Richmond upon Thames · London
Under-Stairs Storage in Mortlake
In Mortlake, we design under-stairs storage around the room you actually have. We design your under-stairs cupboard at a visit to your home, make it in our workshop and fit it.
- Cleaning things with no proper home
- A dark, wasted space under the stairs
- A sloping corner nobody can reach
Under-stairs storage for your home in Mortlake
Is bespoke worth it?
Period walls are rarely flat, and floors are often out of level. Standard units show the gaps, and filler strips can only hide so much. Our storage is scribed to the walls and stairs and set level, so the lines look right. Standard furniture is drawn for modern rooms, so its proportions can look odd in a tall period room, while fitted furniture can follow the room’s own lines.
The inside of the furniture affects the price as well: drawers take more making than shelves, and each rail, divider or pull-out adds to the work. We will talk through what you need inside at the measuring visit.
Why choose us
- A spray or hand-painted finish
- Designed for the room you have
- We visit, measure and go through the design before we quote
- Built in our workshop and fitted in your home
See bespoke vs off-the-shelf or what a quote should include.
Under-stairs storage for homes in Mortlake
Under-stairs storage is not only for houses. Maisonettes, split-level flats and homes with stairs down to a lower floor often have usable space beneath the steps. We measure the space and the route in, so the sections made in our workshop fit through the front door and along the hall. The same careful process applies to any home in Mortlake. If your home has a meter or fuse board buried behind clutter and nowhere to put coats, shoes and bags, under-stairs cupboards made from birch plywood and moisture-resistant MDF with a spray-painted or hand-painted finish can solve it.
Where original shutters, doors or panelling survive, they’re worth designing around. Around Mortlake, where homes from before 1919 make up a large share, fitted storage can be designed to sit alongside them. Panel details can be drawn to suit the house, and painted to match. For a listed home, fixing into original joinery can need consent, so check first.
Where other trades are needed, for example an electrician to move a socket, we point that out. Our quote covers the carpentry: the design, the materials and the finish.
- Location
- Mortlake (SW14, SW13, SW15)
- Area
- Richmond upon Thames
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Made
- Made in our workshop and fitted on site
- Made from
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Fitting days
- Weekdays (Saturdays if arranged)
- Enquiries
- Send us a message
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
Places near Mortlake
What else we make in Mortlake
Common questions about under-stairs storage
My home in Mortlake is a period house with walls that aren’t straight. Is that a problem?
Yes. Walls in older houses are rarely flat or square, and floors are often out of level, so each piece is scribed to follow the wall and set level on a plinth or adjustable feet. We also work around skirting boards, picture rails and cornices. Older walls can be solid brick or lath and plaster, and the fixings are chosen to suit.
Does a conservation area in or near Mortlake affect fitted furniture?
Normally not: conservation area rules mainly cover the outside of buildings, and fitted furniture inside a house does not normally need planning permission. If your home is listed, works inside that affect its character may need listed building consent, so check with the council first. The council’s planning or conservation team can tell you if in doubt.
Is it possible to have a desk built under the stairs?
Often, yes, where the space opens onto a room and there’s enough height at one end. We can build a desk with shelves and drawers to suit the space. New sockets or lights are for your electrician, and we leave a route for the cables.
Does someone need to be home during the fitting?
We need someone to let us in. It’s good to have someone there at the end to look over the work with us.
Can you make under-stairs storage for a home in Mortlake?
Yes. We cover Mortlake and the rest of Richmond upon Thames, as part of our work across all London boroughs. To arrange a design visit, drop us a line using the contact form.
What if the wall is cold or damp?
External walls can be colder and damper than internal ones, so ventilation behind and inside the furniture helps to avoid condensation. Any damp needs sorting by the right specialist before fitting.
Mortlake homes and under-stairs storage
Homes built before 1919 make up about 58% of the housing in the streets around Mortlake, with about 15% built between 1945 and 1972, going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. That matters for under-stairs cupboards, as the build era decides whether a wall is solid brick, lath and plaster, block or plasterboard. Within a mile of the centre of Mortlake, 19 conservation areas are recorded by Historic England. Historic England says England has around 10,000, and the controls mainly cover the outside of buildings. About 32% of households in the area around Mortlake live in terraced houses, going by Census 2021 figures from the ONS. Under-stairs cupboards in terraces often house the gas meter, electricity meter or fuse board, so storage is designed to keep them reachable.
