Pleas help me make this space nice :(

[DoubtingMyPatience]

We brought a house Feb18 and we’ve now recovered from the mortgage and house costs and are settled with bills we can afford to spend a little bit of money doing the house up nicely ready for when our first LO is born. However, the house came in abit of a state. Everything tatty and generally miserable looking.
I’m getting a painter and decorator friend to some and fill, smooth and paint the kitchen walls and ceiling. But we have this odd space under the stairs, in the kitchen that I just don’t want know to do with.
We aren’t made of money and I’m open to DIY suggestions. It’s just such an awkward space, opposite our fridge.
They’ve also left an absolutely hideous gap in the woodwork and it generally just makes me feel shite looking at it.

What can I do with it?!

I think that if you painted it the same colour as everything around it, it would at least blend in instead of sticking out like a sore thumb. Or string a curtain across. Ask the decorator for ideas before he starts. He may have some good ones.

I'd be a little worried about the stairs string. It looks as though the outside one has been almost cut through to make the "notch".
On a more helpful note, I'd turn the fridge 90 degrees and close the area to the side of the fridge into a cupboard. It would also be a convenient way of getting some support under the string.

Turn the fridge and have the space made into a shelved cupboard. Have nice doors put on and shelves inside and it can be neat and tidy while also very useful. We have done something similar and store all our food and drink in there.

What do you need?

Seating space
Open storage
Closed storage
?!

Construction issues aside.

Rotate the fridge. You can't use the space for anything else if it is where the fridge door opens into.

The underside of the stairs - if you're not going to box it in as cupboard space - needs to be the same colour as ceiling or maybe walls (seeing as yours are light). The fact that it's dark makes the space feel worse. I suspect matching the colour to the ceiling would be most effective but hard to tell from photos.

Underside of my stairs were painted same as walls when I moved in. I repainted white when I did the ceiling and it feels totally different now. Doesn't hem the room in as much and your eyes move past it rather than being drawn to it. (Light colours recede away from you indoors, dark colours advance).

The way you use colours - and where - alters the way your brain perceives the space, so careful choices can make a huge difference.

If you don't want to build storage and/or shelving then I'd want to use it for seating. But it depends how you live your life and what you need.

Given the colour of the staircase, definitely white actually.

Slightly random thought but I’ve seen pictures of really sweet play houses under stairs- which might be useful in the next few years if you’re not desperate for extra storage?!

What colour will the walls become? Have you chosen yet?

Still think white underside for the stairs, just pondering how much nicer the room will look with a new non-yellow colour.

www.fabartdiy.com/10-kids-under-stair-playhouse-diy-ideas-and-tutorial/

I would have an under stairs cupboard built. What would you like stored out of sight? Coats, shoes, vacuum cleaner, mops? Then build the cupboard to house what you need to store.

I agree with others about the kitchen.

So it’s magnolia at the moment, which is the colour I dread the most.

We’re having it painted in ‘copper blush’ to bring the copper accessories out. The kitchen had quite a lot of cupboard space and it’s mostly empty still as it’s our first home (they will be full of all sorts before we know it!)

Turning the fridge could be an option, but the plug wouldn’t then reach to the fridge and there is a weird electrical wire just hanging out of the wall that the last people have left there.

We’ve viewed the house as a house that needed to be made into home, but we discovered much more was wrong after moving in. It’s such a shame they have ruined almost every part of the house.

Thankfully we’re hoping to up the value once everything is tidy again.

Also, we already have under stairs storage, but It’s made into a bedroom for our dog I was feeling creative when we first moved in lol.

Sadly dog cannot stay with us and will be living with a relative shortly so all the clap my DP refuses to keep taking up and down the stairs will no longer be shoved in the corner

Do you have another staircase? Where is your other understairs storage?

You can extend flexes to plugs. So that isn't an issue. And you should be able to remedy wires sticking out.

short extension lead will solve the plug problem.
definitely turn the fridge, it looks really awkward.

I would do one of these, depending on need:
-tall storage for broom/hoover ironing board, either tidily on hooks etc, or behind a door.

• coat rack if you don't have one elsewhere

-shoe storage if like us they all end up in a heap by the door -toy storage (believe me you'll need it) maybe shelves with nice baskets on?

• nothing - paint the space and don't actually fill it, so it is a light reflecting corner

just noticed that the fridge sits against the kitchen cupboards on its other side, so turning it isn't really an option.

I would paint it with blackboard paint and use chalk to write notes and messages / draw pictures on it. Cheap and cheerful. Your child will love it too when they’re old enough.

Ahh yes that’s a vital bit of the picture missing.. the space where the fridge is is exactly big enough for the fridge due to the worktop and cupboard space.

I think I’d turn the fridge and do as pp suggested with a larder cupboard. Also if your worried about behind the fridge you should get a sparky out- you might be one more paranoid once you have a lo 🙂

Not sure I can do much with the fridge :(

I’m so stuck on how to get this looking nice. I stairs storage will have the hoover and bits that are in that corner on there put away nicely.

I hate clutter but DP is a total bloke at putting things in an actual place so it all gets piled up because “there’s no point in putting it away if we use it everyday” agh!

I think fresh walls and paint is going to make a huge difference

1. Clear out all the clutter and find another home for everything.
2. Paint it all one pale colour to match the kitchen walls.
3. Get a small shelf and some kind of feature plant (or ornament if you don't do plants). Or use the shelf for your cookery books.
4. Keep it tidy!

Box it in as close to the fridge as possible (while still being able to open the door, obviously). Put a thin door on it. Have a thin pull out larder drawer as per these photos and put shelving in the rest for storage. Will draw on one of your photos shortly!

Oh it looks quite different from your last photo. I would put shelves on the wall opposite the fridge after I had painted all the wood and filled the gap.