Croydon · London
Shirley Under-Stairs Storage
Few London rooms are perfectly square, and we scribe the furniture to follow the walls. Our work on under-stairs storage in Shirley starts with a design visit, and everything is built in our workshop.
- Nowhere to put coats, shoes and bags
- No room for a small desk or a place to work
- Space under the stairs that is hard to use
Under-stairs storage for your home in Shirley
What affects the cost of under-stairs storage
Every room is different, so every job is quoted on its own. These are the things that affect it:
- Parking and unloading on your street
- Spray painting or hand painting
- How big the furniture is
- How square the room is
No two rooms cost the same to furnish, because size, layout and finish change from job to job. Spray painting and hand painting are different processes, which affects the cost. You will see the figure in your written quote, after the design visit.
What to send when you get in touch
Ahead of the design visit, we’ll typically ask about:
- Pictures of the whole wall or room, including the floor and ceiling
- Anything in the way, like radiators, sockets, switches, a boiler or meters
- What you’d like to store or use the space for
- What kind of home it is, and which floor the room is on
The design visit is where every quote starts. We take full measurements, see how true the walls and floors are and work through the design together. Afterwards, we send a quote in writing. To arrange the visit, drop us a line using the contact form.
Under-stairs storage for homes in Shirley
Where the space under the stairs opens onto a room, a compact desk can fit beneath it. A built-in desk with shelving and drawers can turn the space into a quiet corner for paperwork. If you’d like a socket or a light, your electrician fits it and we plan the furniture around it. It’s worth talking through during the design visit in Shirley. If you are living with an under-stairs cupboard full of clutter and no room for a small desk or a place to work, that is what under-stairs cupboards are for, made from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, finished by spray or by hand.
Around Shirley, interwar houses or semi-detached and detached homes make up a good part of the housing. In a typical 1930s house, storage tends to hide in the bay, under the stairs and in the box room. Any meters or fuse board under the stairs stay accessible, and the storage is planned around them.
A quote in writing is the clearest record of what we have agreed. It sets out the under-stairs cupboard designed for your room, its materials and its finish, and the workshop works from it.
- Place
- Shirley (CR0, SE25, CR9)
- Borough
- Croydon
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- Design visit, then a written quote
- Making
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Made from
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Working days
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by arrangement
- Contact
- Send us a message
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Boards, parts and paint
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 the doors and drawers run true.
Spray-painted finish
Spray painting gives the fronts a very even surface. We apply it in our workshop, so treat it gently while it cures fully.
FAQs: under-stairs storage in Shirley
Do you cover homes near Elmers End station?
Yes, homes across Croydon and the rest of London are within the area we cover. To get started, you can tell us about the room on our contact form with a few details about the room, and let us know about parking and access at the same time.
Can parking be tricky on fitting day in Shirley?
It can be, depending on whether your street is in a controlled parking zone. A van may need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a parking bay suspension, which the council arranges, often with notice. It’s useful to tell us about parking at the design visit, so the day can be planned around it.
Could the space under my stairs take a desk?
Often, yes, where the space opens onto a room and there is 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.
Can under-stairs storage work around the fuse board?
Yes. Meters and fuse boards often sit under the stairs, and they need to stay accessible. We note them at the design visit and plan the drawers and doors around them. We do not move meters, so the storage works around their current position.
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, and afterwards we send a written quote.
Do I need planning permission for fitted furniture?
Not normally. Fitted furniture inside a house does not normally need planning permission, even in a conservation area. If the building is listed, works affecting its character can require listed building consent, so ask the council’s conservation officer.
Caring for painted furniture
New paint needs time to cure fully, so go gently with it for a while. Beyond that, these tips help:
- Think about how your household uses coats and shoes
- Think about handles and how the fronts will look from the hall
- Think about what you’ll keep in each drawer
- Check whether your meters or fuse board are under the stairs
Once the fitting is done, the storage is ready to use. New paintwork takes time to cure fully, so go easy on it to begin with. Avoid sticky tape, heavy knocks and harsh cleaners while it hardens.
