Newham · London
Under-stairs storage in Upton, Newham
Under-stairs storage for your home in Upton: pull-out drawers, cupboards and coat storage under the stairs. We visit to measure and talk through the design, make the furniture in our workshop and fit it.
- Space under the stairs that’s hard to use
- The low end of the space going to waste
- Cleaning things with no proper home
Under-stairs storage designed for your room
Common questions about under-stairs storage
My house in Upton is Victorian. Can you deal with uneven walls?
Yes, that’s normal in older houses: each piece is scribed to the wall and levelled at the base. 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 Forest Gate station. Is that in your area?
Yes, homes across Newham and the rest of London are within the area we cover. You can message us from the contact page to arrange a design visit.
Do pictures help?
Yes, they help. A few pictures of the room, from floor to ceiling, tell us a lot. You can send them when you send us a few details through our contact form.
How long will the fitting take?
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. Because everything is made 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.
Can you fit a small desk under the stairs?
In many homes it’s possible, if the space is open to a room and tall enough at one end. A built-in desk with shelves above and drawers below can work well. 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 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.
Under-stairs storage in Upton
In many terraced houses, the gas meter, electricity meter or fuse board sits under the stairs. These must stay easy to reach for meter readers and engineers. Our designs keep a clear way to them, often behind their own door, so the space works hard without hiding anything that matters. At the design visit in Upton, we note what’s there and design around it. We make under-stairs cupboards from MDF made to resist moisture and birch plywood, then spray-painted or hand-painted, and people most often get in touch about no room for a small desk or a place to work and nowhere to keep the vacuum and ironing board.
Where original shutters, doors or panelling survive, they’re worth designing around. With a large share of the homes around Upton built before 1919, new storage can be made to sit beside them rather than replace them. Door styles can be chosen to suit the age of the house. If your home is listed, check with the council before fixing into original joinery.
Our quotes are written in plain words, without jargon. You will see what will be made, the boards used and the finish, taken from what we agreed at the visit.
- Location
- Upton (E7, E13, E15)
- Area
- Newham
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- Design visit, then a written quote
- Made
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Materials and finish
- MDF and plywood, painted to order
- When we fit
- Weekdays; Saturdays on request
- Contact
- Our contact form
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
Flat-pack or bespoke?
Bespoke work comes into its own in rooms that are not square. Older London rooms tend to have leaning walls, sloping floors and alcoves of different widths.
The real difference is in the fit: edges scribed to the wall, a level base on a sloping floor and a neat line where the furniture meets the ceiling. In an older room, standard units rarely manage that.
Fitting day, step by step
With the carcasses fixed and level, we hang any doors and fit any drawers or lids. Each one is adjusted until the gaps are even and it closes cleanly. How long the fitting takes depends on how much storage you want under the stairs, and the fitting days are agreed in your quote. Scribing is done on site, which means some cutting in the room or close by, so a clear area to work in near the room helps. We keep dust down and tidy as we go. Hand painting, if that is your finish, can follow the fitting.
- You contact us about the space under your stairs.
- At the design visit we measure the underside of the stairs and the floor, then talk through drawers, cupboards and coat storage.
- 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
- Let us know about parking near your home
- Move anything in the hall or on the stairs out of the way
- Book any lift and let the concierge or building manager know
Arranging a design visit
Prices are quoted for your room, once we’ve measured and talked through the design. Each room is different, so we quote after seeing it, when we’ve measured up and talked through the design. For a quote, drop us a line using the contact form.
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Fitted storage in Upton
Homes built before 1919 make up about 67% of the housing in the neighbourhood around Upton, with about 14% built between 1945 and 1972, on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 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 Upton, 3 conservation areas are recorded by Historic England. Historic England says England has around 10,000, and the controls mainly cover the outside of buildings, so fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. The share of homes built before 1919 around Upton, about 67%, is well above the figure for Newham as a whole, about 37%, going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. That makes period details like uneven walls, alcoves and picture rails more likely to shape the design.
If your children go to Elmhurst Primary 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. If you live in a period home close to St Peter's Church, the space under the stairs may hold the meters or the fuse board, and the cupboards are planned around them. If your home is as old as some of the listed buildings nearby, such as Church of St Antony and Monastery, original features like shutters, panelling and fireplaces are worth designing around. For a listed home, fixing into original features can require listed building consent.
Upton is about 1 mile south of Plaistow, within the London Borough of Newham. We cover Upton as part of our work across Newham. In Newham, Upton is one of the places we cover.
Here we cover the E7, E13 and E15 postcode area for under-stairs storage. If your home is on a street such as May Road, West Road and Park Road, or close by, we can arrange a design visit for under-stairs storage. Other places close to Upton include Upton Park (1 mile south-east), Greengate (1 mile south), West Ham (1 mile south-west), Forest Gate (1 mile north) and Plashet (1 mile east). Elsewhere in Newham, we also cover Canning Town (2 miles south), East Village (2 miles west), Wallend (2 miles east), Three Mills (2 miles south-west), Mill Meads (2 miles south-west) and Custom House (2 miles south).
Local landmarks in Upton
In Upton, that includes homes near St Bonaventure's RC School, St Bonaventure's RC School and Spotted Dog pub. Upton’s nearest station is Forest Gate station, about 0.8 miles north. Well-known places in the area include West Ham United Football Club Museum (0.7 miles south-east) and Queen Mary's Hospital for the East End (1 mile west).
Nearby places to Upton
Other services in Upton
Made for the room, or bought in a box?
If you only need a hook or two and a basic shelf, an off-the-shelf option may be enough. Bespoke work earns its place when you want to use the whole space, from the tall end to the lowest corner. We’re happy to talk through which suits you at the measuring visit. Standard units assume square rooms, and period homes seldom have them, so it leaves gaps at the wall, tilts on sloping floors or sits awkwardly against skirting and picture rails. Fitted pieces follow the wall and sit level.
In London, parking can affect the price. The boroughs run controlled parking zones across much of the city, so a van may need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a bay suspension. Tell us about parking at the measuring visit, so we can plan for it.
What you get with us
- 300+ projects completed
- Spray painted or hand painted, in the colour you choose
- Made for your room, not a standard size
- Saturday work by prior arrangement
Read how bespoke compares with ready-made or what a quote should include.
Before and after fitting day
New paint needs time to cure fully, so go gently with it for a while. Beyond that, these tips help:
- Plan decorating around the fitting
- Empty the cupboard so we can measure every corner
- Let us know about anything bulky that needs to fit
- Let us know about parking near your home
Before we leave, we check every drawer and door with you. If there is a meter or fuse board, we make sure its door opens fully and the meter is easy to see. You will know everything works as planned.
Keep sharp or very heavy items away from the painted fronts. Store tools in a box or bag, not loose against the doors. A small chip on a hand-painted finish is easy to touch in.
Boards, parts and paint
Plinths and scribe strips
We trim scribe strips to the exact line of the wall. They help the storage look as though it was always there. At floor level, the plinth hides any slope in the floor.
Birch plywood
Birch plywood is made in layers, which makes it strong and stable. We use it for carcasses, shelves and drawer boxes, and its edge can be left visible or painted to match.