Barnet · London
Underhill Under-Stairs Storage
Under-stairs storage for your home in Underhill: pull-out drawers, cupboards and coat storage under the stairs. Each piece is designed at a visit to your home, made in our workshop and fitted by us.
- Stairs open to a room, with clutter on show
- Coats and shoes piling up in the hall
- Storage that doesn’t match the hallway
Under-stairs storage designed for your room
Bespoke or off-the-shelf?
Long shelves are where off-the-shelf often struggles. 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. That is something we plan for in the design.
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.
Under-stairs storage for homes in Underhill
In a narrow hallway, the stairs may offer the only spare room for coats and shoes. 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 Underhill, it can make the front door feel far calmer. Typical reasons to get in touch are a dark, wasted space under the stairs and a vacuum cleaner that has nowhere to go, and the answer is made at our workshop from birch ply and moisture-resistant MDF, painted by hand or sprayed.
In an older home, panelled doors and painted mouldings may suit; in a newer one, plain flat doors may fit better. Whatever your home in Underhill is like, the door style is part of the design conversation. The paint colour is agreed with you, whichever finish you pick.
Everything we agree at the design visit goes into the written quote: the layout, what goes inside, the materials used and the finish. If something is not quite right, tell us before anything is made.
- Location
- Underhill (EN5, N20)
- Area
- Barnet
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Making
- Made in our workshop and fitted on site
- Boards and paint
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- Working days
- Weekdays (Saturdays if arranged)
- Contact
- The contact form
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
The problems under-stairs storage solve
The low end of the space is typically the problem. You cannot stand up in it, and you can’t reach the back without kneeling. Drawers that slide out on runners turn that tricky corner into useful storage.
Here’s what under-stairs storage can help with:
- Needing a compact spot for a laptop
- A fuse board that is hard to get to
- Stairs open to a room, with clutter on show
- Nowhere to put coats, shoes and bags
If you live near Highlands Gardens, living near green space often means muddy boots, bikes and outdoor kit, and under-stairs cupboards can give those things a place.
Choosing a carpenter
- How they deal with uneven walls and floors
- Whether the route into your home has been checked
- Have they thought about parking near you?
- How the doors are hung and adjusted
Why bespoke in Underhill?
Ready-made drawers come in set depths, and the space under a staircase is often deeper than any of them. Bespoke drawers are made to the depth you have, so the back of the space is used too. Each one is sized for what it will hold, from shoes to the vacuum cleaner. Off-the-shelf furniture comes in set sizes, and real rooms rarely match them, which leaves gaps at the sides and wasted space on top. Fitted furniture is made to the room.
Tricky rooms take more time: walls that lean, floors that slope and sloping ceilings all mean more scribing and cutting. That’s reflected in the quote, which we write after seeing the room.
Why us?
- Built in our workshop and fitted in your home
- Saturday visits and fitting by prior arrangement
- We visit, measure and talk through the design before we quote
- Fitted tight to walls that aren’t straight
See bespoke vs off-the-shelf and what to look for in a quote.
Fitting day, step by step
Before anything is fixed, we set the furniture level. Where the floor slopes, we bring the furniture up to level on adjustable feet or a plinth, and that keeps the doors and shelves true. After that, it is fixed to the wall using fixings that suit the wall, whether that’s solid brick, lath and plaster or plasterboard. Clearing the room and the way in beforehand makes the day easier, including pictures on nearby walls. Floors and doorways are protected before anything comes in. Then the sections come in and are joined in place.
- It starts with a few details from you about the space.
- At the design visit we measure and plan how you’ll use the space.
- A quote in writing follows.
- We make the drawers and cupboards 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 fitting day
- Have your electrician move any sockets or switches beforehand
- Let us know where the boiler and meters are
- Clear the area where the furniture is going
Getting a quote
If you know what you want, say so; if you do not, that’s fine, and we can work it out together. The design is talked through at the visit, once we have measured, and the written quote that follows sets it out. To arrange a visit, drop us a line using the contact form.