Keep the doors and drawers closed when the space isn’t in use. Overfilled drawers put strain on the runners, so it pays to sort them now and then. Deal with any wet shoes or umbrellas before they mark the base.
Fitting day, step by step
When the fitting is done, we tidy the room and take up the floor coverings. Before we leave, we go over the finished piece together. How long the fitting takes depends on the size of the space and the design, and we confirm the fitting days in your quote. Loft stairs in an interwar house can be tight, with a low ceiling at the top, so pieces for a loft room are sized for the narrowest point. The main stairs in houses of that age are normally straighter. Each section is assembled and fixed in the room.
- It starts when you get in touch with a few details about the space, and whether the meters or fuse board are in there.
- We come to measure, note any meters or fuse boards and go through the design, keeping the meters and fuse board easy to reach.
- We send a written quote setting out the design, materials and finish, for you to read through.
- The drawers, doors and carcasses are made at our workshop.
- We bring it to your home, fit it and leave it ready to use.
Preparing the room
- Keep pets out of the room and the hallway
- Book any lift and let the concierge or building manager know
- Move anything in the hall or on the stairs out of the way
Ask for a quote
If you already have something in mind, tell us; if you do not, that is fine, and we can work it out together. At the design visit, we measure up and talk the design through with you, and the written quote that follows sets it out. To start, send us a few details through our contact form.
Related advice
DIY, flat-pack or bespoke
A confident DIYer can manage simple shelves or a standard wardrobe in a square room. Sloping ceilings, uneven floors and lath-and-plaster walls make it harder, because scribing and the right fixings start to matter.
Off-the-shelf cupboards come in fixed sizes, so there is normally 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.
Storage in Shirley homes: local notes
In the area around Shirley, the largest groups of homes date from between 1919 and 1939 (about 49%) and between 1973 and 1999 (about 17%), on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. It is a good starting point, though every room is still measured, as two homes of the same age rarely match. Detached and semi-detached houses are home to about 60% of households in the neighbourhood around Shirley, in the ONS Census 2021 figures. A house like that normally has more rooms to plan around than a flat, and sometimes a driveway that makes unloading easier. TfL’s red routes have strict stopping rules. If your home in Shirley is on or near a main road, tell us at the measuring visit. We can then plan where the van will stop.
For a flat near Elmers End station, under-stairs cupboards are made in sections sized for the stairs, landings and lift, so measuring the route matters as much as measuring the room. Addington Palace, about 1.7 miles south, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. If your own home is a period one, the space under the stairs may hold the meters or the fuse board, and the cupboards are planned around them. If your children go to Oasis Academy Shirley Park or a school nearby, a place for each person’s coat and shoes stops the hallway filling up.
Shirley is about 3 miles north-west of Thornton Heath, part of the London Borough of Croydon. Shirley is part of the area we cover. Our Croydon coverage includes Shirley.
Every address in CR0, SE25 and CR9 is within our area for under-stairs storage. Our area takes in homes on streets such as Poppy Lane, Homer Road and Craven Road, whether you want under-stairs storage or another piece made for the room. Shirley sits close to the A232. If your home is on one of them, tell us at the design visit, as some main roads have strict stopping rules. We also cover Monks Orchard (1 mile north), Shirley Oaks (1 mile west), Addiscombe (1 mile west), Ashburton (1 mile north-west) and Woodside (1 mile north-west). Across the rest of Croydon, our area takes in Thornton Heath (3 miles north-west), Croydon (2 miles south-west), Coulsdon (6 miles south-west), Purley (4 miles south-west), Broad Green (2 miles west) and Upper Norwood (3 miles north-west).
Around Shirley
Our area takes in the homes around Orchard Way Primary School and The Cricketers pub, among other places. The nearest railway station is Elmers End station, about 1.2 miles north of the centre. A little further out are National Psychosis Unit (1 mile east) and St George's Walk (2 miles west).