Haringey · London
Under-Stairs Storage in Turnpike Lane
For homes in Turnpike Lane, we make under-stairs storage from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood. The finish is spray painted or hand painted, in a colour agreed with you.
- Needing a compact spot for a laptop
- Nowhere to put coats, shoes and bags
- An old cupboard door that does not suit the hall
Under-stairs storage designed for your room
Under-stairs storage in Turnpike Lane: local notes
In the area around Turnpike Lane, the largest groups of homes date from before 1919 (about 66%) and the years since 2000 (about 15%), according to Valuation Office Agency council tax figures (2025). 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 Turnpike Lane, 9 conservation areas are recorded by Historic England. England has around 10,000 in all, and their controls are largely about how buildings look from outside, so fitted furniture inside a house does not normally need planning permission. More than half of the homes in the neighbourhood around Turnpike Lane (about 66%) were built before 1919, according to Valuation Office Agency council tax figures (2025). Under the stairs in an older terrace is often where the meters or the fuse board are, so the design keeps them accessible.
For an older house near Church of St John The Baptist (greek Orthodox), the space under the stairs may hold the meters or the fuse board, and the cupboards are planned around them. The wider area includes historic houses like Bruce Castle, about 1.5 miles north-east. For a period home anywhere nearby, under-stairs cupboards are scribed to walls and stair strings that are rarely straight.
Turnpike Lane is part of the London Borough of Haringey, about 2 miles east of Tottenham. Anywhere in Turnpike Lane, the process is the same: a design visit, a written quote, furniture built in our workshop and fitting in your home. Our work takes in places right across Haringey, large and small.
Here we cover the N8, N22 and N15 postcode area for under-stairs storage. We cover homes on streets like Bury Road, High Road and Glebe Road, whether you want under-stairs storage or another piece made for the room. We also cover Hornsey (1 mile west), Noel Park (1 mile north), Wood Green (1 mile north), Stroud Green (1 mile south) and Crouch End (1 mile south-west). Other parts of Haringey we cover include Tottenham (2 miles east), Highgate (2 miles south-west), Muswell Hill (2 miles west), Fortis Green (2 miles west), Northumberland Park (2 miles north-east) and Tottenham Hale (2 miles east).
Landmarks near Turnpike Lane
In Turnpike Lane, that includes homes near The Toll Gate pub, Greig City Academy and Moselle Upper School, among other places. There’s a railway station in Turnpike Lane itself: Hornsey station. A little further out are Hornsey Central Hospital (1.1 miles west) and Broomfield House Museum (1.9 miles north). Green spaces nearby include Railway Fields.
Under-stairs storage in Turnpike Lane
Under the stairs is where so much ends up, from coats and shoes to the vacuum cleaner. We design under-stairs storage around the things you actually want to keep there, whether that is pull-out drawers, a run of cupboards or a mix of both. In Turnpike Lane, as everywhere we work, it begins with a visit to measure and plan. We make under-stairs cupboards from birch plywood and moisture-resistant MDF with a spray-painted or hand-painted finish, and the things people most often want solved are wanting a quiet corner for paperwork and struggling to reach the gas or electricity meter.
A large share of the homes around Turnpike Lane were built before 1919, and older houses have plenty of odd corners: the space under the stairs, the bay at the front, the alcoves, the hallway recesses and, where the loft has been converted, the eaves. That’s where fitted storage comes in, made to follow walls that are seldom true.
Where other trades are needed, for instance an electrician to move a socket, we point that out, so it can be arranged before fitting day. Our quote covers the carpentry: the design, the materials and the finish.
- Where
- Turnpike Lane (N8, N22, N15)
- Area
- Haringey
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Making
- Made in our workshop and fitted on site
- Materials and finish
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Fitting days
- Weekdays; Saturdays on request
- Contact
- The contact form
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Do you need under-stairs storage in Turnpike Lane?
Sometimes the reason is a meter reading or an engineer’s visit, and the struggle to reach the meter. Good storage can keep these in clear reach behind their own door, and the rest of the space can still work hard.
We’re often asked to help with:
- A tired under-stairs cupboard that stands out
- A hallway crowded with coats and shoes
- A fuse board that’s hard to get to
- A sloping corner nobody can reach
For families living near North Harringay Primary School, a place for each person’s coat and shoes stops the hallway filling up.