For a family home near Thomson House School, a place for each person’s coat and shoes stops the hallway filling up. Chiswick House, about 1.3 miles north, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. For a period home anywhere nearby, under-stairs cupboards are scribed to walls and stair strings that are rarely straight.
Mortlake is about 3 miles west of Twickenham, within the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Our work covers every London borough and the City of London, Mortlake included. In Richmond upon Thames, Mortlake is one of the places we cover.
Postcode districts we cover here for under-stairs storage: SW14, SW13 and SW15. Whether you live on a street such as Elm Road, Well Lane and Coval Road or on one nearby, we can arrange a design visit for under-stairs storage. Main roads around Mortlake include the A3003. We also cover East Sheen (1 mile south-west), North Sheen (1 mile north-west), Barnes (1 mile north-east), Grove Park (1 mile north) and Roehampton (1 mile south-east). Across the rest of Richmond upon Thames, our area takes in Twickenham (3 miles west), Richmond (2 miles south-west), Teddington (4 miles south-west), Hampton (6 miles south-west), Hanworth (6 miles south-west) and St Margarets (2 miles west).
Near you in Mortlake
In Mortlake, that includes homes near Richmond Park Academy, Ibstock Place School and Hare and Hounds pub and the streets around them. Mortlake has its own railway station: Mortlake station. A little further out are Barnes Hospital (close by, under half a mile east) and Ubuntu Museum: African Museum of Humanity (1.1 miles south-east). For a walk, there is Duke's Hollow.
How it’s made
Pull-out drawers
The back of an under-stairs space is hard to reach, so drawers that slide out are often the answer. Everything is in view when the drawer is open. They can hold shoes, the vacuum or cleaning things.
Hand-painted finish
A hand-painted finish can be applied once the storage is in place. Marks can be touched in without much trouble. Paint needs time to cure fully, so it’s best treated gently at first.
Is it time for under-stairs storage?
When a home is short on storage, the space under the stairs is too useful to waste. A well-designed under-stairs cupboard can take the coats, shoes, cleaning things and bags that would otherwise crowd the hall. It often eases the load on every other cupboard too.
Common reasons to get in touch include:
- Needing a compact spot for a laptop
- A vacuum cleaner that has nowhere to go
- A sloping corner nobody can reach
- A staircase with untidy space beneath it
Close to Palewell Park? Under-stairs cupboards can be designed to hold outdoor kit, from walking boots to picnic things.
What to check before you book
- Will they visit to measure before quoting?
- Is it spray painted or hand painted?
- Which parts of the job need an electrician or a plumber
- How they handle walls that aren’t straight
What happens on fitting day
When we arrive on fitting day, the first job is covering the floors and protecting the way in from the front door. The sections made at our workshop come in next, one at a time. How long the fitting takes depends on the shape of the space and the number of drawers and doors, and the fitting days are agreed in your quote. Hallways in period houses are often narrow, and the stairs turn sharply, so under-stairs cupboards are made in sections sized to get through. Floors, stairs and doorways are covered before anything is carried through.
- To begin, fill in our short enquiry form; a brief note on the space and what it holds now is plenty.
- At the design visit we measure the space and plan the storage around the meters, so readers and engineers can still reach them.
- A quote in writing follows, setting out the design, materials and finish.
- The storage is built in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, with access to the meters planned in.
- The storage is fitted and set level, and the meter access is checked with you.
Before fitting day
- Clear the walls of pictures and shelves
- Clear the area where the furniture is going
- Book any lift and let the concierge or building manager know
Ask for a quote
The quote is built from the design visit. We measure the room properly, check how the walls and floors run and go through the design with you. A quote in writing follows the visit, so you can take your time with it. To book one, tell us about the room on our contact form.
Advice
How we price under-stairs storage
When we put a quote together, we consider:
- How easy it is to get the furniture into the room
- Parking and unloading on your street
- How square the room is
- The internal fittings
Because every job is different, the cost is set out in a written quote after the visit. Size, the number of doors and drawers and the internal fittings make the biggest difference to the price.
What to send when you contact us
When you contact us, these help most:
- What you’d like to store or use the space for
- Your postcode and the borough
- Pictures showing the full wall, from floor to ceiling
- Whether it is a house or a flat, and if there are stairs or a lift
You do not need exact measurements to get started. Everything is measured properly when we visit. To arrange it, get in touch through our contact form and tell us about the room. You receive a written quote after the visit.