When you think about it, stairs are a basic component of many people’s everyday lives, and with good reason. Not only do they give you access to space above or below, but they’re also a great way for people to keep healthy. That is, of course, assuming that stair design was well thought out and executed accordingly.
You would think that by now, we would have stair construction all figured out. They are so ubiquitous that you can hardly go anywhere without seeing them. Believe it or not, though, there are staircases out there that defy the concept of function entirely, and we are here to show you the best of them!
The thing about designing and building stairs is that they should first and foremost be safe to walk on. That’s the number one consideration when building them and, coincidentally, it’s the number one thing that most of these stairs fail at. Whether it’s modern and edgy or pointless yet deadly, we’ll let you be the judge. Here’s a list of 50 hilarious stair designs that didn’t quite go as planned.
1. “These stairs in a college I visited had people confused…”
Call us crazy, but confusion might not exactly be the vibe that an educational institution should cultivate in order to draw future students in. Most people only want to spend exhorbitant amounts of their money and time on education if the school in question has a track record for intelligence. This staircase in not a good indicator of that!
2. “The guy who lay the carpet on this stairs must have been drunk”
Everyone knows that the stairs leading to any basement are always super creepy. It’s the stuff that good ol’ B-movie horror flicks are made of. The owner of this house simply embraced the creeptastic nature of his basement stairs by throwing some red paint on them to look extra murdery.
Just because a person is disabled doesn’t mean they have lost their love of thrill-seeking. This wheelchair ramp/staircase doesn’t exclude the wheelchair bound to boring, mild-sloping ramps. Instead, it not only includes them by combining the paths but it also gives them the opportunity to fly past the crowds. Just remember; one wheelchair at a time.
In case you aren’t familiar with the works of the famed 20th century graphic artist, M.C. Escher, this stairwell looks like it was designed right off of one of his prints. Seemingly pointless staircases that miss their mark or lead into one another are a hallmark of his style. These railings, though, they sure do add a special touch of WTF?
This ancient staircase may strike you at first as a bit of a death trap, and that’s because that is exactly what it is. Sure, the misplaced stair is a pain in the ass to get used to, but you do get used to it. A midnight raiding band of mercenaries trying to storm your city, though? Yeah, they won’t get too far.
While there is defiintely something to be said for blending space-saving functionality with modern design, let’s not forget that there is also something to be said for safety. How on earth is a person ever going to climb these monstrous looking stairs with a leg injury of any kind? More importantly, how will you get upstairs when you’re drunk?
The extra bit of height these stairs have gives the illusion that they aren’t even stairs to the vertically challenged. Clearly, these steps were built with a giant’s stride in mind. You gotta admit a climb like this beats the hell out of a stairmaster though!
We totally get why people want to revamp their staircases and give them a modern edge. Really, we do. The only problem with the edgy-looking, open designs for these stairs is that they don’t take the realities of human clumsiness into account. Stairs like these are much faster than others, though; you just fall from the step you choose.
9. “These stairs in a residence hall when I was in college. Always creeped me out.”
Can you blame them? This has to be one of the creepiest set of stairs that we have ever seen. The bright white glow of the fan-light casting eery shadows all over the place doesn’t help at all, either. It’s the part of the stair that blends right into the ceiling, though, that gives it that unshakeable vibe of the uncanny.
10. “Not a good carpet choice for stairs if you ask me”
Unless you like taking random tumbles in public, you might want to avoid this optical illusion of a staircase. It might not seem like a wise choice at first, but if your aim is to catch the reaction of random strangers mid-fall, then really the carpet choice is brilliant! Let’s just hope they have liability insurance.
This set of stairs makes the case for why more construction workers should be drug-trested. At least all of the components of a good stairwell are there. These guys just seem to have gotten confused about how it should be put together.
We don’t know who told her plastering a picture of her face over a massive set of stairs would help her self-image, but they were wrong! Nothing says “I’m a doormat” like having thousands of strangers walk all over your face in public. Seriously, though, this stair-set is just vandalism waiting to happen.
Wedge shaped stairs are really quite a pain in the ass all on their own. So, the builder of these stairs must have been feeling particularly menacing when he decided to combine them with even rectangular surfaces at the top. There’s nothing like watching someone walk down the stairs with confidence only to eat it at the end.
15. “Nearly died carrying a box down these basement stairs”
Oh how you gotta love the arbitrary flair of the 60s and 70s! Who wants safe, boring, old, regular stairs when you could throw a pointless wedge on a switchback to kick things up a notch. We’re sure the owner of the house ended up adjusting just fine after the first couple hospital trips.
This stair is a glaring example of why you should never, ever piss off your contractor. Of course, if the owners were truly worried about it you’d think they would stick a marker of some sort on that last step, or even just add more carpet. The fact that they didn’t makes us wonder who the real monster is here.
