Islington · London
Under-stairs storage in Canonbury, Islington
Pull-out drawers, cupboards and coat storage under the stairs, for homes in Canonbury. Every piece is built in our workshop and fitted in your home.
- A low corner too deep to reach into
- Struggling to reach the gas or electricity meter
- Coats and shoes piling up in the hall
Ask about under-stairs storage in Canonbury
When you need someone else
Before you plan the job, it helps to know what we do not do:
- New sockets, lights or wiring, which are for your electrician
- Gas pipework, which needs a Gas Safe engineer
- Reshaping or rebuilding the staircase
If you are not sure what’s possible in your room, you can get in touch through our contact form and we will give you a straight answer before you arrange a visit. Our process from visit to fitting.
What goes into it
- Coat hooks and shoe shelves
- Hand-painted finish
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Spray-painted finish
- Birch plywood
- Pull-out drawers
Under-stairs storage for homes in Canonbury
Under-stairs cupboards often hold a gas meter, an electricity meter or the fuse board. These must stay easy to reach for meter readers and engineers. We plan the storage around them, typically with a door that leaves them in clear reach, so the space works hard without hiding anything that matters. At the design visit in Canonbury, we note what’s there and design around it. If your home has nowhere to put coats, shoes and bags and an old cupboard door that doesn’t suit the hall, that is what under-stairs cupboards are for, made from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, finished by spray or by hand.
Getting materials into a block means planning the lift, the corridor and the front door of the flat. Around Canonbury, most households are in purpose-built flats, so under-stairs cupboards are drawn in sections from the start. Floors in the corridor and the flat are covered on the way in.
The written quote is your record of the job. It describes the under-stairs cupboard we have designed for the room, what it’s made from and how it is finished.
- Place
- Canonbury (N1, N1P, E8)
- Area
- Islington
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- Design visit, then a written quote
- Making
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Materials and finish
- MDF and plywood, painted to order
- Working days
- Weekdays; Saturdays on request
- Get in touch
- Our contact form
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
How fitting day works
You won’t need to do much on the day. We need someone to let us in at the start, and the room should already be cleared, as agreed at the design visit. From there, we protect the floors, bring the furniture in and get on with the fitting. The time the fitting takes depends on how much storage you want under the stairs, and your quote sets out the fitting days. In a block of flats, the stairs, landings, lift and doors matter as much as the room: under-stairs cupboards are made in sections sized for each of them. Mansion block lifts can be small, and some blocks have no lift at all.
- It starts with some details from you about the space.
- We come to measure and discuss the design.
- We send a written quote covering the design, materials and finish.
- The storage is built in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood.
- The storage is fitted and finished, and we check each pull-out with you before we leave.
- New paint needs time to cure fully, so open and close things gently at first.
Before we arrive
- Tell us about parking near your home
- Move furniture and belongings away from the wall
- Clear the hallway and stairs so the sections can come through
Ask for a quote
Pictures help us understand the room before we visit. Pictures of the whole wall, the corners and the ceiling line give us a good feel for the space, along with rough sizes. To send them over, drop us a line using the contact form, and we’ll arrange a design visit.
Advice
Materials and finishes
Pull-out drawers
Drawers that pull out make the back of the space easy to use. Everything is in view when the drawer is open. They can hold shoes, the vacuum or cleaning things.
Plinths and scribe strips
Floors under the stairs are often out of level. We set the storage level on a plinth or adjustable feet, so everything opens and closes as it should.
Questions from Canonbury
Do I need permission for fitted furniture in a conservation area?
Not normally. Conservation area controls are mostly concerned with the outside of buildings, so fitted furniture inside a house does not normally need planning permission. Listed buildings are different, as works inside that affect their character can need listed building consent from the council. If you are unsure, the council can confirm.
Do you cover homes near Canonbury station?
Yes, homes across Islington and the rest of London are within the area we cover. You can get in touch through our contact form to arrange a design visit, and tell us about parking and access at the same time.
