We have limited space, so our options are limited.

We wanted to use decking (trex type) for the steps. After cruising Houzz, we've "narrowed" our options down to a few.

1. Have an open riser, with straight down steps. It keeps the area open which we like, drawing as little attention as possible. Cheap, easy but can look that way too. We do like the riser being open though, where the stone wall can be see as more continuous. We could put 2 small plants flanking the sides to soften the ends.

2. Having squared or octagonal corners to give it the "mountain" look, for a lack of a better way to say it. Commonly done and it looks quite tasteful. It does take up more room, but room next to a stone wall that wouldn't really be used much at all anyway.

Options 1 & 2 could visually divide the lower level, which would not be the best.

3. The last one - is to embed the steps into the current stone wall. Last year when we had the patio laid, measurements were taken by the contractor, and too many concessions would have had to be made. One concession was to embed steps into the patio, one of which we absolutely knew we didn't want to do (and still are happy we didn't). We wanted a 6' x 6' deck landing off the main patio with the decking steps going down to the lower level. Perhaps we'd be able to concede in on landing size to get these steps embedded into the stone wall. This could get into some serious money I'm sure to have it done this way. We really love this look, but not convinced we have the space to have it look flowing and not cramped. This would allow VERY little upper area besides the main patio before you go to the lower level. How much upper transition space between the main patio, "yard" and then steps is realistic to look proportionate.

We're torn between butchering the upper area to have embedded steps and having steps that come out from the stone wall that might sever the continuity of the current (and always will be) unobstructed lower area.

BTW, we're looking at about 4-5 steps.

The flanking of plants

Squared of steps

Octagon steps

What should we focus our attention to, for making a decision?

If you use good materials and have the steps constructed in good proportion, to me plainer is better.

Chris, I don't have a current pic that would reflect the narrow depth and elevation. With a winter storm hitting, I'll pass on taking any new pics :)

Amanda, I too like things simple.

Deviant-deziner. Since I figured everyone knew what an open riser look was I'd skip that for brevity. I shared the others since I was awkward in my descriptions.

We're realizing now, that definite concessions are going to have to be made. Safety obviously comes first and then for us, function is absolutely key. Out of frustration, we thought of just using the firepit patio steps that are to the West but realistically, we'd HATE it if those continued to be the only steps. The past 3 summers we endured that and grumbled every time we've had to do walk out of our way. It's not so much the distance as the perception, if steps were in the location we're trying to put them, it would be so much easier to use the lower level. So bottom line, the steps are going in.

We're evaluating how we can make these new steps as aesthetically pleasing as we can within the confines of what we have to work with. This is a sadly a patch job and I'm just looking to have it blend as well as possible. It will be a decision of the lesser of the other evils.

I LOVE the patios that we designed and had poured late summer. Extremely functional and aesthetically wonderful. We can start having people over once these steps are done to show it all off.

Though we have a lot of square footage hardscaped, it doesn't look like it. My FIL noticed when he walked throughout the different patios that there was a lot more space then it seemed when he initially looked at it. That's EXACTLY what I wanted to accomplish...lots of room for entertaining but still have a "yard. Even w/o all the plantings that will be going in this spring, it looks great. The plantings will just be icing on the cake.

We're going to bite the bullet and embed the steps if at all possible. If indeed we can embed them, we'll go 8' wide with a 4-6' wide landing breaking the step run. We should have enough extra stone from taking out 8' of the existing stone wall along with about 9 other large stones/boulders that were left in the yard from the initial installations. This will open up the 1800 square feet of lower level to the upper level. It will be tighter on top then I'd prefer but being the walkway to the West will be 10-12' (narrows) wide, I think we'll still have enough.

This is going to cost quite a bit more then we'd like but it shouldn't be too bad...naivety is my middle name. To top it all off, I have the satisfaction of having completed the full design on my 3rd and LAST yard! EVERYONE loved my last yard, I can't wait to see what they think of this one when all the plants are in the ground.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can embed the steps. We'll have to likely give up some space on the transition landing but as I said, we were starting to see the writing on the wall. The extra cost to do this will be removing 8' of stone wall and building the side walls of the steps. We have all the materials, so it should be labor (a LOT of labor).

I would look at in terms of how do you want to be able to walk from these stairs. What kind of flow do you want?

the first pic I'm assuming is just stairs going straight down. This sort of directs you into walking a straight line and not spread out.

The second pic means you can walk anywhere and the stairs are not steering anybody in any direction. Might need to check code on this one too. Not sure all areas allow this type of design.

The third is sort of a combination between the first and second. It narrows the traffic flow some, but still allows multiple directions.