Yet another classical educational instituion fail! This one is special as it failed twice. The first time in designing the steps at an awkward angle in position to the rail. The second time was when they put the new rail like this instead of running it right down the middle, so now the stairs are completely pointless. Way to go school, way to go.
18. “We have parties here so going down these stairs drunk is a challenge.”
At least if you’re drunk enough you’ll be numb to the fall. Waking up the next morning might be a tad bit more painful though. If they just threw a mattress at the bottom it would be the funnest room in the house!
19. “Built the staircase exactly as designed, boss”
When you begin to understand that common sense is not all that common, mistakes like this become a lot more forgiveable. To be fair, the architect could have been a little more clear with his design scheme. Too bad the contractor didn’t think of widening the landing a bit.
Just when you thought you had life all figured out, you come face to face with stairs like this. Another wonderful real-time representation of an MC Escher print come to life. This, folks, is what it looks like when the universe is f*#king with you.
On one hand you could say that’s accurate; these stair sets seem to lead absolutely nowhere. On the other hand, you could shift you perspective and see that these are really just tiny stairways to heaven…or your hospital, depending on how you fall.
22. “This death trap in Thailand at the top of a large set of stairs, WHY!?”
Thailand is a weird, wonderful, and strange place, and its staircases only make them that much stranger. Even steps and solid footing? Who needs it!? They do want to keep you safe from flooding, though, so many hotel staircases include that extra lip at the top. You might fall down the stairs, but the water won’t.
This disabled access ramp isn’t for the faint of heart. Not only are the “ramps” comprised of wide, sloping stair steps, but ablebodied people aren’t even allowed to walk on it. You’re on your own for this ride, my friend. Hopefully your chair has a good set of breaks on it.
24. “In case of fire use stairs, they said. Do not use elevators, they said.”
This staircase would truly be hell for anyone trying to escape from a building fire. It’s odd that the contractors had safety in mind when installing the railing that keeps people from falling into the very solid walls alongside the stairwell, and yet didn’t think to actually add an exit point from the stairs themselves. Again, drug-tests, people; they are around for a reason.
25. “You don’t have to be drunk to fall down these stairs.”
You might not have to be drunk in order to fall down these stairs, but we’re thinking you might want to be! The only way to walk down these stair steps is to march down them like a soldier. Whatever you do, we definitely do not recommend trying to navigate them with a hangover.
26. “These aren’t stairs. They are decorative waterfalls. My friend walked into them and slipped, i laughed my ass off.”
That seems utterly deceptive of the contractor. Of course a person will think they are stair steps when clear water is running over them. Who knows? Maybe that was the precise intention of the architect; to make others laugh when their friends eat concrete.
27. “For when you want a near death experience every time you use the stairs”
Sure, building a floating set of stairs that double as shelving and storage may seem like a good idea at first, until you go to put something on the “shelf”. Shelves are specifically made to hold crap you rarely use. In retrospect, it might not be the brightest idea to fill your already-dangerous footpath with useless crap that will cause you to trip and break a bone or two.
This disabled access ramp/stair combination was designed by an evil genious. It is a pure maze of evil. You have options, but all options leave you stuck. Take the ramp through the gate and navigate the uneven stair step at the end, or find a way up the four wide, awkward steps to the right in order to get to the ramp? The choices are maddening!
Believe it or not, this lovely little staircase of death is very real and is located in Massachusettes. In order to go to the bathroom from the bedroom, you have to come out and use the top stair as a balance beam to cross to the landing that holds the toilet. All we can say is that if you know you’re going to need to get up an pee after a night of drinking, you might want to consider adding the novelty of a chamber pot to your bedroom.
There are so many great things about this stairwell it’s hard to know where to start. First, if you want to keep whatever’s above from prying eyes, these stair steps make it look pretty much inaccessible. We also love the finished wood look and how the design makes great use of the small space. The only thing we don’t like about these stairs is the fact that they are meant to be stairs and will likely kill a person on the way down.
31. “Man this hill is just too steep. Hold on a sec while I take the stairs”
We aren’t quite sure if this small set of concrete stairs in the middle of a small slope is meant to be abstract art or if the designer actually thought it was functional. It’s not as though the stair steps lead to an actual walkway; just a more level part of the grassy knoll. At least it’s both wheelchair and pedestrian accessible.
Let’s be honest. If The devil were going to design a staircase, it would look a lot like this one. The floating steps look like red shards of glass specifically situated to break the neck of anyone who tries to use them.
These stairs were made to keep a person on their toes. The tricky stair steps are located in Monaco. The markers, rather than marking the edge of the steps, mark the middle of each step. To make things far more challenging, the middle step itself is just that much wider than the other steps, ensuring that if the markers don’t trick you into falling, that middle stair step will.
