Kensington and Chelsea · London
Little Chelsea Under-Stairs Storage
We make under-stairs storage in moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood for homes in Little Chelsea. The finish is spray painted or hand painted, in a colour agreed with you.
- Struggling to reach the gas or electricity meter
- Open space under the stairs that collects clutter
- Needing a compact spot for a laptop
Need under-stairs storage in Little Chelsea?
Under-stairs storage for homes in Little Chelsea
When the hall is tight, the space under the stairs is often the only place left for coats, shoes and bags. We can make a coat section with a rail or hooks, shoe drawers and a small shelf for keys and post. With a spray-painted or hand-painted finish, it sits quietly in the hall. For a home in Little Chelsea, it can make the front door feel far calmer. If you’re living with a meter or fuse board buried behind clutter and nowhere to keep the vacuum and ironing board, that’s what under-stairs cupboards are for, made from birch plywood and moisture-resistant MDF with a spray-painted or hand-painted finish.
In streets where many homes were built before 1919, as they were around Little Chelsea, the space under the stairs in a terraced house often holds the gas meter, the electricity meter or the fuse board. Those have to stay reachable, so any storage is designed around them. Sash and bay windows are common in houses of that age too, and good places for seating with storage below.
After the design visit, we send you a written quote. It sets out the design we’ve talked through, the materials and the finish, so you know exactly what you’re getting.
- Where
- Little Chelsea (SW10, SW3, SW7)
- Borough
- Kensington and Chelsea
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- Design visit, then a quote in writing
- Where it is made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Boards and paint
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- Working days
- Monday to Friday; Saturdays by arrangement
- Get in touch
- Send us a message
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
Where other trades come in
Electrics, plumbing, gas, plastering and structural work aren’t part of what we do. Please bear these in mind too:
- New sockets, lights or wiring, which are for your electrician
- Relocating meters, which your energy supplier deals with
- Moving gas pipes under the stairs
If in doubt, you can drop us a line using the contact form and describe the room before you arrange a visit. How a job runs, step by step.
What it is made from
- Pull-out drawers
- Spray-painted finish
- Hand-painted finish
- Birch plywood
- Coat hooks and shoe shelves
- Moisture-resistant MDF
Why bespoke in Little Chelsea?
With ready-made units, the choice of colour is the maker’s. Ours is spray-painted or hand-painted in a colour agreed with you, so it can sit with the walls, the banisters or the skirting. Standard units assume square rooms, and period homes seldom have them, so you end up with gaps, wobbles and units that do not meet the skirting. Fitted pieces follow the wall and sit level.
The price comes in a written quote, worked out from the measurements and the design you choose. The price depends mainly on the size of the piece, how many doors and drawers it has and what goes inside.
Why choose Bespoke Carpentry in Little Chelsea
- Made for your room, not a standard size
- Spray painted or hand painted, in the colour you choose
- A design visit, then a quote in writing
- Edges scribed to follow your walls
Also near Little Chelsea
What else we make in Little Chelsea
How we price under-stairs storage
What you pay depends on:
- The overall size of the piece
- Whether you choose a spray or hand-painted finish
- The number of doors and drawers
- Parking near your home
There is no price list, because each job is designed for a single room. Instead, we measure, talk through the design and then quote in writing. To start, send us a few details through our contact form.
Before the design visit
Ahead of the design visit, we will typically ask about:
- Anything fixed to the wall that the furniture needs to work around
- Pictures of the whole wall or room, including the floor and ceiling
- The type of home and how the room is reached
- Examples of the look you’re after
To get a quote, drop us a line using the contact form and tell us a little about the room and what you want the furniture to do. We then arrange a design visit to measure and talk through the design, and a quote in writing follows.
Questions from Little Chelsea
Can you make under-stairs storage for a home in Little Chelsea?
Yes. We cover all of Kensington and Chelsea and the rest of London, and Little Chelsea is part of that. The first step is a design visit, where we measure and go through the design, and then we send a quote.
Will parking be an issue for fitting furniture in Little Chelsea?
It can be: much of inner London is covered by controlled parking zones. Depending on the street, a visitor permit, a paid bay or a bay suspension through the council may be needed, and suspensions often need notice. It helps to let us know about parking at the measuring visit.
Do I need to be at home on fitting day?
We need someone to let us in at the start of the day. It also helps to have someone around at the end, so we can go over the finished furniture together.
Can you match the storage to my hallway?
Yes. The colour is your choice and is agreed in the quote. A spray-painted finish is done in our workshop, and a hand-painted one can be done on site. Both can be matched to a colour you already have.
