This was a small part of a 10 year home restoration my wife and I have been working on. The impetus for the project was the fact that the stairwell from the first floor to the basement was a dark, tall space with crumbling plaster walls. I decided that when I gutted it I would frame in a platform above the steps and cut windows into the adjacent walls as a way to utilize this wasted space. One opening is to the living room in the front of the house, one is to the dining room, and the third is into the basement stairwell. In addition to adding a new light over the stairwell, we wired in a fluorescent fixture on a timer over the new space to provide light for some of my wife’s beautiful tropical plants. All of the trim, which is shellacked pine, came from the house. Some is old casings from now non-existant doorways, and the trim inside the space was milled from the studs removed during this project. The window that faces the basement stairwell is also from this house. The floor of the space is tiled with 6″ square slate. In addition to being a place to grow more plants, this space creates new long sightlines throughout the first floor and also serves as a sort of whole-house nightlight (until the light switches off at midnight). By the way, “interior garden space” is just a working title. If anybody knows what to call this thing, we’re open to suggestions! Check out my website at www.birdsquare.com.