Painting Under-Stair Storage and Cupboards in London Homes
How to decorate under-stair storage spaces in London period homes — practical finishes for confined spaces, colour choices, and how to make the most of a functional but often neglected area.
The under-stair space
The under-stair storage area is one of the most-used and least-considered spaces in a London terraced or semi-detached house. In a Victorian or Edwardian property, the space under a dog-leg or straight-flight staircase can amount to a sizeable cupboard — sometimes 1.5 to 2 square metres of floor area, used for coats, shoes, cleaning equipment, or, increasingly in London's space-constrained homes, a converted WC or utility room.
Whether it remains a storage cupboard or is converted to a more active use, the decoration standard matters. A well-painted under-stair space extends the quality of a hallway scheme into every part of the entry sequence; a badly done one is a daily irritant.
Practical constraints
The under-stair space has specific decorating constraints:
Confined access: The sloping ceiling follows the stair profile, which means working in an awkward crouch at the lower end. Rollers are difficult to manoeuvre in this geometry; a 100mm brush applied in the correct direction of the surface is more controllable.
Mixed substrates: Under-stair spaces in Victorian houses typically have: a plaster or plasterboard sloping ceiling following the underside of the stairs, masonry or stud walls on two or three sides, and a timber or stone floor. Each substrate may need different preparation.
Limited ventilation: Cupboards dry slowly, which affects drying time between coats. Allow 20–30% more drying time than the manufacturer's stated coverage in normal conditions.
Dust and soiling: Under-stair spaces accumulate dust on horizontal surfaces rapidly. Clean all surfaces before painting — a vacuum followed by a damp wipe — to avoid painting over dust that will show through the topcoat.
Finish specification
For a straightforward storage cupboard:
- Walls and sloping ceiling: Dulux Trade Vinyl Matt or Crown Trade Clean Extreme in the same colour as the hallway, for continuity. If the hallway has a dado rail treatment, consider whether to continue this into the cupboard or simplify to a single colour inside.
- Woodwork (door frame, any shelf brackets, skirting inside the space): Dulux Trade Quick Dry Satinwood in the same colour as the hallway woodwork.
- Floor: If the under-stair floor is bare concrete or timber, a floor paint (Ronseal Diamond Hard Floor Paint for concrete, Dulux Trade Diamond Floor for timber) is more practical than a decorative finish — this surface takes significant foot traffic.
For an under-stair WC or utility room:
- Walls: Dulux Trade Diamond Eggshell or Zinsser PermaWhite — both handle the elevated humidity of a small WC better than standard vinyl matt.
- Ceiling: A bathroom ceiling paint (Dulux Bathroom+, Johnstones Anti-Condensation) is appropriate if the space is not well ventilated.
Colour choices
The most common approach is to treat the inside of the under-stair cupboard as an extension of the hallway — same wall colour, same woodwork colour — so that when the door is open, the space reads as part of the entrance sequence rather than as a visual interruption.
A second approach, increasingly popular in premium London homes where the under-stair space has been designed as a feature (with open shelving, integrated lighting, or a display area), is to paint the inside of the space in a bold contrasting colour — a deep blue, green, or terracotta — that makes the recess a deliberate focal point when the door is open. This works best when the shelving and any lighting have been designed to match.
Opening up the space
Some Victorian terraces have original under-stair storage that was closed off by a later partition. Opening this up to create an alcove with shelving — and then decorating it as a deliberate feature of the hallway — is one of the more impactful small-scale improvements possible in a period hallway. The decoration of such an alcove follows the same principles as alcove shelving flanking a chimney breast: usually the wall colour continuing into the recess, with white or a contrasting colour on the shelf faces if they are visible from the front.
For professional decoration of London hallways, storage spaces, and period interiors, contact us here or request a free quote.