Has anyone had an understairs cupboard built for them?

[Sunflower6]

My house does not have any storage cupboards at all. I want to get an understairs cupboard built but my stairs are open tread. Has anyone had this done?

One carpenter suggested putting a plasterboard panel underneath the treads another said that would be a dust trap and that the open bits of the treads would have to be filled in and the stairs then recarpeted which sounds more expensive. The stairs are in my lounge so I want the cupboard to look as nice as possible but. I need somewhere to Put my Hoover, sons cricket kit, etc.

I havent had this done but it sounds like a good idea for you - you need cupboards when you have DC...
I do agree that it woudl look and work better if the treads were filled in and the stairs carpeted. I think carpeted stairs are much nicer than wood as they are so much quieter.
But of course thiis willl bump up the cost.

Not sure how the plasterboard option would work, can you explain further?

Our stairs are in the lounge and we recently had some storage built in after initially ripping out the big cupboard that was there when we moved in. Much happier with this as we get our storage but makes the lounge feel much bigger.

However our treads are closed and we have a plasterboard panel under the stairs. We had cupboards along the bottom then open shelves along the top - if you did something like this then you may not need to cover your treads.

Have uploaded pics to my profile. The big triangle door is a deep pull-out drawer that uses the full depth of the stairs - we use it as a shoe cupboard.

Digital Girl Thanks for your post can you leave the pics on your profile a little while - I want to show them to DH later - it looks like just what we need.

Digitalgirl - Wow! Your understairs cupboards look like something from a magazine! amazing!

Did you do all that yourself (and if so how?) or get someone in (and if so who?)?

No worries ginpalace! Apologies for the clutter on the shelves - covered in cards as we just had a baby

leeloo thanks! dh and I designed them and got a carpenter in to build them. Makes a huge difference from the mismatched ikea shelves that were there before.

Will find out from dh the carpenter's website - he was very reasonable compared to some of the other quotes we'd had.

Oh fab, thanks. Well done for designing them - they look so smart. :)

The mismatched Ikea shelves look... well I've successfully managed to achieve that look on my own! [proud emoticon]. I've currently got wide Broder ikea shelves under the tallest bit, with huge 'really useful' type boxes on them... and next to it all the rest of the tat useful things are piled/stacked/toppling. :( Its kind of functional, but looks such a mess. :(

Before I get too carried away with the idea of understairs-loveliness though, would you mind giving a ballpark figure for how much his 'reasonable' quote was?

Think it was about £1400 this is his website

If possible, have a pull-out section e.g. for shoes, because otherwise the cupboard under the stairs turns into a black hole where you can find nothing!

I've had [[http://www.deriba.co.uk/DeribaWebsite/understairs/understairs-3.html this] bookmarked for ages. One day....

Digital girl - they look fab, (as does the lovely newborn)

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digitalgirl - what fab fab cupboards, look great!

We had understair cupboards built for us as well, but a much simpler design, basically three doors under closed treads in a hall area. There was just an open understairs area when we moved in, that was already a junk magnet, so this was one of the first things I had done besides it's a life saver for unexpected visits just throw it all in .

We partitioned out the smallest section (small triangle near foot of stairs), as otherwise it just becomes a lost corner in the bigger cupboard. I use this one to keep bookbags plus my work laptop. Like the pull out drawer idea but probably wouldn't work for us as would become a tripping hazard in the entrance.

Digitalgirl your shelves are great but your baby's beautiful!

We built a shoe cupboard that also holds the steam cleaner and outdoor play equipment. There's pix in my profile.