Under the Stairs Storage Solution!

I'm not a fan of wasted space. I'm a firm believer in "everything in its place and a place for everything." When I moved into my townhouse 3 years ago, I thought the space under the stairs would be great for storage since I didn't have a garage. I was right, but accessing anything that was stored there was nothing short of frustrating. And so began my quest to fix the problem...

Casters are pretty great

After a grand search, I finally decided to try the "Under Stairs Storage" that I found on Wood Workers Workshop. I'm not much of a carpenter, so I had to read the directions about 18 times before any of it made sense. Then my boyfriend helped me figure out what dimensions I would need since my stairs did not exactly match those in the guide.

Small cabinet pieces

Once I had the dimensions, I picked up supplies at Lowe's and kindly asked the nice guys to make the bigger cuts for me. The rest of the cuts were made by me and Jason on the patio with our mostly-still-brand-new circular saw. 

Larger cabinet pieces

You'll notice that I used a combination of plywood and MDF. The only reason for this is that I scored some free plywood, so I thought this was a good use for it. The process of measuring and cutting the boards was unbelievably stressful. At one point, I was sure the whole project was ruined because I didn't consider the extra length I would need to hide the casters in the front. 

Power tools!

My boyfriend convinced me somehow that everything would work out and so I measured some more and made more cuts. Little by little, the project started to take shape.

Small cabinet getting put together

 Once the pieces were together, it was just a matter of slathering on a few coats of paint.

Large cabinet almost finished

The sizes of the cabinets is a little off because of the mistakes I made; one is much larger than the next one down, but they actually fit really well in the space and I'm so happy the project is finished.

 I followed the basic ideas of the plan I mentioned above, but as for the number of shelves, I knew I wanted something different. As you can see, the larger cabinet has two shelves on one side, with an open shelf on top and another large shelf on the other side. I still need to organize everything in the shelves, but they look great!

I added pulls to complete the look and I'm thrilled! The original plans called for three cabinets, but I only did two. I wasn't sure my lack of skills would be able to produce anything at all, so I didn't want to overload myself. Right now, the left side is left open and it works as storage for the vacuum and broom.

Before

After

I might eventually tackle another cabinet, but for now, I love how this turned out! If you decide to try this out, please let me know so that maybe I can help you avoid my mistakes. :)