The stairs up to the roof terrace, from the first floor, were awful. Just awful. Steep, enclosed and dark. They were so awful in fact, that we gave our builders a bit of a head-scratcher and said we wanted to investigate accessing the roof terrace from the internal courtyard, with some kind of an external staircase. In our defence, we were trying to imagine better access to the roof terrace from long distance and so had forgotten how much smaller the courtyard is in reality, and how tall the house is, meaning not much space for a staircase. But, our builder did try and wrap his head around our ideas, until he had to finally get us to face the fact that what we were asking for, was going to be impossible. So, we had to come up with a Plan B and find some way of making the stairs, better.

And the answer, really, was pretty obvious. Much more obvious than our hare-brained idea of an external staircase. The answer was to do what we had done on the ground floor – remove the wall, to achieve open plan stairs, like these…

It was also decided, as work was being done on the stairs, that we’d incorporate a few more features, which now love, and although not factored into the initial renovation budget, have been more than worth the additional expenditure.

• Firstly, we decided that the actual treads would be lengthened and decreased in height, making the climb to the roof terrace, much more comfortable and much easier, meaning that new steps were built out of brick and plastered with concrete;
• On the turn of the new stairs, we decided that the low ceiling would be partially removed and then heightened, so that no-one risked banging their head, and so that the feeling of space and light was increased;
• The original heavy, green, metal door – which was a real monstrosity – leading out to the roof terrace, was removed and a bespoke, full glass door made. It had to be bespoke, because of the measurements, but didn’t actually cost a great deal more than anyone of the pretty bog-standard ones I found online. What makes this door worth its weight in gold, is that because it’s all glass, it floods the now open stairway, and down into the first floor living room, with bright sunlight. Just beautiful.

It was a pretty messy job, with lots of demolition but thankfully we were living off site, and only got stressed about it all in very short bursts, when we visited. Now that it’s all complete, we’ve totally forgotten the chaos and the destruction and the dirt and would recommend to anyone who is maybe considering it, go for it. Open up that dark stairway. And don’t go down the mad external staircase route…

We could not be more delighted with these new stairs. And, oh my, the demolished wall has totally transformed the first floor. Now that all of the internal white painting has been done, the real effect can be felt – the brilliant white walls look beautiful, and we are a bit obsessed with the grey, uneven concrete finish of the steps. We’re living with if for a while, but as we furnish and accessorise the house, the concrete is becoming a material which we don’t think we’ll be able to lose. We will be adding industrial style handrails, because for anyone not used to the open plan nature, the steps can feel a bit exposed, and grab rails add that element of safety. We also two spare light fittings from the internal courtyard which worked perfectly on the walls going up the stairs, so at no additional expense, we got white shades which exactly match those downstairs and give off the most beautiful soft light, illuminating what was a very dark part of the house. Not any more…

The original stairs were honestly so awful, that I was reluctant to use them, unless it was absolutely necessary, which obviously meant that a big part of the house – the roof terrace – was underused by me. That’s not the case now, as we’re raring to get going on its renovation!