Yeh. Sorry. Origin picture looked like fence. I live in austraila and my husband built something like that and the planter boxes. Ours is jarrah wood ( with a few coats of decking oil) and already needs re coating because of weather and living near beach. Too hot to do that now though.we are happy with the look as it's much better than plain fence.

Bravo to all these amazing creative minds. I hate wasting stuff that still has life in it. By the way, though I have read that some pallets are treated with a fumigant which is toxic. Generally, make sure pallets are stamped with “HT”, which means they haven’t been exposed to chemicals (at least not in the treating process.) Avoid unmarked pallets or those with “MB” for methyl bromide. Well, if anyone wants some really nice, bargain 2nd hand windows we just pulled out of our 12 y-o house to make way for a sliding door, and you live around Melbourne Australia, please check them out here: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/112070272414?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1586.l2649

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.

There's a lot of timber going on here with the floors and the door, I would avoid any more features in this room and add a narrow console as the previous owner did. Just think, you didn't notice the crevice when you viewed the property. A console is easy and inexpensive, it's also functional if you use it for keys etc. Sitting a large plant (or cut flowers if you can manage the upkeep) on the console will add some vibrant colour and the mirror will reflect it adding depth. A few other accessories will help to dress it up. Consider baskets under the console or something similar to hide the crevice and cover the vast mirror. Whatever you decide to do, I'd love to see an after photo!