Fitted under stairs storage in the UK typically costs between £1,000 and £2,500 for a three-door cupboard with no drawers, with an average of around £1,750, according to Checkatrade’s 2026 price guide. Drawers, pull-out units, spray finishes and awkward geometry push a project higher. London homes, where stairs are often boxed in, uneven or part of a period property, tend to land in the upper half of that range or beyond. Below, you will find what actually moves the price, how the main layouts compare, and what to ask before you sign a quote.
TL;DR
- A basic fitted three-door under stairs cupboard typically costs £1,000 to £2,500 in the UK, averaging about £1,750.
- Drawers, pull-out units, bespoke finishes and non-standard stair shapes are what lift a quote from “standard” to “bespoke”.
- Carpenter labour typically runs at £30 to £60 per hour, so installation and preparation are a real share of the total.
- Compare quotes on what is included: preparation, finish, soft-close hardware, lighting, waste removal and guarantee length.
- We offer a free design visit across West London, with installation typically within seven days and a 10-year guarantee.
Table of Contents
- What you can expect to pay in the UK
- What drives the price up or down
- How layout changes the cost
- What is usually included in a quote, and what is not
- Under stairs storage cost in London
- Fixed packages, DIY and carpenter-built: how they compare
- A worked example: how a quote builds up
- How to save money without losing quality
- Questions to ask before you pay a deposit
- Our perspective: why we design under the stairs differently
- Get a quote for your staircase
- FAQ
- Sources
What you can expect to pay in the UK
Start with the benchmark. A three-door fitted cupboard with no drawers sits between £1,000 and £2,500 nationally, with the typical figure near £1,750, per the Checkatrade cost guide. The same guide puts carpenter labour at £30 to £60 an hour, averaging £45, and preparing the space under the stairs at £150 to £200 per project.
Those numbers describe a straightforward job. They are a useful floor for a budget, not a ceiling for a tailored one. Think of the market in three broad tiers:
| Tier | What you get | How it is usually built |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | Hinged or push-to-open doors, a few shelves, painted finish | Flat-pack or lightly modified carcasses fitted by a carpenter |
| Mid-range | Doors plus drawers or a pull-out section, internal organisers | Made to measure, spray-finished or veneered, soft-close hardware |
| Premium bespoke | Full-height drawer stacks, integrated lighting, shoe and coat zones, matched to hallway joinery | Fully designed to the staircase, built in a workshop, installed as one piece |
The tiers are our own way of grouping the market, not an official classification. What matters is that the same footprint under the stairs can cost very different amounts depending on how much of the unit is made to your measurements and how much hardware sits inside it.
What drives the price up or down
Six things account for most of the difference between two quotes for the same staircase.
Size and shape of the space
Under stairs space is rarely a neat box. The ceiling slopes, the depth changes, and the usable height may drop below a metre at the back. A straight-run staircase against a party wall is the simplest case. A dog-leg, a winder or a staircase with a return can mean several separate zones, each with its own cutting, scribing and fitting time.
Because every angle has to be measured and cut, bespoke units cost more per square metre than a standard cupboard, but they use space that off-the-shelf furniture cannot reach. If you are curious how this plays out in a London property, our guide to bespoke under-stairs storage for London homes walks through typical layouts.
Drawers versus doors
A door is cheap: one panel, two hinges. A drawer is a box, runners, a front and an alignment job. A deep pull-out section on heavy-duty runners costs more again. This is the single biggest lever on layout cost, and we come back to it in the next section.
Materials and finish
MDF with a painted or sprayed finish is the common choice for hallway joinery because it holds a crisp, smooth paint line and stays stable. Real timber, veneer and wood-effect laminates each carry a different price. A hand-sprayed finish in a colour matched to your skirting costs more than a primed front you paint yourself, but it saves you a day of decorating and looks better for longer.
Hardware
Soft-close hinges and runners, push-to-open mechanisms, internal lighting and pull-out baskets all add cost. We fit soft-close mechanisms as standard, because a hallway cupboard gets opened dozens of times a week and cheap hardware is the first thing to fail.
Preparation and making good
Old shelving, a gas or electric meter, a consumer unit, uneven flooring or crumbling plaster may need attention before anything is fitted. Checkatrade notes that preparation, electrical alterations and finishing can be separate from the main fitting price, so check whether your quote bundles them.
Fire protection and building rules
If the stairs form part of your protected escape route, the enclosure around them matters. Government guidance on Approved Document B says that fire doorsets on cupboards may not always be necessary where they are small and the fire risk is low. If you are converting a loft, adding a storey or altering the stair enclosure, ask your Building Control body or architect what applies to your house before ordering doors.
