Bespoke Under-Eaves Storage

Eaves storage is rarely a single simple triangle. The pitch of the roof usually changes at more than one point along its run, purlins and rafters interrupt the plane of the ceiling, and the usable depth at floor level can vary considerably from one end of a room to the other. Furniture bought off the shelf has no chance of answering this properly, since it assumes a flat wall and a consistent depth throughout. A survey that records the actual angles and interruptions is the only sound starting point.

The point of under-eaves cabinetry is not simply to fill the gap but to make the space genuinely useful. That means thinking carefully about what needs to be stored there and how it will be reached. A low run best suited to seasonal items — suitcases, spare bedding, decorations used once a year — can sit further back into the eaves where standing headroom is not needed. Items used more often are better positioned nearer the front of the run, where doors or drawers can be opened without stooping.

Push-to-open doors are particularly well suited to this kind of storage, since they remove the need for a handle that would otherwise catch on a sloping ceiling above it or require awkward positioning. Where drawers are preferred instead of doors, we specify units that pull forward on a level runner even though the case above them follows the slope, so the drawer itself still opens and closes smoothly.

Access is the recurring design question in any eaves conversion. A run of cabinetry with a single long door along the base can look tidy, but if the depth behind it is significant, reaching items at the back becomes difficult. Splitting a run into smaller compartments, or building in pull-out trays and baskets that bring contents forward, usually gives a far more practical result than one continuous void.

Loft conversions bring their own set of constraints beyond the roof pitch itself: structural timbers that cannot be cut into, insulation that needs to remain accessible for maintenance, and sometimes a step in the floor where a new deck has been laid over joists. We work around these rather than assuming a clear run, checking with you or your builder where structural elements sit before finalising the design.

Wall irregularities compound the challenge further. Party walls and gable ends in older properties are rarely flat or square, and a cabinet built to a single measurement taken at one point will often show a gap somewhere along its length once installed. We survey the full run and scribe the finished joinery to the wall as built, rather than relying on trim to disguise the difference.

This kind of storage sits well throughout the house, not only in bedrooms — a landing, a home office under the roof, or a general household storage room can all benefit from cabinetry shaped to the eaves rather than furniture squeezed in and left standing away from the slope, wasting the depth behind it.

Part of our bespoke cabinetry collection