Understairs Bookcases

If your home has a staircase with open space below, chances are you’ve wondered how to make the most of that oddly configured square footage. This bookcase project could be the answer. Behind the two pairs of gently rising birch-frame doors you’ll find a bank of birch plywood shelves that are designed for use as a formal bookcase. Because the door panels are created with Plexiglas, the shelves are also quite suitable for display purposes.

While the bookcase cabinets must be custom-fit to your space, the basic design of the individual units is quite simple. Each cabinet is essentially a plywood box with an angled top. The boxes fit side by side in the understairs area, flush with the wall surfaces. The shelves in each unit incorporate birch 1 × 2 shelf edge to improve their appearance and stiffen the shelf boards.

A birch face frame is wrapped around the perimeter of the project, concealing the plywood edges. The swinging doors are also made of birch. The secret to building the face frames and the door frames is a clever woodworking technique known as the pocket screw joint made with angled screws driven into the back sides of the mating pieces.

Understairs storage units are often made with slide-out shelving or pull-out drawers. This strategy allows for efficient use of space since the pull-out units can be nearly as deep as the total stair width. The drawback is that the drawers or slide-out shelves can be a bit rickety, especially if you’re not an experienced cabinetmaker. When designing your project, you can increase the storage space by deepening the shelves and using them as storage cubbies. If your staircase is bounded by another interior wall, you can add a bookcase on the other side, with the two bookcases sharing a divided panel or wall.