An alternative to the drawers in the stairs would be to put the vertical slats of the stairs on hinges so that they open up breadbox-style to a cubby hole for shoes or other such things. That way the space goes to good use without any potential hazards.

FYI: Yes, the stairs on the left were originally posted on Desire to Inspire by my blog partner in crime Jo. Thanks for the mention.

If you were to have an incident coming down those drawer stairs, you better hope you're carrying laundry (for a nice and soft landing)... otherwise, if you were carrying a pair of bookshelf speakers, luggage, or a box of wedding china - ouch!

Now that I think about it, I'm sure Fire Marshal Bill would not approve of those. :)

I'd had a low kick-plate to the bookshelf idea, both to keep shoe-dust out of my books and to keep the books from being inadvertently kicked.

Seen it as a "funny pic" on a website few days ago. Idea is brilliant :)

Just put in self closing drawers or DIY by adding a large loose spring, like those found on screen doors that close themselves, and attach it to the back.

Or put a small switch in each drawer which turns on the overhead light as a warning and reminder to close the drawer.

Actually, we mused about the idea of a kick/lip to protect the books (but it does make them harder to get in/out), but the fact is, you can't really kick them, since your shin touches the next step up, unless you have like size 14 feet. the shelves are way deeper than they need to be. It does require frequent vacuuming/dusting though.

Its not a problem if you could install a spring. The spring could reclose it back plus a magnet auto-lock to keep it align under the stair step.

wow. really neat idea.

It looks like only the two bottom steps actually have drawers in them. Most likely, a closet is located behind/under the stairs, so only the hardest-to-reach space at the bottom needs drawers.

Personally, knowing the statistics for household hazards, I would never have the stairs shown in the picture. Despite the various suggestions others have made here, the only *truly* safe way to build drawers into stairs is to have the drawers open into another room altogether and not on the face of the stair.

In the small dutch houses, the toilet is often in the room under the stairs.

Yeah, I'd worry whoever built the left one and forgot to put in a handrail. I'd kill myself falling down the stairs before the end of week two.

But it's an excellent space-saving design and and if you need to get something half-way up the stairs it'll get you some exercise too!

(Not to mention some nice quality time installing all the drawers).

Just as a note, I think drawers to the basement would be easier to install as you can usually get underneath those. Only in very old houses can you usually ever get underneath the stairs from the first floor. As a previous commenter said, usually the bathroom.

Another way to create a self-closing drawer is just to tilt it back slightly, so that it closes under the force of gravity. This works best if your drawer is on rollers.

KV also makes self closing mount drawer glides