Questions to ask before you hire anyone
- Whether you’ll get a written quote, not just a figure
- Whether they measure the room themselves
- Have they thought about parking near you?
- Whether they can show you real projects they’ve done
From workshop to your room
When the fitting is done, we tidy the room and lift the floor protection. Before we leave, we go over the finished piece together and explain how to look after the paint. How long fitting takes depends on how much storage you want under the stairs, and the fitting days are agreed in your quote. On fitting day in an older house, the main job is scribing to walls and levelling on floors that slope, so each piece is trimmed and adjusted on site. We protect the floors and keep dust to a minimum. It helps to tell us about parking at the measuring visit, as terraced streets are often busy.
- You contact us about the space under your stairs.
- We visit to measure the space at several points along the slope, as stairs and walls are rarely square in older houses.
- We send a written quote for the storage.
- In our workshop we build every part from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, following the slope we measured.
- On fitting day the units are set level and scribed to follow the stairs and walls.
How to prepare
- Make sure pets are kept safely away
- Have your electrician move any sockets or switches beforehand
- Let us know if your street is in a controlled parking zone
Arranging a design visit
Your quote is written for your room once we’ve visited and measured. Because every room is different, the quote comes after the design visit, once the room is measured and the design talked through. For a quote, get in touch through our contact form.
Read more
Caring for painted furniture
A few practical points help before and after fitting day. Here are some things worth bearing in mind:
- Tell us if the hall is being decorated
- Find out what sits in the space now, from meters to pipes
- Consider the colour of the hall, the stairs and the skirting
- Mention any parking rules on your street
If the hallway is being decorated afterwards, ask your decorator to protect the fronts. Tape on fresh paint can pull it off, so keep it away from the doors and drawers. Should you have a question about the storage, message us from the contact page and we will help.
Every so often, look at the handles and hinges. A loose handle is easy to tighten before it works its way out. If a drawer stops running smoothly, tell us about the room on our contact form and describe it.
What it’s made from
Birch plywood
The drawers under a staircase can carry a real load. Birch plywood suits them, as it is strong and holds screws well. Long shelves benefit from it too.
Pull-out drawers
A tall pull-out drawer can hold coats on a rail or a vacuum cleaner standing up. Lower drawers suit shoes, bags and boxes. We plan the mix at the design visit.
Made for the room, or bought in a box?
For a few hooks and a shelf for the vacuum, a ready-made solution can do the job. Bespoke storage makes sense when you want every part of the space working, not just the easy part. We’re happy to talk through which suits you during the design visit. Chimney breasts in older houses stand out by different amounts, so the recesses either side are rarely the same, which means a matching pair of ready-made units seldom fits both. Each side can be made to its own size.
We quote each job for the room it’s going into, after the design visit. Size, the number of doors and drawers and the internal fittings make the biggest difference to the price.
What you get with us
- Every London borough and the City of London covered
- Edges scribed to follow your walls
- Workshop-made and fitted by us
- A design visit, then a written quote
See bespoke vs off-the-shelf and what a quote should include.
FAQs: under-stairs storage in Turnpike Lane
My house in Turnpike Lane is Victorian. Can you deal with uneven walls?
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. Skirting, picture rails and cornices are met neatly or cut around. Older walls can be solid brick or lath and plaster, and the fixings are chosen to suit.
I live near Hornsey station. Is that in your area?
Yes. We cover all of Haringey and the rest of London. You can drop us a line using the contact form to arrange a design visit, and let us know about parking and access at the same time.
Can under-stairs storage work around the fuse board?
Yes. It is common to find a meter or fuse board under the stairs, and access has to be kept. We note them during the design visit and plan the drawers and doors around them. Moving a meter isn’t our work, so we design for where it is now.
Do I need permission in a conservation area?
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 may need listed building consent.
How is under-stairs storage priced?
The price comes in a written quote, worked out from the measurements and the design you choose. The mix of drawers, doors and shelves, and the finish you choose, all play a part. Everything is set out in a quote in writing after the visit.
Could the space under my stairs take a desk?
That depends on the shape of your stairs and the room beside them. We look at it during the design visit and tell you honestly whether it will work. If it does, a compact desk with shelving can suit paperwork and a laptop.