Read more
Nearby places to Underhill
Other services in Underhill
Making use of awkward spaces in Underhill
About 24% of the homes in the streets around Underhill went up before 1919, and about 24% between 1919 and 1939, in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. Knowing roughly when a home was built helps, because walls and fixings change from one era to the next. Entries on the National Heritage List near the centre of Underhill include Church of St John the Baptist (Grade II*), about 0.5 miles north-west, and Odeon Cinema (Grade II), under half a mile east. Works inside a listed home that affect its character, for instance removing original joinery or fixing into it, can need listed building consent from the council. Check with the council’s conservation officer first. The Ultra Low Emission Zone has covered all of London since it reached the outer boroughs on 29 August 2023. Vans bringing furniture to Underhill fall under it, just as they do across the rest of London. We plan parking and access with you during the design visit.
If your children go to St Catherine's RC School or a school nearby, under-stairs cupboards can be planned around what a family needs to keep, from coats and bags to sports kit. For a flat near New Barnet 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.
Underhill is about 3 miles south of Finchley, within the London Borough of Barnet. We cover Underhill as part of our work across Barnet. In Barnet, Underhill is one of the places we cover, and the borough has 41 places on our list.
Every home in EN5 and N20 is covered for under-stairs storage. We cover homes on streets such as Park Road, May's Lane and Manor Road, along with the roads around them, for under-stairs storage and any of our other fitted furniture. If you’re just outside Underhill, we also cover Barnet (1 mile east), New Barnet (1 mile east), Monken Hadley (1 mile north), Hadley Wood (1 mile north-east) and Cockfosters (2 miles east). Elsewhere in Barnet, we also cover Finchley (3 miles south), Burnt Oak (4 miles south-west), East Finchley (4 miles south), Hendon (4 miles south), Whetstone (2 miles south-east) and Edgware (4 miles south-west).
Near you in Underhill
Around Underhill, we cover homes near Susi Earnshaw Theatre School, Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School and The Red Lion pub. For rail, the closest station is New Barnet station, about 1 mile east of the centre. Well-known places in the area include Barnet General Hospital (0.9 miles west) and Spires Shopping Centre (0.7 miles north-west). For a walk, there’s Darland's Lake and Greenhill Gardens.
Common questions about under-stairs storage
Can you make under-stairs storage for a home in Underhill?
Yes, Underhill is within the area we cover, which takes in all of Barnet and the rest of London. The first step is a design visit, where we measure and talk through the design, followed by a quote.
Can you fit furniture in a home close to New Barnet station?
Yes. We cover all of Barnet and the rest of London. You can get in touch through our contact form to arrange a design visit, and let us know about parking and access at the same time.
What happens when you come to measure?
We measure the space and discuss the design, materials and finish. We look at the walls, floors and anything the furniture has to work around, and the written quote comes afterwards.
Which works best under the stairs, drawers or cupboards?
Many designs use both. Drawers make the most of the low, deep end of the space, while a cupboard at the tall end takes coats, the vacuum or an ironing board. We talk it through at the measuring visit.
What if my walls and floors are out of level?
Walls and floors that are not true are part of the job in older homes. The furniture is scribed to follow the walls and levelled on feet or a plinth, so there are no gaps at the sides.
What if the wall is cold or damp?
It can be done with some care: ventilation behind and inside the furniture helps avoid condensation and mould. Damp treatment isn’t something we do, so any damp needs sorting first.
Looking after your furniture
A few practical points help before and after fitting day. These are worth keeping in mind:
- Let us know if the hall is being decorated
- Make room so the whole space can be measured
- Let us know about parking near your home
- Find out what sits in the space now, from meters to pipes
Wiping the fronts with a soft, damp cloth is normally all they need. Dry them afterwards, and avoid abrasive pads and strong solvents. The edges of drawers and the areas around handles pick up marks first.
Don’t store things in front of the meter or fuse board. Readers and engineers need to reach them, and you may need to as well. A dedicated door makes this easy to keep up.