The space under your stairs is some of the most overlooked real estate in your home. For most households, it’s a dumping ground, shoes piled up, bags shoved in, a hoover that’s technically accessible but practically buried.
It doesn’t have to be that way. With the right approach, under stairs storage can be one of the hardest-working and best-looking features in your hallway.
Here’s how to make the most of every inch, without the chaos and without compromising on design.
1. Start With How You Actually Live
The biggest mistake people make with under stairs storage is designing for a perfect version of themselves rather than real life. A beautiful open shelf for neatly arranged shoes sounds great, until Tuesday morning with three kids and a school run.
Think about what actually ends up under your stairs (or near your front door) right now:
- Shoes, how many pairs, how many people?
- Bags, school bags, gym bags, handbags?
- Sports equipment, golf clubs, football boots, tennis rackets?
- Bulky items, hoover, buggy, dog leads, umbrellas?
- Small stuff, keys, chargers, post, batteries?
Once you know what you’re actually storing, you can design around it properly.
2. Choose Drawers Over Cupboards Where You Can
Cupboard doors look clean, but they hide the problem rather than solve it. Open a cupboard under the stairs and things fall out. Items get buried. The hoover blocks access to everything else.
Drawers on full-extension runners are the smarter choice for most items. You can see everything at once. Nothing gets lost at the back. And with push-to-open mechanisms, there are no handles to catch bags or catch the eye.
The ideal setup for most families: drawers for everyday items (shoes, bags, small kit) and a tall cupboard section for bulkier things that genuinely need vertical space (golf bags, hoovers, buggies).
3. Use the Full Height of the Space
Most under stairs spaces are taller than people realise, especially at the open end near the hallway. A well-designed unit takes advantage of this with taller cupboard sections at the front that taper with the slope of the stairs.
Pro Spaces units are built to your specific staircase dimensions, so nothing is wasted. The slope of your stairs becomes part of the design, not a compromise.
4. Think About Finish Early
The best storage blends in. That means matching (or deliberately contrasting with) your hallway colours, skirting, and door frames.
Pro Spaces units come in a primed matt white finish, ready to paint in any colour. That means you’re not locked into a decision at the time of ordering, you can paint it after installation to match your walls, or go bold if you want a design statement.
Push-to-open drawers as standard means no visible handles to break up the clean lines. The result is storage that looks intentional and built-in, not bolted-on.
5. Don’t Ignore the Awkward Bits
Winder staircases, shallow spaces, gas meters, fuse boxes, these are the things that make people give up on under stairs storage before they’ve even started.
In practice, most of these can be worked around. Pro Spaces have fitted in hundreds of spaces across the UK including tricky layouts. The online configurator accounts for different staircase types, and any complications are flagged before installation day, not on it.
6. Get It Fitted Properly
The biggest threat to maximising your under stairs space isn’t the space itself, it’s a unit that doesn’t quite fit. DIY flat pack kits are designed for standard dimensions that rarely match a real staircase. You end up with gaps, uneven panels, and drawers that don’t open fully because they catch on the slope.
A fitted specialist unit is built on site to your exact dimensions. Everything lines up, everything opens properly, and the result looks like it was always there.
What Does a Fitted Unit Cost?
Pro Spaces units start from £989 fully fitted, including delivery, installation, and a 5-year guarantee. See the full under stairs storage cost breakdown for everything you need to know about pricing.
Ready to Transform Your Hallway?
Take one measurement and get a fixed price in minutes. Most installs are completed within 14 days.
