This area is the one that features the Washi Tape Feature wall from my post last week. This post is to share with you the details of the whole space. How I decorated it, the sources of what I used and how I made the most out of this small space in my home. I hope you love my under stairs coat storage makeover as much as I do.
Here is the before picture and let’s list allll the things that are wrong with it. Number one was that bloody tension rod that we had put up temporarily to hold the coats. It would fall down at least once a week, dumping all the coats on the floor. The wire running from the dining room on the right, around the drawers and out along the left is from the microwave. There are no plugs that side of the kitchen so it was the only way to plug it in but it needed to be tidier. I also had a lot of excess stock because of the orders I had canceled after lockdown and I had just stacked them there because this space was just used to dump things. It didn’t look nice so I didn’t feel the need to keep it especially tidy!! The charger dumped on the floor is another example of this. The drawers would have to stay as it’s where I keep my cutters, moulds etc for cakes but I hoped that I could condense it and maybe free up a drawer or two for hats and scarves so that I could get rid of that basket balanced on top. And basically it just didn’t have anything nice to look at here. No design, no decor just bland and boring.
To give you some idea of where this space is situated, the dining room is to the left as you can see in the picture above and then the photo is taken whilst standing in the kitchen. It’s like a very small corridor from one to the other with steps going down. The actual space that dips back that has the drawers and we hang the coats in is the under stairs space. In these pictures you can also just about see the dirty fingerprints on the wall leading to the dining room and the DIY artwork (scribbling) Noa had attempted on the left wall.
So my plans for the space were to give it a fresh coat of white paint and definitely included hanging a curtain to hide the drawers and coats. I also wanted some way of adding colour and pattern to this space. There wasn’t really room for any artwork because of the saucepan rack and yet we can’t paint or hang wallpaper because of our tenancy agreement. I started looking around online for temporary feature walls and found some using washi tape. I also wanted to add some plants, A floor plant and a hanging plant to go in the fintorp holder that was already there with the saucepans. And then there were the plans to make it tidier and work better, to stack and sort the plastic drawers, put a fitted rail so it didn’t fall down all the time and to fix the wire to the microwave so it wasn’t trailing all over.
Here we have a progress shot (photo bombed by Noa). The new rail is up and fitted and the walls have been repainted to fix the marks. We used Dulux durable paint in white cotton that we have used over the whole house. This means that next time there are any grubby marks they can just be wiped off. You can also see that we have used cable clips to attached the wire to the skirting so it is a lot less noticeable. I also stacked the drawers so there was plenty of space for the hoover and mop to be stored here. You can also see the beginings of the feature wall and if you want to know how I did that you can find full instructions here. I’m sure you are ready for the after pictures of my under stairs coat storage by now so here you are.
I can’t believe the transformation myself, it turned out exactly how I pictured it in my mind and I’m pretty happy with it! I kept the making of the curtain very simple. I just hemmed the bottom of the fabric and then folded over and stiched the top so I could slide in the tension rod that had previously been holding the coats. Ideally I would like more of a gather to the curtain and I did order more of the same fabric to do this but when it arrived it was a different shade of grey so this will have to do for now.
The plants came from Bakker who are an online garden centre. They have a houseplant section and I found the prices quite reasonable compared to some other websites. I picked an Ivy plant to go in the hanging planter of my fintorp storage and a Spathiphyllum in a pot for the floor. It’s the plants that really bring this space together and make it looked finished space.
With all the work I’m doing around the house at the moment my aim is to keep all costs as low as possible. Below is everything we bought/used and the sources for those items. All together we spent around £56.50 on organising and decorating this space.
- White paint (already purchased in our garage)
- Cable clips
- Wardrobe rail
- Tension rod (already there, used as coat rail)
- Grey fabric
- Washi tape
- Ivy hanging plant
- Spathiphyllum in pot
- Fintorp hanging storage (already owned)
Watch the video tour
Are there any areas of your home that you could work on during lockdown? I would love to see what you’ve been working on!
Lianne x
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Best makeover ever!