To fit a flip down shoe cabinet under the stairs, work to the lowest usable height of the alcove rather than the tallest, allow around 40cm of clear floor in front for the drawer to pivot open, and place the unit where the ceiling is high enough for someone to crouch comfortably. Under stairs spaces slope, so the deciding measurement is the height at the front face of the cabinet, not at the back wall. A flip down design suits these spaces particularly well because it is shallow, often 17cm to 25cm deep, and needs no side clearance for a hinged door.<\/p>\n
The other consideration specific to understairs areas is what is already in there. Many UK homes route the gas meter, electrical consumer unit, or a stopcock into that void, and all of them need to stay accessible.<\/p>\n
Take three heights: at the front edge where the cabinet face will sit, at the midpoint, and at the back wall. The front measurement is the one that limits the cabinet, because the carcass is a rectangle and the slope will cut into the top rear corner if you push it too far back.<\/p>\n
Also measure the stair string, the diagonal timber that carries the treads. It often protrudes below the plaster line and will stop a cabinet sliding fully into the space. Measure to the underside of the string rather than to the ceiling finish.<\/p>\n
A flip down front pivots outwards from the bottom, so the drawer face travels forward and down as it opens. The projection is usually 30cm to 45cm depending on the number of shoe rows. This is the figure that decides whether the hallway still works.<\/p>\n
Mark the closed depth and the open projection on the floor with masking tape. Stand in the tape and reach into the imaginary drawer. If your shoulder or knees hit the stair soffit, the cabinet is positioned too far under the slope. Move it forward until crouching is comfortable, and reconsider the position if that pushes it into the walkway.<\/p>\n
Never enclose a gas meter, consumer unit, or stopcock. Meter boxes need access for reading and for emergency isolation, and blocking a consumer unit can create a genuine safety problem. Identify everything in the void before you plan the layout.<\/p>\n
The usual solution is to place the cabinet to one side, leaving the services in the taller or more accessible part of the alcove. A slim unit at the low end of the slope and clear access at the high end tends to be the arrangement that satisfies both needs. Slim designs in our modern shoe storage cabinets UK sale<\/a> range work well here because they use very little floor depth.<\/p>\n Understairs floors are often uneven, particularly in older homes where the finished floor changes at the hallway threshold. Check with a spirit level and use adjustable feet or slim packers to bring the cabinet true. A flip down mechanism relies on gravity and alignment to close cleanly, so a unit standing out of level will not sit flush at the front.<\/p>\n Skirting boards inside the alcove will hold the cabinet away from the wall at the base. If you want the unit closer, either scribe around the skirting or accept the gap and use it as ventilation. Leaving 5mm to 10mm behind the cabinet is good practice anyway, since hallway shoes bring in moisture.<\/p>\n A single wide cabinet gives the cleanest line but only works where the height under the slope is consistent. In steeper voids, two or three narrower units stepped along the slope use the space far more efficiently, because each one can be sized to the height available at its own position.<\/p>\n Stepped units also make it easier to leave a gap for a meter cupboard or to run a bench between them. If you want somewhere to sit while putting shoes on, a low bench in the taller part of the alcove pairs well with flip down cabinets alongside. Our shoe racks and benches UK sale<\/a> selection includes low bench heights suited to sloping spaces.<\/p>\n Understairs alcoves are almost always dark, and a dark storage space gets used less. A battery or rechargeable strip light with a motion sensor fixed to the underside of the stairs makes an enormous difference and needs no wiring.<\/p>\n If the alcove is open to the hallway, a small lamp on top of a cabinet at the tall end lifts the whole area and stops the void reading as a black hole at the end of the corridor. A compact option from our modern table lamps UK<\/a> range works on a shallow top surface without overhanging.<\/p>\n Flip down cabinets are usually tall and shallow, which is the least stable proportion there is. When a loaded drawer swings out, the centre of gravity moves forward sharply. Fixing the unit to the wall is not optional in a family home.<\/p>\n Fit the supplied bracket or strap into a stud or with appropriate plasterboard fixings. Under stairs, check what is behind the plasterboard before drilling, as cables often run in that void. If you cannot fix into the sloping soffit, fix into the side wall of the alcove instead.<\/p>\n An understairs storage area looks intentional when the cabinet finish either matches the staircase or contrasts with it cleanly. White or light grey units disappear against painted plaster, which suits a small hallway. A timber finish makes the alcove a feature, which works better where the space is open and reasonably lit.<\/p>\n Paint the inside of the alcove the same colour as the surrounding wall so the void does not read as a separate compartment. Adding a runner rug across the hallway in front of the cabinets ties the area into the corridor rather than leaving it as a leftover corner, and our modern rugs UK sale<\/a> range includes narrow runner sizes for exactly this. For the wider scheme, the modern hallway ranges at Furniture in Fashion<\/a> are grouped by finish so pieces can be matched easily.<\/p>\n Typically 30cm to 45cm of clear floor in front, depending on how many shoe rows the drawer holds. Always add crouching space on top of the drawer projection.<\/p>\n Measure at the front face of the cabinet position. Most slim flip down units are 60cm to 120cm tall, so even the lowest part of a slope will usually take a single or double drawer unit.<\/p>\n No. Meters, consumer units, and stopcocks must stay accessible. Position the cabinet to one side and leave the services clear.<\/p>\n Not usually. The angled cradle suits flatter shoes and slim trainers. Keep a separate open bay or bedroom storage for boots.<\/p>\n Yes. Tall shallow units with pivoting drawers can tip forward when loaded, so a wall bracket or anti tip strap is important, particularly with children in the house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Understairs alcoves are among the most awkward spaces in a UK home, and a flip down shoe cabinet is one of the few storage formats that genuinely suits them. This guide explains how to measure a sloping void correctly by working from the front face…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":58414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5813,1421,884,5812],"class_list":["post-58413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hallway-storage-furniture","tag-flip-down-cabinet","tag-small-hallways","tag-space-saving","tag-understairs-storage"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Work With the Floor and Skirting<\/h3>\n
Decide Between One Unit or Several<\/h3>\n
Light the Space<\/h3>\n
Fix It Safely<\/h3>\n
Finish the Alcove So It Reads as Deliberate<\/h3>\n
Frequently Asked Questions<\/h3>\n
How much space does a flip down shoe cabinet need to open?<\/h3>\n
What is the minimum height needed under the stairs?<\/h3>\n
Can I put a shoe cabinet in front of the gas meter?<\/h3>\n
Do flip down cabinets hold boots?<\/h3>\n
Should the cabinet be fixed to the wall?<\/h3>\n