living room with stairs

[wafflesandcream]

We went to view a house which has a two level living room space with two steps up to the higher level and stairs from there leading to the first floor. I'd prefer stairs from a hallway and would like to know if having stairs off the living room makes it extra cold?

[ItsAllTLAsToMe]

Well, galley stairs mean that all of the heat from downstairs very easily moves upstairs (in our case, this makes the upstairs too hot rather than vice versa). I hate it, and would not consider another house with galley stairs. The same is also true if noise, which may be an issue if you have DC.

[pachey3000]

Yes, we have this in the house we are renting. All the heat from the lounge goes upstairs, making the lounge too cold and the landing too hot. Noise travels up too which is an issue for DS when he's trying to go to sleep. His room gets too hot as well so we have to keep his door shut and radiator down.

[Oodsigma]

We have this and I don't like it. Does give us much more light but it feels too open for me and it cools quicker.

[drwitch]

can you put paneling in and turn the area under the stairs into a cupboard or would that make the living room too small

[fussychica]

Wouldn't consider a house with stairs in the living room I'm afraid. Too cold, noisy and reduces the wall space for furniture.

[Doobydoo]

We have them...very cold...wouldn't do it unless house has double glazing,fab insulation etc etc.

[AliceWChild]

We have it but with a door to the stairs. I am so looking forward to moving to a house with a hall . It's draughty

[MamaMary]

We have this and I like it. We used to have a tiny hall, but we knocked the wall down to have the stairs in our living room. It really opened the room out and provided extra space and light. It has not made it any colder, primarily because we have double glazing, really good insulation, thick stone walls (tis an old cottage) and a big wood-burning stove which belts out the heat. Love it!

[MinimalistMommi]

This thread is making me wonder whether my plan to open up our two reception rooms which are separated by a walled off flight of stairs currently is a bad one....we're thinking of turning the stairs by 180 degrees to improve upstairs layout and have an open staircase rather then closed off by walls IYSWIM to make the two reception rooms into one open plan area. We're planning on installing a woodburner and I wonder now if all the heat will escape up the open staircase into upstairs....and if it will make upstairs noises too when the DC are trying to sleep.

[MinimalistMommi]

Noisy not noises

[wafflesandcream]

Thanks for your replies. I hadn't thought about the noise factor as I was concerned about it being cold but we will go back and check it more thoroughly. DoobyDoo the house is 1960s and has insulation and double glazing in those rooms so not sure if that is enough or whether we'd need a wood-burning stove as well to keep it toasty.