Understairs storage nook

As living in a small house, storage seem to be the problem.
My house was built with a few shelf under the stair, however the space was not enough so I decided to cut it open and add more space to it.
This is a small project that you can do in the weekend. The most time consuming part is painting and let it dry. For this project, I painted all my wood/panel with white color prior to working on the project. This way, I can avoid inhaling the paint smell in the closed area. The whole project would cost less than a hundred dollar.

As you can see, this is the original closet under the stairs.
It only has a few shelves that are not enough storage spaces for my need.

Before open up the storage, I cut a small hole to check the space behind the wall to make sure that it is something that I can work with.
After I feel comfortable with what I see, I the hammer and removed the existing shelves.

Next step, I cut out the drywall to open up.
As you can see, now has a lot more space under the stair mid landing and under the stairs itself.















With the stud in the middle, I find it hard to access the space inside. After reviewing the structure, I find the middle stud is not structure support so I also removed it for easy access to the space.
After removing the stud, I also add extra support for the header just to be sure. I don't think this is necessary but for the piece of mind, I added them anyway.

Next up are just covering up the sides.
I used 1/2 cardboard to cover up the sides and top but it was a little hard to work with.
With cardboard, it is hard to cut, especially, the space underneath it not exact measurement, I found myself spending a lot of time trimming it to side. I'd recommend using drywall as it would be easier to cut and trim to fit the space.

After that is just put in the floor. For my case, there is a water supply/drainage underneath so I have to put down some 2x4 to raise the floor up and put a 3/4 on top to make the floor.
I calked the gap, add the trim and add the paint.
I also add a closet light.

This is the finished image.
It can be used as a hide out for my kids or to store their toys.
Happy DIYing.

As always, thanks for reading.

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See you in the next Weekend DIYer tip.