How layout changes the cost
Layout is where most homeowners can make choices that save money without losing storage.
Cupboards with shelves
The cheapest approach. Doors on the front, shelves and a hanging rail inside. It works for coats, vacuum cleaners, boxes and seasonal items, but the back of a deep cupboard becomes dead space. Items at the back are hard to reach.
Drawers
Drawers solve the reach problem. A run of deep drawers that follows the slope of the stairs lets you see everything from above and pull it into the light. A three-drawer unit is the compact option, five or six drawers use more of the slope. Expect more cost for each added drawer because of the runners, the fronts and the fitting time, though the cost per drawer usually falls when the whole run is built as one unit.
Pull-out storage
Pull-out larders, shoe racks and tall slide-out units are ideal at the open end of the stairs where the space is tallest. They use less floor area than hinged doors that need clearance to swing. Our understairs pull-out storage guide covers costs and options for these units in a Chelsea home, and the principles apply across West London.
Open shelving and mixed layouts
Open shelving costs less than doors, and works well for books, baskets and display. Most good designs combine zones: tall doors at the high end for coats and a vacuum, drawers in the middle, and a low lift-up or drawer section where the headroom disappears. Mixed layouts cost more to design than a single repeated module, but they give you the most usable storage per square metre.
| Layout | Relative cost | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doors and shelves | Lowest | Coats, bulky items | Wasted depth at the back |
| Drawers (3 to 6) | Mid to high | Shoes, bags, sports kit, tools | Quote may price drawers separately |
| Pull-out units | Mid to high | Tall areas, shoes, pantry-style storage | Runner weight rating |
| Mixed zones | Highest | Whole-household hallway storage | Needs a proper design visit |
If coats and shoes are your priority, see our under stairs coat storage guide for how to divide the space.
What is usually included in a quote, and what is not
Two quotes of £1,800 can describe very different jobs. Before comparing numbers, compare scope. Ask each supplier to confirm in writing:
- Survey and design. Is a measured visit included, and do you get drawings or a visual before you commit?
- Materials and finish. Which board, which paint or veneer, and is the finish sprayed in a workshop or brushed on site?
- Hardware. Soft-close hinges and runners, handles or push-to-open, load ratings on drawers.
- Preparation. Clearing the space, removing old shelving, making good walls and floor.
- Electrics. Lighting, sockets, or moving a consumer unit are specialist work and are often excluded.
- Installation. Who fits it, how many days, and what happens if the stair geometry differs from the survey.
- Waste removal. Whether old units and packaging are taken away.
- Guarantee. How long it lasts, what it covers, and whether it covers workmanship as well as materials.
A lower price with half this list missing is not a saving. A slightly higher price that covers all eight usually is.
Under stairs storage cost in London
London quotes tend to run higher than the national picture. Labour rates, parking and access costs, and the age and irregularity of the housing stock all play a part. A Victorian terrace in Fulham or Putney, for example, may have a staircase that is out of square, with walls that are not plumb, so every panel is scribed to fit.
We have not found a reliable published average specifically for London, and you should be wary of any page that claims one without showing how it was calculated. The practical approach is to treat the national figures above as your starting point, expect London quotes to sit in the upper part of the range for bespoke work, and ask for a fixed, itemised price after a visit.
Our design visits cover West London, including Richmond, Wimbledon, Putney, Kingston, Chiswick, Fulham, Chelsea, Ealing, Twickenham, Barnes and Hammersmith. For local detail see our guide to custom understairs storage for West London homeowners.
Fixed packages, DIY and carpenter-built: how they compare
There are three broad routes, and each suits a different budget and house.
Flat-pack or ready-made units. Cheapest upfront, but they rarely match the slope of the stairs, so you lose space at the edges and the finish never looks built in.
Local carpenter. A good carpenter can build sound, simple storage. The carpenter rate of £30 to £60 per hour quoted by Checkatrade means a few days of work adds up, and you will usually source the hardware and arrange the paint finish yourself.
Bespoke furniture studio. Design, workshop manufacture, spray finishing and installation come as one package, with one party responsible for the result. It costs more than a basic carpenter job but gives you a unit that is designed around your staircase and a guarantee on the work.
If you want to see how a custom joinery budget breaks down in a different market, this custom joinery cost breakdown shows how scope and finish shape the total for bespoke work, even though prices there are in Australian dollars and do not apply to UK homes.
A worked example: how a quote builds up
The figures below are illustrative, to show how the pieces combine, and are not our prices. We do not publish prices because every staircase differs.
Take a typical three-bedroom terrace with a straight-run staircase and a space about 1.9 metres deep at the tallest point.
