While doing our basement renovation, we realized we wanted to make the best use out of the entire space. Our basement is going to be used in many different ways in the years to come; a laundry room, a gym, a craft room, a stockpile, an entertainment space, a playroom (someday), oh and a 3-piece bathroom thrown in there too.
A lot of different uses, means a true need for storage. Since most of the space in the basement was already accounted for, my husband and I thought outside of the box on this one and decided to try to use the space underneath the stairs somehow. First we were thinking we would take a stab at using our carpentry skills to build a shelving unit. Once we did the measurements and priced out the wood, we came back down to earth and remembered this is after all a basement, and wasn’t worth all the money. Then, a friend of ours called us up and asked if we wanted an old shelving unit of his. Without even knowing what they looked like we said, yes! Luckily, it was the perfect size for underneath the stairs, now we just needed to make it work. Ready, set, upcycle!
First, we took off the giant hunter green doors so that the shelving was exposed. It looked a little something like this.
Then we tried to figure out the best way of elevating it off of the ground to maximize storage and accessibility. We decided to use four thick pieces of lumber as the feet. If your basement is very sloped like ours, make sure to measure, measure, measure before you cut! If you cut incorrectly, it’s not the ultimate end of the world, use shims to even it out. Drill through your shelving in the four corners with screws and viola! You now have a raised shelving unit!
Once the structure was in place and secure, we needed to make sure it looked pretty. So inevitably we called up our old pal, bead board, to help us out! We took two pieces, cut them to size using a saw, and attached them to the backside of the unit with screws.
We then took some leftover casing and finished off the look at the seams.
Next, we painted the face, top and legs white so that it would all blend in with the bead board. Finally, we put it back in its place and now we are ready to fill it up with storage!
Have you created storage in a unique place? Have you made storage out of an upcycled product like we did? We want to hear about it!
