Both ideas are great. I never store my shoes in bedroom wardrobes. I have an inbuilt wardrobe in the laundry and two sections are for shoe storage. As soon as everyone comes home the shoes are taken off and left in the laundry so they can aerate and then they get put away in their clear plastic labelled boxes or the hanging shoe shelves (for everyday shoes eg sneakers, work shoes etc.)

If there is a storage cupboard underneath the stairs, then I think its best to let go of the open risers. At the end of the day when it comes to stairs, I think you need to make simple decisions, don't complicate it. Sometimes spaces fuss over stairs and they can look great, but they are very impractical, expensive and dangerous. I think if you live in a house with no kids and no elderly, then you can lash out and go for something with more design risk. I think the timber stair profile shown in your picture looks great, and would work well with your vertical timber beam balustrade. However timber stairs can be noisy and quite slippery. If you are using carpet upstairs then you could consider running carpet all the way down the stairs. Don't do the half half thing. In order to finish the edge of the stairs neatly, I would edge the stairs with the plaster finish continuing from the cupboard wall, all the way up to the edge of the stairs and making an edge profile for the carpet to be neatly tucked into. By doing this you could still get the stepping silhouette which would look very cool. Then the beams could run off the plaster surface and not the edge of the carpet. Ultimately carpet may be annoying to have to vacuum, but it is a lot quieter, considerably cheaper and safer than timber stairs. Hope that helps. Good luck with it.

You can put a timber cap on top of the gyprock wall, the same width as it, and paint it to match. I've done this detail a lot - and it gives people somewhere to hold onto as they climb the stairs. It's also easier to clean and more durable than the gyprock itself. You can also have it in timber to match the stairs or floors to make it a feature. Here's an example to show you ... Hope that helps, Regards Amelia, Undercover Architect www.undercoverarchitect.com

The only problem I see with placing plants anywhere near the steps, if leaves fall and are not cleared away, they will rot and become an eyesore as well as slippery if stepped on. Also it may reduce the space as the plant/s grow, as you use the steps. I think placing screens against the grey wall in a fancy pattern would look nice and is basically maintenance free. I would also paint the steps, maybe in the same shade as the screens, though I would leave the railing as it is closer to the window and you don't want to make it the feature.