Stairs & hallways · Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey

Understairs storage that keeps the meters in reach

A full-depth understairs drawer on castors, built into a white birch ply wall with a matching toilet door. Organised storage, with the fuse box and gas meter still easy to reach.

White birch ply wall under the stairs with a flush angled drawer front — Closed, it's a flush white wall.

The understairs drawer pulled out, holding yoga mats, gift bags and wrapping paper — Pulled out, everything is in one place.

WhereOur house, Staines

Made forMy own family

Materials18 mm melamine-faced birch ply, painted plywood drawer

Worth knowingPulls right out for access to the fuse box and gas meter

Our downstairs toilet is under the stairs, and next to it was a cupboard with a hinged door. Getting to the fuse box at the back and the gas meter on the side meant crawling in, and you could put things in there, but it just ended up as a jumble of stuff. When I upgraded the toilet space I redid the whole wall at the same time.

The old hinged understairs cupboard door, with bags and wrapping paper piled inside — Before: a hinged door and a pile of things behind it.

The new wall and the toilet door are 18 mm melamine coated birch ply, all CNC cut. The outside is white to match the rest of the wall, so the toilet door, the wall and the drawer front all look like a modern sleek wall panel.

The white ply wall under the stairs with the toilet door on the left and the drawer front on the right — The toilet door, wall and the drawer front, one continuous wall.

Behind the angled front is one big drawer on swivel castors. It comes out all the way, so with it pulled out there's clear access to the fuse box right at the back and the gas meter on the side. A small handhold is all it needs to pull out, and it pushes back in flush.

The drawer pulled out into the hall, showing the space behind it — Pulled all the way out on its castors.

The angled drawer front part way out, with yoga mats and a helmet inside — The angled front follows the line of the stairs.

The drawer itself is plywood, painted white. I built in a space for present wrapping stuff and a little shelf that takes toilet rolls. These days it holds wrapping paper, gift bags and ribbons, our yoga mats, blocks and stretch bands, toilet rolls, tissues and kitchen roll, and various other things that are just really useful. It's a nice organised space, and it's made the area under the stairs much more usable.

The hallway with the white understairs wall running towards the front door — From the hall.

Close-up of the birch ply edge on the toilet door surround — The ply edge on the door surround.

I made the toilet door in the same white Melamine Ply board so it disappears into the wall, with the plywood edge left showing around the frame. Inside, the toilet has its own storage, which is a separate case study: Downstairs toilet cupboard.

Plywood sliding lock on the inside of the toilet door, closed — The plywood lock on the inside of the door, closed.

Plywood sliding lock on the inside of the toilet door, open — And open.

The inside lock located nice and high so not usable by young children. The finished article is super easy to clean as no nooks and crannies to be found and all wipe clean.

Got a space like this one?

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