This House Has a Botanical Solution For Wasted Space Under the Stairs

How does one make optimal use of the wasted space often found underneath the staircase? Architect Jaime Juárez Ruíz has a pretty solid solution: An indoor garden space. The architect designed a home in Morelia, Mexico that features a vibrant little garden under some otherwise wasted space. The result is a stunning contrast of green vegetation, black stone floors, and white walls. 

Botanicals play a central role outside and inside of the home. Trees enclose the exterior of the home, generating lots of shade and colors throughout the different seasons of the year. Clean white walls, brown wooden accents on the stairs and some walls, and elegant black stone floors make up the interior of the house, turning it into the ultimate garden oasis. 

Other amenities include a study and a master bedroom sectioned off from other parts of the home by a water mirror and yard. Some parts of the rectangular structure have floor to ceiling glass windows in lieu of walls, allowing lots of natural light to drift in and liven up the space. Ruíz’s design manages to infuse modern elements with the great outdoors. 

Despite all of the elements, the miniature indoor garden beneath the stairs manages to steal the show. Of course, there are many different ways to reconfigure that otherwise dead space. It all depends on whichever works best for you in terms of function and design. Adding a couch, creating a reading nook, squeezing in a bench, carving out an entertainment space, and even adding a swing (yes, you read that correctly—a swing!) are a few of the decorating tips that Apartment Therapy contributors have offered for the space under the stairs. 

A whole indoor garden, on the other hand, is pretty unorthodox. Perhaps Ruíz’s design will inspire the next major home design trend.