10 Metal Stairs Ideas & Designs (2024)

Functionality is only one part of a steel staircase, since steel stairs can easily become one of the centerpieces of the entire household from an architectural perspective. Metal stairs are fairly easy to maintain, since only balustrades and newels had to be polished for the entire structure to stand out, and it is easy to see how an all-metal structure can draw attention to itself in your regular house interior or exterior.

Modern staircases try to use unusual materials such as glass and steel to create stairs that are both functional and visually impressive. A big part of steel staircases used indoors is loft conversion – loft stairs are borderline essential for these kinds of operations and require quite a lot of planning and coordination to make sure that everything fits in the required space.

From an actual renovation standpoint, implementing a staircase is a fairly big decision, roughly on the same level as tampering with structural building walls. There are quite a lot of nuances that you have to keep in mind, such as the correct stairs positioning, the amount of space it would take, and more.

The overall complexity of your future staircase also plays a large part in how easy or complex it can get, since your standard staircases with little to no modifications can be purchased pretty much out of the box. On the other hand, there are also a near bottomless sea of options when it comes to staircase customization – including stairs themselves, stair flights, handrails, the overall shape of the stairs as a unit, and more.

There are many different shapes that a regular staircase can take – and your imagination might be the only limit for how creative you can get with metal stairs. Completely custom staircases would be great for loft conversions for the best free space usage, while storage staircases are great for people that feel the need to utilize the space under the stairs in some way.

Spiral staircases are some of the most visually impressive types of staircases (can be either smaller “winding” ones or bigger “sweeping” ones), and open stairs are a great stylish alternative if you do not fancy the spiral form of a staircase in the first place.

While the overall shape is a large part of how a staircase would be perceived as a whole, it is fairly common for people to forget that stairs can also be decorated in many different ways to achieve a specific goal. There is no need for drastic modifications or alterations, either – even some of the most simple staircase decorations could easily change the look of the entire staircase as a whole.

For example, a stair runner adds both functionality and color to any straight staircase, and is considered one of the more popular options on the market. Stair spindles, on the other hand, are not as common but still fairly useful for all kinds of staircases and may include a variety of customization in both shape and color. Another relatively obvious way to customize a staircase would be to add a chandelier over said staircase, either to reinforce an ongoing theme or to add more lighting and attention to the structure itself.

Of course, this is just a fraction of what can be done to customize a staircase, which is why we have put a lot of emphasis on saying how unique and artistic this process is for every person. This is the reason why there is no definitive best way to decorate your steel stairs – a lot of it would have to correlate with your own tastes and preferences.

What we can do instead is to present a number of different metal stairs examples with different styles and approaches to their design. That way you may be able to draw some inspiration from one of our examples and find out what exactly you want to see as your own metal stairs.

Fire exit staircase

Our first example here is the most obvious use case for a steel stairs set that anyone has seen at least once in their lifetimes – a fire exit staircase. This design puts everything into utility and effectiveness, which is why it is as standard as it gets, with the only decoration piece being a few additional steel parts connecting some of the stair spindles using unusual shapes.

Outdoor steel stairs

The next example utilizes the same idea but has a bit more room to breathe, so to speak. This staircase is still mostly utilitarian and has more or less zero decorations to work with, but it still feels far more free and liberating than the previous example due to the fact that this one has more free space in it so there is no need for the stairs themselves to be too steep.

Spiral metal staircase

Of course, not all of the metal stairs have to have a standard shape and only one use case. This particular staircase is great in showing how much customization can be added to a steel staircase with barely any modifications to the original idea – the spiral shape itself is enough to draw attention to itself, and something other than the usual spindles and handrails is even better in terms of uniqueness.

External metal stairs

There is no need to make only steep staircases with steel, either. You can see here how steel stairs can have a relatively low angle to make the stairs themselves easier to traverse. Additionally, while it is true that the stair spindles themselves are extremely simplistic, crossing some of them with each other creates a fairly unusual shape for handrails that can draw attention to itself with relative ease.

Indoors staircase with steel

While metal stairs have their uses, there are also many examples of stairs where everything but the stairs themselves is made of metal – such as this particular example. It uses steel as the supporting material for the stairs themselves, and the handrails are also made of steel. The unusual shape of these handrails and spindles makes it one of the highlights of the room in the picture, while also providing access to additional space above the room itself.

Unusual spiral staircase

Following the same idea of “everything is steel aside from the stairs”, this example is a spiral staircase with handrails that are not made of multiple spindles. This example’s idea of a staircase uses a solid plate of material shaped in a specific way to replace all of the potential spindles for the handrails at once. While the handrail itself is a simple pipe-like steel piece, the overall view of this particular staircase is extremely unusual and would have no issues with attracting attention to itself.

Complex steel staircase

This particular example might be the most visually impressive part of this list, with an aesthetically pleasing steel stairs structure, the overall color scheme of the stairs that makes them blend in with the environment with ease, and the fact that the entirety of this staircase is several meters above the ground. This kind of unusual approach to metal stairs makes the entire staircase look like it floats in the air, making it an easy point of interest for any person in the vicinity.

Unusual steel handrail application

Another example of steel being used for only a part of the staircase as a whole is this particular example – a multitude of spindles that are not shaped in any unusual or special way. However, the way these spindles are positioned makes the entire staircase look different at certain angles. One angle would show an almost-solid wall of spindles (as with the example above), while another angle would make the entire structure almost see-through since the spindles are thin, flat and most of them are turned in the same direction.

Internal spiral steel staircase

Metal stairs in spiral staircases still remain some of the most complicated shapes of steel stairs, even though they may not look that complicated at first glance. You can see here that each step of these stairs has a net-like shape, making it fairly easy to see both above and below while on this staircase. Additionally, the handrails here are as minimalistic as it gets, offering support and nothing else to the staircase, which may be a great option for people who like minimalism on its own.

External spiral steel staircase

The last example on our list is another steel spiral staircase, which serves as a great addition to the aesthetic of the building. It has a net-like structure for each of its steps, offers a basic handrail for support purposes, and serves as a functional access way to multiple floors of the same building at once – while also being unusual enough to attract attention to itself.

Conclusion

The nature of the steel fabrication industry offers a lot of creative freedom when it comes to different designs for both staircases as a whole and their specific details (stairs, spindles, etc.). This showcase was just a fraction of what can be done with steel in terms of stairs and staircases, and we hope that you were able to draw some inspiration from our steel stairs examples.