Under-Stairs Storage Fronts: Stringer, Skirting, and Square or Sloped Doors

What does the stringer decide about the storage front?

The stringer is the boundary the storage cannot cross. On a closed-string staircase the stringer is a solid sloping board, and the treads sit behind it. The storage front usually stops just below that board, with a small, even gap so the doors can open without rubbing the timber.

On an open-string staircase the ends of the treads are visible, and the sloping line is the underside of those treads rather than a solid board. The front still has to follow that line, and the maker needs to see whether the treads project, whether there is a cut stringer, and how much clearance a door needs to swing.

Photograph the whole flight from the hall, then a closer shot of the bottom three steps and the top of the opening. Those two photos show the slope the fronts have to respect.

When do square doors work, and when does the front need to slope?

Square doors and drawer fronts are simpler to make and easier to live with. They suit any part of the void where the soffit is high enough, or flat enough, for a rectangle to sit under it with a usable gap. The tall end of a straight flight, and the pocket under a half-landing, are the usual places.

Where the soffit drops, a row of square doors leaves a wedge of empty face above them. That wedge can be a fixed sloping panel, which keeps the doors square and still closes the void. Or the doors themselves can be cut to the slope, so the whole front follows the stair in one line. Sloped doors look continuous. They also need a clear swing, because the top corner travels in an arc and can meet the stringer if the gap is tight.

A mixed front is common: square doors or a tall cupboard at the high end, drawers through the middle, and a sloped panel or a short sloped door at the low end. The choice is about the height at each bay, and about what you want to store there, which the pull-out drawers guide covers in more detail.

• Square doors where the height stays usable across the whole door.
• A fixed sloping panel above square doors when you want the void closed and the doors simple.
• Sloped doors where you want the front to follow the stair in one line, with enough gap to swing.
• Drawers in the lower bays, where a door would be short and the contents would sit at the back.

How should skirting meet a new under-stairs front?

Skirting runs along the hall wall and often continues under the stair until the storage is fitted. Once a new front goes in, that skirting has to stop, return, or be scribed around the end panel. Leaving the old skirting running behind the new plinth looks unfinished and can stop the unit sitting tight to the wall.

Decide the relationship before the unit is drawn. Some fronts sit proud of the skirting, with the skirting butting the end panel. Some take the skirting profile onto the plinth so the run looks continuous. The profile, the height and the condition of the existing skirting all matter, especially in older Island houses where the skirting is deeper than a modern board.

If the skirting is being replaced as part of wider joinery, say so. A new skirting run and a new under-stairs front can be detailed together. Our skirting boards page is the place to start if that work is in the same brief.

What do the newel, the bottom step and the floor do to the opening?

The newel post is often thicker than people expect, and it sits right where the lowest door or drawer would like to be. Measure from the face of the newel to the wall at the other end of the opening, and note anything the newel projects into the hall. A door that clips the newel on the way open is a layout problem, caught on paper.

The bottom step can overhang the void. If it does, the top of the lowest front has to clear it. The floor matters too. A change in level, a threshold, or a tiled hearth under the stair changes where the plinth sits and whether a drawer will run true.

Stand in the hall and open an imaginary door to ninety degrees. If that arc meets the front door, a radiator or the opposite wall, the front needs a different door swing, a drawer, or a sliding arrangement. The measuring guide explains how to record those clearances with the heights and depths.

What should I send before anyone draws the fronts?

A useful first brief is visual. Send a straight-on photo of the whole opening, a photo along the stringer, and a photo of the newel and bottom step. Add the skirting height, the clear width of the opening, and the floor-to-soffit height at the tall end and the low end.

Say which parts of the void have to stay reachable. A meter, a stopcock or a consumer unit needs a door or a removable panel in front of it, and that requirement can fix a bay that might otherwise have been a drawer. Note it on the photo.

Then say what the front has to hold: coats at the tall end, shoes at the low end, a vacuum, everyday bags. The layout of doors, drawers and panels follows that list and the slope, together.