Under The Stairs - Ideas!

ChilliBob

Hey guys,
So it seems my next project is tackling the under the stairs storage. I'm not 100% sure what to do, what's within my capabilities etc so I thought I'd ask and see what people think.

At the moment it's just got one door, which means most of the space is tricky to use without crawling lots! 

We spent ages trying to find a carpenter to do some alcove units in our front room, the best of the bunch did, in our view, a mediocre job, better than I could, but not as good as we were expecting. I've also seen shed loads of Reddit posts of really poor remodifications of these cupboards, so keen to avoid this!

I can see how I can unscrew the plasterboard from inside, and then cut from outside, to leave a massive gap, however, what's not clear is:
1. What might be between this void - cables perhaps based on the pictures (below)
2. How I'd anchor a door to something - I can see two uprights but I think I'd need more than that as the hallway is quite narrow - I suppose use the upstairs newel post thingy as the start of a 'frame' between that and the upright bit of wood near the bottom?
3. The room thermostat - obviously there's cables for that from somewhere, and that would prevent a door attaching to the main newel post which goes to upstairs - So you'd have the main door, a gap of say 12 inches to allow for newel post, thermostat, then two, perhaps three doors? Sounds messy - Perhaps It's one door near the bottom instead - great for the gassman lol

So yeah, seems a bit of a messy job, I guess why I've been putting it off for ages in favour of other jobs!

Outside.


Inside, funny angle but you get the idea!


Cables on the inside


And the glorious mess it is at the moment. Behind all those shoes is the consumer unit, and into the void is the gas meter (both are easily accessible, unless you're pretty sizable!)

born_again

If you google "Under stairs storage", there are some nice designs that use slide out draws instead of a door. Such as this

https://www.spbcarpentryandjoinery.co.uk/under-stair-storage

ChilliBob

Yeah, that's beautiful stuff. If I look on check a trade near me and look at the highest rated people it's just angular Mdf hacked in and a load of caulk (on raw unprimed mdf!).

I think I'd struggle to find somebody decent near me - not able to go to that level myself either. Doors perhaps, but not whole pull out units 

Bigphil1474

On Picture 3 - Isn't that a brick column to the side of the door with electrical cabling going up and round? Think you'll struggle cos of that. I'd be looking to get a pro in.

You could build cupboards inside the space so that they are to the left and the right as you look in. As long as you leave enough space in the middle for the doors on one side or the other to open, it should tidy things up a bit.

You could always try a national company if there's nobody decent locally - these came up first in a google search, there must be others who do this sort of work https://clevercloset.co.uk/under-stairs/
[Not a recommendation]

twopenny

What about looking at Argos for cheap shelving that's a near fit and cutting to fit.
They come with the rawl plugs and screws.

ChilliBob

I've tried to convince my wife we'd be better to organise the inside better, I think that will suffice for now. I pointed out we'd not gain tonnes of storage from a costly project really. 

I've got a track saw and other gubbins available to me which I can use to rip up sheet material somehow to make it fit around the consumer unit, gas etc. 

Guess I'm drawing up some plans and scratching. Y head now for some box building type ideas! 

Slinky

born_again said:

If you google "Under stairs storage", there are some nice designs that use slide out draws instead of a door. Such as this

https://www.spbcarpentryandjoinery.co.uk/under-stair-storage

We had our builders' carpenter do something similar, but it wasn't cheap. About £2-£2.5K if I recall correctly. Even things like the runners for the drawers are hideously expensive because of the weight of the timber. The biggest of runners were about £140

ChilliBob

Yeah, I'd not mind (well I'd prefer not to!) spending that for a top quality job, but..

1. I'm unlikely to find someone decent it seems
2. Yes, we do get more storage, but not tonnes more, and do we really need more storage? (I mean, more is always better but cost:benefit analysis suggests this is a pricey way to get more!)

Basically need to make some custom fit boxes and shelves and sfuff I guess!.. 

cheekyweegit

What about Ikea Kalax units, I've got a 4 x 2, with a 2 x 2 on top and a single cube on the top  of that, and at the end I've a 1 x 2 just to use the last of the space, but could also have a 1x 1 in the last space.

In the cubes I have a mixture of drawers, cupboards and Drona boxes with a little space at the side of the  2 x 2 where I can sit other things.  Works well for me and being Kalax you can personalise it to your needs.  I went for just the cheapest white ones, but did find some funky coloured Drona boxes for the bottom and used black drawers / doors.

The really useful boxes 9l boxes also fit in 2 to a cube if you are looking for other storage solutions, they stick out a little bit but not enough to bother about.

This will work out a fraction of the price compared to someone building in the space for you. So definitely worthwhile thinking about.

ChilliBob

I spent ages on the ikea website last night for that very reason, alas, the mighty Kallax just doesn't suit dimensions wise on any way, really annoying.

There's just so much going on under there with consumer unit, gas meter, some mini consumer unit for the outside etc, some older stuff I don't understand eith yellow labels on etc!

Almost makes, me, think I'd be best to custom build it out of ply or something, realistically I could probably do it, but it'll take me ages! 

WIAWSNB

Chilli, where are the meters in that cupboard?
As pointed out before, there is a brick pillar there, so best - much cheaper - to leave that in place (Ie, it would need a structural tweak to remove = £ks).
That means having two separate storage areas, the first being via that existing door, tho' it's design would be updated to match what you go for on the other access.
Inside that existing door, you could partition at the far edge of the brick pillar, and then line that partition with 9"-deep shelves. The main cupboard would be used for tall items like your hoover, mop and 'board, and tons of stuff on these shelves.
Then a suitable design of single pull-out drawer for under the stairs. To keep it 'simple', this could be one big drawer, but would require beefy tracks. The pull-out unit could be racked to suit whatevs - see examples in the pro link. This wouldn't even need to affect the skirting boards there if you didn't want, so much less hassle and cost.
If you wanted a more cohesive look, then the existing door architrave could go along the top to meet the stairs, and then slope down, with the skirting modified to suit. Then you'd fit matching doors - the one for the existing cupboard as before, the triangle one for the drawer, and a tall slim 'dummy' door for the immoveable post. That would look better. Ie, it would look like the pro designs with matching doors, but middle one a dummy. 
Keep it simple; one existing door (changed to match), one pull-out door, one dummy door. Just one set of runners.
It's 90% labour. One set of runners, a couple of sheets of MDF, and some archi if you want. £300.