Under stairs space is a great corner of your home, which is often understated and not used while you can make a lot of nooks there: a powder room, a laundry, a home office, a play space for kids and much more. Today I’d like to tell you how else you can use this space – make a library there!

Many of us have lots of books at home and sometimes there’s literally no space to place them. Under the stairs nooks are ideal to accommodating bookshelves and whole bookcases plus you may also build in a sitting nook there. Let’s take a look at some ideas.

Reading Nooks

Create a cozy and cool reading nook under the stairs! First of all, install enough lamps and lights because reading requires light. If there’s a window, it’s even better, you’ll get enough light even without many lamps. Second, place bookshelves and bookcases, these can be built-ins or separate ones, you may take the whole wall up and down the stairs to accommodate books. Open and floating shelves will look airy, while cabinets and bookcases look bulkier. Add some chairs, a lounge chair, a bench, a sofa or go for built-in seats and benches but they should be planned beforehand, otherwise building them in may be tricky. If you have a window in the nook, create a comfy upholstered windowsill bench – reading there will be very cozy and cool. a reading nook with wall-mounted shelves, cabinets and a bold red mid-century modern chair

a comfy reading nook with a built-in bookcase and a window seat for reading

a cozy reading nook with built-in shelves into the wall and an upholstered beach for reading

a vintage graphite grey bookcase, lamps and comfy chairs for creating a cozy reading nook

under the stairs reading nook with shelves and a comfy lounge chair and enough light

a welcoming reading nook with built-in bookshelves and a couch with storage

a built-in bookcase in the stairs and a couple of upholstered chairs for reading

a cozy under stairs reading nook with a built-in bookcase, a chair and a sculpture

Bookshelves And Bookcases

Using under stairs space for storing books is very comfy and practical, it’s a great way to save a lot of space. The first thing that you should consider is that the style of the space around and make the bookshelves or bookcases in that style. The most popular way is attaching some airy shelves under the stairs, they will look ethereal, and you may attach some over the stairs, too. You may also build in some bookcases, they look bulkier but are more stable, which is great if you have pets or kids and don’t want give them access to the books. A more modern and bold idea is rocking a staircase with book storage right in it, this way the stairs becomes part of decor and doesn’t require any additional shelves. a large bookcase built under the stairs is all you need to save the space and acomodate them all

a built-in bookcase with geometrically placed shelves and books becomes a cool decor feature

a creative staircase with bookshelves integrated right into it - a great space-saving idea

a modern staircase that features cabinets for storage and open bookshelves

a modern take on a traditional staircase with two-sided steps and lots of book stored there

a staircase with built-in bookshelves, which look rather airy due to being open ones

a traditional staircase with an open bookcase - just place a chair in front of it and voila

a white staircase that acts as a bookcase is all you need to save a lot of space in your home

a white staircase with built-in bookshelves - the whole staircase functions as a bookcase

a whole under stairs bookcase features many books and can hold some other objects, too

a wooden staircase with books inside is a creative and practical way to store them all

a wooden staircase with compartments for storage filled with books

an airy whitewashed Scandinavian space with floating bookshelves under the stairs

bookshelves built in into the staircase itself - use the steps for sitting there

bookshelves built in into the wall and staircase for saving space in a small living room

bookshelves built-in right into the staircase to use every inch of space

bookshelves covering the wall and under the space under the stairs is an effective solution