What do you do at the measuring visit?
We take full measurements, look at the walls and floors and work through the design together. Access and parking are worth talking about too.
What is under-stairs storage made from?
We use moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood. The doors and fronts are MDF, which is stable and paints well, and birch plywood is strong, so it suits drawer boxes and carcasses. Everything is finished by spray painting or hand painting.
Are drawers or cupboards better under the stairs?
Many designs use both. Drawers make the most of the low, deep end of the space, and a cupboard at the tall end handles taller things. We will suggest a layout when we visit.
Can the under-stairs storage be painted to match the hall?
Yes. The storage is spray-painted or hand-painted in a colour agreed with you. It can match the walls, the stairs or the woodwork, so it sits quietly in the hall.
Bespoke or off-the-shelf?
Standard units come in set widths and heights, so there’s typically a gap left over at the top or at one end. Fitted furniture is made to the room’s measurements, so it can run to the ceiling and fill the width.
If you’re handy, a simple shelf or a standard wardrobe in a square room is a reasonable DIY job. It gets harder with sloping ceilings, out-of-level floors and lath-and-plaster walls.
Places near Canonbury
What else we make in Canonbury
Flats, conversions and lettings
A lot of London’s terraced houses are now converted flats, and that often means a shared hallway and a tight turn on the stairs. We plan the size of each section around it, after measuring the route at the measuring visit.
If your building is on a red route or a busy main road, getting the furniture from the van to the door needs planning. TfL runs the red routes, and the stopping rules are strict, so tell us about it at the measuring visit.
Under-stairs storage in Canonbury: local notes
The biggest shares of homes in the neighbourhood around Canonbury were built before 1919 (about 36%) and between 1945 and 1972 (about 24%), in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. Each era brings its own kind of wall, ceiling height and floor, so it shapes the design from the first measurement. Near the centre of Canonbury, Historic England’s list includes St Paul's Church (Grade II*), under half a mile north, and Canonbury Tower (Grade II*), less than half a mile west. For a listed home, changes inside that alter its character can require listed building consent from the council, for example removing or fixing into original panelling. The council’s conservation officer is the person to ask before work starts. Since the zone was extended to the outer boroughs in August 2023, the whole of London has been inside the ULEZ. It applies to every van that comes to fit furniture in Canonbury. How the van gets to your door is planned at the measuring visit.
Sutton House, about 1.7 miles east, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. If your own home is a period one, under-stairs cupboards are scribed to walls and stair strings that are rarely straight. Close to Shoreditch Park? Living near green space often means muddy boots, bikes and outdoor kit, and under-stairs cupboards can give those things a place. Living in a block of flats near Canonbury station? Then check any building rules on lifts and working hours early, and the sections will be sized for the way in.
Canonbury is part of the London Borough of Islington, about 1 mile north-west of Highbury. We cover Canonbury as part of our work across Islington, and the process is the same everywhere we work. We cover places right across Islington.
We cover every part of the N1, N1P and E8 postcode area for under-stairs storage. Whether you live on a street like Dove Road, Essex Road and Clare Lane or on one nearby, we can visit to measure up for under-stairs storage. Canonbury sits close to the A1199 and A1200. If you’re just outside Canonbury, we also cover De Beauvoir Town (1 mile east), Mildmay (1 mile north-east), Kingsland (1 mile east), Newington Green (1 mile north) and Highbury (1 mile north-west). Elsewhere in Islington, we also cover Farringdon (2 miles south-west), Holloway (2 miles north-west), Upper Holloway (2 miles north-west), Nag's Head (2 miles north-west) and Tufnell Park (2 miles north-west).
Near you in Canonbury
Around Canonbury, we cover homes near Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives, City of London Academy Highbury Grove and New Crown pub. Canonbury has its own railway station: Canonbury station. Nearby you’ll also find Hackney Walk (1.6 miles east) and Clowns Gallery-Museum (0.7 miles east). Not far away are Barnsbury Wood.