In this guide
Almost every house has one, and almost nobody uses it properly. The space under the stairs is usually either a cupboard with a door too small to reach the back of, or an open triangle collecting shoes, a hoover and a bag of things nobody has looked at since moving in. It is the single biggest piece of dead space in a typical home, and it is entirely fixable.
Why Is Under-Stairs Space So Hard to Use?
Because it is a triangle, and almost nothing you can buy is triangular. A staircase drops from full head height at one end to nothing at the other, so the usable depth changes with every step.
A typical UK staircase has thirteen or fourteen risers over a run of roughly 2.6m to 3m. At the tall end you have something close to 2m of height. At the far end you have a few centimetres. Standard furniture is rectangular, so putting a cupboard under there wastes everything either side of the box you have chosen.
The second problem is access. A single hinged door in the middle gives you a shallow zone you can reach and two deep corners you cannot. Things go into those corners and stay there.
What Can Actually Go Under the Stairs?
More than most people think, provided each section is used for what its height suits. The trick is to stop treating it as one cupboard and start treating it as three zones.
- The tall end takes full-height hanging. This is where coats, school bags and the ironing board live, and it is the only part of the space where a hanging rail makes sense.
- The middle suits shelving, baskets or drawers. Roughly waist to shoulder height, so it is the most comfortable part of the whole run to reach into.
- The low end is for shoes, boots and flat storage that slides. Nothing tall fits, so nothing tall should be asked to.
Beyond storage, the space takes a cloakroom in a lot of houses, or a compact desk if the hallway is wide enough to lose a little depth. Both are covered further down.
How Do You Deal With the Slope?
Build to the slope rather than under it. The wasted space is almost always the wedge left above a square cupboard, and that wedge is often a third of the total volume.
Made to measure, each unit is cut to the exact angle of the staircase above it, so the top of every drawer or shelf follows the stair line. It costs no more to cut a panel at an angle than square, and it is the difference between using the space and using most of it.
One practical note. The underside of a staircase is usually plasterboard on a timber frame, and it is not designed to carry load. Anything fixed up there needs to find the stringer or the studs, which is something we check on the design visit rather than discover on fitting day.
Pull-Out or Doors: Which Works Better?
Pull-out, in the deep sections. Doors, in the shallow ones. It is worth mixing the two rather than committing to either.
A pull-out unit brings the contents to you, which solves the reaching problem completely. Under a staircase that matters more than anywhere else in the house, because the depth can be well over a metre at the tall end. Full-extension runners are essential here, and the runners need to be rated for the weight, because a drawer full of boots is heavier than people expect.
Where the space is shallow enough to see into at a glance, a simple door is cheaper, simpler and perfectly adequate. There is no sense paying for a mechanism you do not need.
The other option worth knowing about is the stair-tread drawer, where the risers themselves become shallow pull-outs. They look wonderful and they suit shoes and gloves. They are a specialist job and they suit an open-sided staircase far better than a boxed-in one.
Can You Put a Cloakroom or a Desk Under There?
A cloakroom, usually yes, if the drainage can be reached. Building regulations require a basin as well as the toilet, and you need about 800mm of standing height at the point where somebody stands, which the tall third of most staircases provides.
The constraint is rarely space and almost always plumbing. If the soil stack is on the other side of the house, the cost changes considerably, so it is worth establishing that early.
A desk is simpler. Where a hallway is generous, a worktop set into the tall end with shelving above makes a genuinely usable spot for a laptop, and it takes far less depth than a spare bedroom would. Our guide to planning a fitted home office covers the working heights and the cable management in more detail.
What About the Space Under a Half-Landing?
Treat it as a cupboard rather than a wedge, because it usually is one. Where a staircase turns, the space beneath the upper flight is often a proper rectangular void with reasonable height throughout.
These are the easiest under-stair spaces to use well and the most commonly ignored, partly because they are frequently hidden behind a wall and people forget they are there. If your stairs turn, it is worth measuring what is behind the plasterboard before assuming there is nothing.
Common Questions About Under-Stairs Storage
Will I lose the space where the meter or consumer unit is?
No, but it has to be planned around. Meters and consumer units must stay accessible, so the cabinetry is designed with a removable panel or a dedicated door in front of them rather than boxing them in.
Can under-stairs storage be made to match the hallway?
Yes, and it is worth doing. Matching the finish to existing doors and architrave, and scribing the units to the skirting, is what makes the run look like part of the house rather than a cupboard added later.
Is there enough ventilation for coats and wet boots?
There is if it is designed in. Ventilated panels or a small gap at the top of the doors is usually enough, and it matters more than people think for a cupboard that takes wet coats in a North West winter.
How much storage do you actually gain?
On a typical staircase with a 2.6m run, a properly designed set of units uses roughly two thirds of the total volume, against something closer to a third for a single square cupboard. In practical terms it is usually the difference between a hallway that holds everything a family needs by the front door and one that does not.
Where to Start
Measure the height at three points along the run: at the tall end, at the midpoint, and where it drops below about 400mm. Those three numbers tell you where the hanging, the shelving and the shoe storage should go, and they are the first thing we take on a design visit.
Our hallways, porches and under-stairs storage page shows what these runs look like finished, and our tricky spaces page covers the other awkward corners of a house. If you would like someone to look at yours, book a free design visit and we will measure it properly and tell you honestly what will fit.
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