34. “There are three steps down at the entrance to this lobby”
We almost don’t believe him. This makes “watching your step” damn near impossible! How do owners of commercial buildings like this escape a constant landslide of lawsuits?
35. When your love of wood outweighs your need of safety
We get it; the bright tone and deep grain of this wood make the steps look totally awesome. Unfortunately you won’t be around long to enjoy them because they will likely lead straight to your death.
The only possible intention behind this is pure evil. Painting an edge marker where there is no edge should be illegal, for sure. On the other hand, it makes for the perfect location to set up a live camera feed.
When they say the movie theater will transport you to a different world, they mean it. This theater in particular took that idea to heart when they decided to put this mesmerizing patterned carpet on the stair steps. Coming out of the dark theater rooms to decend these stairs will transport you straight to Heaven.
We have to assume that these floating stairs were designed for people with really tiny feet in mind. There’s no way anything above a 5 will be able to navigate those steps without getting their foot caught on one of the ledges. Really, it’s a perfect upsell for small people looking for protection from intruders.
This is just lazy renovation at its finest! Sometimes buildings have to be brought up to code. While they easily could have demolished the portion of stairs where a ramp must go, they decided to just lay the ramp right on top of them. The result? Stairs that truly lead to nowhere.
40. “The stairs that are supposedly used to get to the attic”
Before you jump to conclusions, according to the Redditor who originally posted this, this home isn’t shared-housing. It’s like the owner decided they didn’t need an attic after all, and just closed the whole thing off. Apparently, they thought that the random stairs added a nice touch.
41. “These stairs must be for pets and children only”
There are also little people, to think about! This is definitely a design fail! Simply shifting the slope a little and making them a tad bit steeper would have solved all of this guy’s problems. Then again, now he has a reason to put in that fireman’s pole!
42. “Someone directed us to these stairs when we were lost.”
If you think about it, it could just be that the person they asked for directions has a great sense of humor. If you tell someone you’re lost, it’s reasonable that they would think sending you to a quiet place to find yourself would be the most helpful thing to do. Or, at least, it would be the funniest.
43. “These escalators that force you to also use stairs”
Last time we checked, taking the escalator vs. the stairs was an either/or sort of deal. Apparently, that seemed to encourage too much laziness for the designers of this mall. Now, if you want to be lazy and use the escalators, you have to earn it through the stairs first.
Sometimes you’ll find that even the seemingly best designs aren’t all that well thought out. Either that, or you’ll find that a lot gets lost in translation between a designer and the contractor who builds the design. More than likely, you will come across both at some point and this is what that moment will look like.
45. “Reading this is more exhausting than climbing these stairs”
If you want to force somebody to slow down before using the stairs, take a page from Living Well‘s book and confuse the hell out of them by painting fragmented sentences on the face of the stairs. They will spend so much time tripping on the sentence that it will stop them from tripping on the steps.
A pedestrian’s nightmare becomes the skateboarder’s dream with this absolutely nonsensical staircase. For anyone looking to get their butt into shape, though, running up and down these steps every day would be a surefire way to make it happen.
Why not? Using the door is for boring people anyway. Likely, there was once a door there and the owner of the home opted for a window in the remodel. Now he can always feel the thrill of sneaking in and out of the house, no matter how old he gets!
They were built specifically with the patients in mind…to keep them coming back! Who wouldn’t believe they were crazy every time they entered and exited her building? We just hope she’s at least giving them a discount for their wracked-up “frequent flyer” miles.
We couldn’t agree with that sentiment more! Just looking down this stairwell makes you feel like you belong in a mad-house. On the upside, though, at least you will always be warm when you’re stuck alone with your thoughts…
What do you think happened here? Did the contractors get high again and simply zone out while building the steps? Maybe they plan to build an add-on to the upper level, but then wouldn’t a latter be a much more convenient and temporary solution? The most maddening thing about it is that we will never know…
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
That completes our list of the top 50 stair design fails for now. It’s comforting to know that the next time you fail at executing a design of any kind, you can always look back on these pictures and feel good about the fact that no matter how bad you screwed up, it probably wasn’t as bad as these guys.
When you think about it, stairs are a basic component of many people’s everyday lives, and with good reason. Not only do they give you access to space above or below, but they’re also a great way for people to keep healthy. That is, of course, assuming that stair design was well thought out and executed accordingly.
You would think that by now, we would have stair construction all figured out. They are so ubiquitous that you can hardly go anywhere without seeing them. Believe it or not, though, there are staircases out there that defy the concept of function entirely, and we are here to show you the best of them!
The thing about designing and building stairs is that they should first and foremost be safe to walk on. That’s the number one consideration when building them and, coincidentally, it’s the number one thing that most of these stairs fail at. Whether it’s modern and edgy or pointless yet deadly, we’ll let you be the judge. Here’s a list of 50 hilarious stair designs that didn’t quite go as planned.