- Basic version: three hinged doors, two shelves, a painted finish. This sits close to the national range of £1,000 to £2,500 from the Checkatrade guide.
- Drawer version: the lower, shallow end is converted to three or four deep drawers, while the taller end keeps a hanging section for coats. The drawer boxes, runners and fronts add to both materials and workshop time.
- Fully fitted version: a drawer stack, a pull-out shoe unit, a coat section, internal lighting and a sprayed finish matching the hallway. This takes more design time and more hours to install, and sits above the basic range.
The structure of a quote is usually the same in each: design and survey, materials, hardware, finishing, installation, and making good. Ask to see each line.
How to save money without losing quality
Most savings come from decisions, not compromises.
- Pick the right zone for each layout. Put drawers only where they help, and use doors elsewhere.
- Keep the finish simple. A flat, handleless front in one colour costs less than a panelled design.
- Clear the space first. Removing old shelves, boxes and loose items before the visit makes the survey faster and the quote more accurate.
- Bundle jobs. If you are also planning fitted wardrobes or a media wall, one survey and one installation visit can reduce disruption. Our fitted wardrobes and media wall services are designed to match each other.
- Do not buy the cheapest hardware. Runners and hinges are the parts you touch every day.
Questions to ask before you pay a deposit
A deposit is normal for made-to-measure work because materials are ordered or cut for your house. What matters is that you do not pay everything upfront. A staged arrangement, with a deposit, a payment at a defined point in manufacture and the balance on completion once you have checked the work, protects both sides. Agree the stages in writing before you sign.
Also ask:
- Who will carry out the survey, and who will fit the unit?
- How long does manufacture and installation take?
- What guarantee is offered, and in writing?
- What happens if the finished unit does not match the drawings?
- Will the fitters protect floors and carry out the final clean?
Our perspective: why we design under the stairs differently
We build under stairs storage as furniture that happens to sit under a staircase, not as a cupboard that happens to be there. That changes what we measure and what we quote.
First, we survey the space with the whole hallway in mind. The unit should look like it belongs to the house, with door lines that follow the skirting, a finish that matches your woodwork and handles that do not catch on coats.
Second, we favour drawers and pull-outs where the headroom allows, because they make every centimetre reachable. A cupboard you cannot see into at the back is a cupboard that fills up with things you have forgotten.
Third, we do not price from a table. Staircases vary too much, so we visit, measure and give a quote that reflects your house. That is why you will not find a single headline price on our site. Every project is designed around your space, with soft-close mechanisms as standard.
Finally, we stand behind the work. Installation is typically within seven days, and our work carries a 10-year guarantee. For a piece of joinery that you will open every day for a decade, that is the number worth comparing, more than the first line of a quote.
— Aureliu
Get a quote for your staircase
If you would like a figure for your own hallway rather than a national average, we offer a free design visit across West London. We measure the space, talk through how you use it, and send you a fixed, itemised quote with drawings.
See our understairs storage solutions, or call 07468 150807 or message us on WhatsApp. Our studio is at 124 City Road, Kemp House, London, EC1V 2NX.
If the staircase is only one of several projects, we also design fitted wardrobes and fit out awkward spaces so that the whole house matches.
FAQ
How much does under stairs storage cost?
For a fitted three-door cupboard with no drawers, Checkatrade gives a UK range of £1,000 to £2,500, averaging around £1,750. Adding drawers, pull-outs, lighting and a sprayed finish moves the project into bespoke territory and the price rises accordingly. A measured visit is the only way to get a reliable figure for your house.
How much do under stairs drawers cost?
Drawers cost more than doors because each one needs a box, runners and a front, plus fitting time. The more drawers in a single run, the more the total rises, although each additional drawer usually costs less than the first. Ask whether runners, soft-close and the finish are included in the quoted price.
Is under stairs storage more expensive in London?
Generally, yes, as with most trades, because of labour rates, access and older properties with irregular staircases. We have not found a reliable published London average, so rely on an itemised quote rather than a headline figure. Comparing at least two like-for-like quotes is sensible.
Do I need building regulations approval for under stairs storage?
Often not for simple storage, but it depends on your stairs and your house. Government guidance notes that fire doorsets on small cupboards may not always be required where the fire risk is low. If you are altering a protected stairway, converting a loft or changing the layout, check with Building Control or your architect first.
How long does installation take?
That depends on the design. We typically install within seven days, and a straightforward unit is usually fitted in a short visit. More complex stairs with drawers, pull-outs and lighting take longer. You will get a timetable with your quote.
Sources
- Under stairs storage cost (2026 price guide), Checkatrade
- Approved Document B: Fire safety, frequently asked questions, GOV.UK
- Custom joinery cost breakdown
