A scribble

I thought that making better use of the awkward space under the stairs needed a plan. Here's a photo of the space, it's not huge but is qualifies as awkward. The clock is not a vital part of the layout.

An awkward space

I measured up the various dimensions and sketched a few ideas. Here's the sketch plan I ended up with. 

A sketched plan 

I decided not to fill all of the space, but to create a stepped space. At the bottom will be a pair of drawers sandwiched between two shelves. The shelves will both be fixed to the walls and make a strong base to help support the rest of the build. Above the drawers there will be two spaces to stuff things like scarves, gloves and hats into. Above that there will be a cupboard with one or two shelves in it. This will leave three open spaces. On the top one there will be space to stand the internet router. This will need cables to be guided up there, preferably without them dangling or getting tangled so there's a boxed-in space at the tall end to pull cables through. The drawers and stuff spaces will not be full depth, so there will be room for cables behind them too. 

I'm going to build it from 12mm plywood. I'm not sure about the drawers yet, except that I'll use metal runners that extend to support them. These will be hidden behind drawer fronts, which are not shown. 

I think calling this a plan sounds as though it is how it will be built. I think it is a really a scribbled group of ideas that might turn out quite differently. Let's see what happens.

What lurks under the stairs

I think most houses have an awkward space somewhere. That space that doesn't really get used, it might be too small, or an odd shape or in a part of the house that doesn't work well or whatever. One such place in my house is the space under the stairs. 

The stairs are in the middle of the house from the front door in the small hallway to the smaller landing. Under the bottom of the stairs there is a small cupboard which has the electricity meter in it. It used to have the gas meter on it too until, many years ago, the gas company installed new gas pipes and decided it would be easier to read the meter if it was stuck outside, on the front of the house in a pig ugly plastic box. Now the meters are read remotely, so it doesn't matter where it is, but I still have an ugly plastic box. The rest of the space under the stairs is open, but it is an odd space because the slope of the stairs restricts the space making the top of the space triangular. 

The small hallway has doors or stairs in most of the wall space, so the radiator is in the odd space under the stairs. The space also has a set of drawers in it which Jean and I renovated many years ago. The drawers sit in front of the radiator, neatly insulating the hallway from any radiative heat the radiator might try to throw out. 

The master phone socket is in this space too, tucked in a corner. I have a phone base station plugged into an extension elsewhere, so the master socket has nothing in it at the moment. The fibre-optic internet connection, installed a few years ago, terminates there too. Currently the router sits on the set of drawers and connects to the fibre installation. The few wired connection run from the router through a hole to the cupboard under the stairs and on under the floor to the TV, living room and computer desk. It is a bit of a rat's nest but it works and the router is in the middle of the house so WiFi works pretty well from there.  The burglar alarm control unit used to be in the space, but that got moved recently.

I want to change this space.

I want to use the drawers elsewhere, I want to unblock the radiator and I want to make some use of the triangular space above the radiator for some storage to replace the space the drawers provide. I'd like to tidy the rat's nest up and I need to have a place for the router to sit when the drawers have gone. Buying anything to fit such a space seems very unlikely so I think I need to make something for myself.