Under Stairs Storage That Uses the Whole Triangle

The space under a staircase is the most wasted volume in most homes, and the hardest to use well, because the ceiling falls away at roughly 37 degrees and nothing rectangular fits it. The trick is to stop fighting the triangle and divide it by height instead.

Divide the run into three zones

Measure the usable height at the tall end, the middle and the toe. Almost every staircase gives you three usable bands, and each one suits a different job.

The tall end — usually 5ft or more. This is the only part that takes a full-height cupboard, a coat run with hanging space, or a person. If you want a cloakroom or a desk nook, it goes here and nowhere else.

The middle — roughly 3 to 5ft. Shelves, a shoe run, a pantry with graduated shelf depths, or drawers on their sides. Anything you reach into rather than walk into.

The toe — under about 3ft, and where most storage projects give up. Pull-outs solve it. A drawer on full-extension runners brings the contents out to you instead of asking you to crawl in, which is the single biggest improvement available under a stair.

Numbers worth knowing

Full-extension runners come in 18, 20 and 24-inch lengths and want a carcass a little deeper than the runner. A pull-out at the toe end is often only 18 to 24 inches tall but can run 3ft deep, which holds far more than it appears to.

A hinged door needs its own swing clearance in the hallway — often 24 to 30 inches of clear floor. In a narrow hall that is the reason to choose sliding panels or drawers instead. And treads sit at roughly 7 to 8 inches of rise each, so usable height climbs about 8 inches per tread as you move along the run.

Things that must not be enclosed

If a boiler, gas meter, electricity consumer unit or stopcock sits under your stairs, it stays accessible — do not board it in. In many homes the under-stair cupboard also forms part of a protected escape route, which brings fire-resistance requirements for the door and the lining. Check before you build, not after.

Escape routes stay clear regardless. A hallway is how everybody leaves the house in the middle of the night.

Where these fifteen guides go

Start with the main guide if the space is bare, the solutions and small-space guides for layout, and the pantry, wine and coat guides for specific uses. There is a sixteenth on this subject too — under stairs shoe storage lives on the Shoe Storage board, where it fits the search better, and it covers pair counts and ventilation in more detail than a general guide can.