friend has a 100+ year old house with a grand staircase and the rise is about 6 3/4". Interestingly, that rise feels too low. We used a rise of 7.25" for outdoor stairs, too - deck and garage to house. I kinda wished we had done a lower rise and wider tread on our deck stairs but we had to draw a line on costs since we were using composite decking material. This thread from 2002 has great information on stairs. (It is a little unsettling to me to realize I have been reading this forum since 2002!) Renovator8 has very helpful advice in the thread. Stair Math forum thread from 2002