Belsize Under Stairs Cupboards London

The Belsize is the plain answer to an under-stair void: doors across all of it, stepped to the stair, in a white that matches the wall, so the storage disappears and the staircase is what you see. Six doors run from the tall end to the floor, two of them full height and four cut to the flight, and each one has a slim black bar at the same height as the one beside it.

Behind the doors the void is divided by what it holds rather than by the doors: a coat bay with a rail behind the two tall doors, shelves behind the middle pair, and a full-depth bay behind the low pair that takes the hoover, the ironing board and the things that have no other home. Nothing is boarded over; the doors reach the floor and the last one reaches the last tread.

How it works: the doors hang on carcasses fixed to the wall and to a continuous plinth, with a top rail cut to the underside of the stair and a shadow gap to the stringer. Each stepped door is cut to its own triangle from the survey so its top edge runs parallel to the flight, and every door is on concealed soft-close hinges with a 3mm gap to its neighbour. The bars sit on one line, which is what makes six doors of different heights read as one run.

Where the low doors would be too small to reach into, two of them can open together as a pair on a single carcass, so the lowest part of the void is one deep bay rather than two shallow ones.

Designed to disappear

In a narrow hallway the best under-stair storage is the kind you stop noticing. The Belsize takes its colour from the wall, its handle line from the doors along the hall, and its top line from the stair, so the eye follows the staircase and not the cupboards. It is the brief for a house that wants the storage and not the furniture.

• Six white slab doors, two full height and four stepped to the flight
• Slim black bar handles on one line
• Coat bay with a rail behind the tall doors
• Shelving behind the middle pair
• Full-depth hoover and ironing-board bay behind the low pair
• Concealed soft-close hinges, 3mm gaps
• Continuous plinth, scribed to the floor
• Shadow gap to the stringer; the staircase is untouched

Designed for the room: the two lowest doors can become a pull-out drawer for shoes, the coat bay can take a second rail for children, and the finish can be any of our painted colours or woodgrains with push-to-open latches instead of bars where a flush wall is wanted.

Built for everyday use: the doors are 18mm on concealed hinges that take a slam, the white is a matt melamine face that wipes clean, and the interior is banded on every edge so the hoover can go in and out without marking it.

The Belsize shown closes a straight flight about 3.2 metres long with 2.1 metres at the tall end; the same doors are cut to your staircase at the design visit.

Manufactured in our Wembley workshop

The Belsize is cut in our HA9 Wembley factory from the survey of your staircase. The six doors are cut from one sheet so the white matches, the stepped tops are cut on the CNC to the pitch of your flight, and every edge is banded before the doors are hung on their carcasses in the workshop.

The stair pitch, the tread positions, the floor level and the skirting are recorded at your design visit, and the run is scribed to the wall, the floor and the stringer on installation.

Quality you can rely on: your Metro fitted furniture comes with a 10-year guarantee covering parts and labour.