The Cupboard Under the Stairs Tour

We live in the Midwest, which is 'tornado alley' in the United States. Thus, most houses have basements. We finished part of our basement this past year, and took the opportunity to install carpet into the storage area under our stairs to make a reading nook for Little Tomato.

Now... if your child is a Harry Potter fan and you're making a reading nook under the stairs, it *needs* to be a Cupboard Under the Stairs!

The photo quality is not great. I was lazy and used my phone to take photos, and this is a basement cupboard under the stairs... so the light quality isn't optimal either.

I used the left over paint from the basement project to paint the walls a warm neutral color.

Little Tomato loves Gryffindor house, so I used red and gold as the accent colors. Since the space under the stairs drops low and has awkward unfinished space in the back, I used a tension-rod-hung curtain to hide the unfinished area past that point, and found a pinch-pleat crimson fabric on sale @ Hobby Lobby to make a curtain to fit the opening.

Then I found a couple of cheap shelves and painted the wood gold, as the wood of the shelves didn't match. I mounted one of them low to the ground to make her books easily accessible, and mounted the other in the high corner as her 'owlery;' her special request for her cupboard.

I also found an awesome stag coat hook at Hobby Lobby that I painted gold. This typically holds either a broomstick or her robe.

I found the fabulous prints of Harry Potter locations (Diagon Alley, The Hogwarts Express & Hogwarts School) on Etsy by Dream Machine Prints and framed them for the artwork in the cupboard.

Little Tomato also found a spider garland in the dollar section at Target, and proclaimed that, "Cupboards under the stairs always have spiders! We need spiders, Mom!"

On her birthday she received the Hedwig pillow. This was another great find on Etsy, from Kaytlyne @ Kay Pop Art. The back side of the pillow is an illustration of Hogwarts.

I added a warm blanket for her to snuggle under while she reads, and included a cauldron to store it when not in use.

Little Tomato's grandmother painted her a Fat Lady for her birthday as well, so I'm in the process of getting it framed and mounting it to the door. I'd love to work out a way to have a motion sensored sound module on it, so that she says "Password?" when you walk in front of her... I've found a light activated one here, but not quite what I'm looking for. 😋

I'll update the post once she's officially hung onto the door, but here she is at the party.

And that is the end of the tour!

I loved this little project because, with such a small space, every little detail made a big impact. It was a quick turnaround, at only a couple of weeks from painting the walls to art & shelves hung and space ready for reading... then I was onto the next project!