How long will the fitting take?
How long fitting takes depends on how much storage you want under the stairs, and the fitting days are agreed in your quote. Because everything is built in our workshop, the work in your home is the fitting itself. We know the hall is a busy route, so we keep it as clear as possible.
Does fitted furniture need planning permission?
Not normally. Fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission, even in a conservation area. If the building is listed, works affecting its character can require listed building consent, so check with the council first.
Bespoke or off-the-shelf?
Shop-bought shelves can sag over a long span. How much a shelf bends depends on its span, depth and load, and long runs need a thicker shelf, a lip along the front or a support. We design shelves with that in mind.
Off-the-shelf furniture can be a sensible choice. In a room with square walls and standard sizes, it can work well, and it is easy to buy.
Under-stairs storage in Little Chelsea: local notes
Homes built before 1919 make up about 67% of the housing in the area around Little Chelsea, with about 12% built between 1919 and 1939, based on the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax data. For carpentry, the era of a house is a useful clue to how square its rooms are and what its walls are made of. Near the centre of Little Chelsea, Historic England’s list includes Chelsea Old Church (all Saints) (Grade I), under half a mile east, and Church of St Luke (Grade I), about 0.5 miles north-east. Where a home is listed, listed building consent can be needed for inside works that affect its character, such as fixing into original panelling. Ask the council’s conservation officer before anything is fixed. Purpose-built flats are home to about 58% of households in the neighbourhood around Little Chelsea, in the ONS Census 2021 figures. In a block, each section is sized to get up the stairs or into the lift and through the door. Building management rules on lifts, deliveries and working hours are worth checking early.
Carlyle's House, about 0.4 miles east, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. If your own home is a period one, the cupboard door under a period staircase can be kept or replaced to match the new storage. For a family home near Park Walk Primary School, deep drawers suit the bulky things families collect, from scooters to swimming kit. For a flat near Imperial Wharf station, the lift, the stair turns and the front door all set the largest piece that can come in.
Little Chelsea is within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, about 1 mile north-west of Kensington. We cover Little Chelsea as part of our work across Kensington and Chelsea, and the process is the same everywhere we work. In Kensington and Chelsea, Little Chelsea is one of the places we cover.
We work across SW10, SW3 and SW7 for under-stairs storage. Whether you live on a street such as Ann Lane, King's Road and Lamont Road or on one nearby, we can visit to measure up for under-stairs storage. Nearby, we also make under-stairs storage in World's End (1 mile south), South Kensington (1 mile north), Chelsea (1 mile north-east), Chelsea Harbour (1 mile south) and Walham Green (1 mile south-west). Other parts of Kensington and Chelsea we cover include Notting Hill (2 miles north-west), Notting Dale (2 miles north-west), Holland Park (2 miles north-west), Bayswater (2 miles north), Kensal Town (3 miles north-west) and North Kensington (3 miles north-west).
Local landmarks in Little Chelsea
In Little Chelsea, that includes homes near English National Ballet School, The World's End pub and Natural History Museum Library and Archives, among other places. Little Chelsea’s nearest station is Imperial Wharf station, roughly 0.7 miles south. Nearby you’ll also find Harrods (1.2 miles north-east) and Chelsea Stadium Tour And Museum (0.6 miles south-west). For a walk, there is Battersea Park Lake.
From workshop to your room
Period rooms often have skirting boards, picture rails, cornices or coving for the furniture to meet. We cut and scribe the furniture around them on site, so it sits neatly against the room. The time the fitting takes depends on the size of the space and the design, and your quote sets out the fitting days. In houses converted into flats, the route in may include a shared hall and stairs, so it helps to let neighbours know about fitting day. The sections are sized for the narrowest point on the route. Saturday fitting is possible by prior arrangement.
- It starts when you contact us about the space under your stairs.
- We visit to measure and talk about how you will use the space.
- A written quote follows, with the fitting days agreed. Take your time to look through it.
- We make the drawers, doors and carcasses in our workshop. The materials are moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood.
- The storage is fitted and set level, ready for the first coats and shoes.
How to prepare
- Have your electrician move any sockets or switches beforehand
- Let us know about any meters, fuse boards or boilers in the area
- Take down pictures, mirrors and shelves from the wall
Arranging a design visit
For a quote for under-stairs storage in Little Chelsea, message us from the contact page. Tell us which room it is and roughly what you have in mind, plus any rough measurements. Next comes a design visit, followed by a quote in writing.