All stairs, no matter how you place them, get this really strange design that does not look right at all. In fact, it looks rather disgusting. For example, I use a stone brick stair on top of a chest, so I can open it still, and the blocks around it are all regular stone bricks, and the stair stands out like a rainforest in Antarctica.

The block directly to the right of the trapdoor is the stone brick stair.