Some Amateur Carpentry for Hobby Day!

This project was designed to make extra storage available under the stairs

The first step was awkward because the ground was not flat under them, so I had to dig it out and fill with concrete

ouuuu so smoooooth

Part of it will remain open so I tiled the floor of that bit

Started with the first drawer, the wee one at the very bottom, simple screwed together 18mm sheets of MDF

Rather than drawer runners I decided to just put little wheels on the bottom of each drawer

Testing for fit

I boxed in the first drawer with a couple of mm to let it slide

Stuck the cladding on the outside of the frame making sure the drawer can move in and out

Second drawer is much higher

So I put a shelf in the middle

Fitting the second drawer

Framing the second drawer - same as the first, frame screwed in and then cladding over the top to cover the screws. You can also see the front of the first drawer being added - for this I made the piece to fit the hole, overlapping the surrounding cladding and then screwed it unto the front of the drawer

For the end of the drawers I wanted to put in some shelves, this will give us more storage room and I left the back open so air can circulate though the drawers to prevent any damp building up

I wanted the screws in the middle supports to not be visible so the bottom of the upper support covers the screws of the one below, but I curved the sides of the support in to allow me to screw the upper one in from below

This is it flipped upside-down - you can see where the screws go in to attach the upper support while covering the screws from the other support

It even looks kinda pretty with its gentle curves

Fitting in the shelves

What is this madness? Well.... I hate having an ironing board sitting about, and I always liked those fold down ones you see in hotels... so... why not?

Screwed some heavy duty drawer slides to the bottom of the ironing board

Fitted it into the small gap at the top of the third drawer

My ironing board fully extended!

I must confess I'm not much of a measuring guy... i like to stick the bits on roughly and adjust them until they are right rather than measure them perfectly

Ironing board extended with cladding in place

Finished three drawer fronts, I carved some little handholds into the sides because I didn't want handles sticking out - you can see one at the top front corner of the second drawer

Drawer 1

Drawer 2

Drawer 3

Little door for my board

Couple of hidden hinges

Da-da!

Finished off the cubbyhole with some hooks for coats and chairs and the like

Finished product painted (almost all of it painted ;-) ) and "in production"

As i say I'm just an amateur - my Dad taught me some stuff and most of the rest is from youtube videos. For me learning by doing is the best way, I spend maybe £200 on materials, to take that into perspective a professional quoted £3000 for this job!

If you ever worry that you will make a mess of a home project like this just remember you can afford to make it and rip it back out again ten times before you even come close to the cost of hiring a professional

EDIT: update on the floor tiles since there was so much interest! https://imgur.com/a/xlZ1lWB