Project by woodsyman | posted 04-11-2013 04:46 PM | 12633 views | 8 times favorited | 16 comments | ![]() |
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Have you ever had a hard time finding a use for that space underneath the steps of a spiral staircase? I have. When we moved into our latest home back in 2009, we didn’t know what to do with the centrally placed spiral staircase in the great room. We tried to place the couch up against it or love seat, nothing seemed to work, and however we tried to arrange our furniture the flow of traffic was alway disrupted. So I let the creative juices flow and came up with a solution to the problem.
This under spiral staircase cabinet serves its purpose well as our living room entertainment center, and has given a major boost to the feng shui and overall function of this area of the house. It is primarily birch plywood with poplar edgebanding. Construction methods are pretty much restricted to dado slots for all of the interlocking parts, glue, screws, and taking plenty of time with the careful layout. Finish applied was a slight orange colored dye with lacquer over that, my wife loves the color of orange. I built this piece in my shop with just a few notes about the space it needed to fit. I was pretty excited when I brought it up to the house and it twist fit right into place. Try this out to turn that unusable space into a multi-functional staircase/cabinet.
-- Peace be with you!
16 comments so far
Ken90712
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17973 posts in 4200 days
#1 posted 04-11-2013 05:18 PM
Now that is some great thinking…. Great work and nice use of the space.
-- Ken, "Everyday above ground is a good day!"
nbistecche
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40 posts in 3353 days
#2 posted 04-11-2013 05:26 PM
very good idea. wish i had a staircase like that to do the same!!!
-- measure once, cut twice.
dan81
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48 posts in 2998 days
#3 posted 04-11-2013 05:39 PM
Beautiful and superbly functional. My hats off to you. And yes, I have looked at the space under my spiral staircase a thousand times thinking it was such a waste. You’ve inspired me to do something about it, thank you!
Dan
-- Glue-up is still the stage when everything that was perfect in dry-fit goes horribly wrong, but I'm working on it.
ohwoodeye
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2588 posts in 4165 days
#4 posted 04-11-2013 05:56 PM
Very clever! Well done.
-- "Fine Woodworking" is the name given to a project that takes 3 times longer than normal to finish because you used hand tools instead of power tools. ----Mike, Waukesha, WI
BikerDad
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347 posts in 4613 days
#5 posted 04-11-2013 07:21 PM
Primo. How do you get power to it?
-- I'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park! Grace & Peace.
LesB
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2872 posts in 4455 days
#6 posted 04-11-2013 07:34 PM
Great idea. Can you add a picture of what it looks like from the other side?
I have a stair case just like that. I will have to show my spouse and see what she thinks.
My first thought is to make it more like open shelves so the light can pass through. At least on some of them.
-- Les B, Oregon
woodsyman
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31 posts in 2889 days
#7 posted 04-11-2013 07:40 PM
BikerDad, you had to ask that didn’t you, LOL! Great question. At the moment there is a discreet tan extension cord for that purpose. The central column is hollow steel. Eventually, I think I’ll need to route a wire down through it from the upstairs floor joist/top riser and set up a receptacle box at the bottom near the components. But, I haven’t committed to this step yet. Leave it up to LJ’s to find the holes, ha. Good stuff.
-- Peace be with you!
woodsyman
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31 posts in 2889 days
#8 posted 04-11-2013 08:08 PM
Les B, I could post some more photos. But to explain what it looks like on the other side, if your looking straight down on this cabinet; the back is one flat plane from left to right, so this cabinet makes up one half of the overall circle of the staircase, this made construction and moving the piece fairly simple. Of course the left side is the short side so only one small compartment, I decided against continuing it all the way to the very bottom tread, that space is open for storage outside of the cabinet. On the right side, it is just one tall vertical panel, we have a family photo hanging on the backside. This leaves plenty of room to enter the stairs.
I forgot to mention previously that one of the major deciding factors of adding this cabinet was to eliminate all of the possible head injuries from two year olds all the way up to adults. Steel construction is very unforgiving to anyone’s head. At the time our baby was on his way, and I figured this would kill two birds by adding this cabinet to the house.
-- Peace be with you!
scrollsaw
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13030 posts in 4865 days
#9 posted 04-12-2013 01:53 AM
Great job very creative.
-- Todd
hoss12992
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4178 posts in 2904 days
#10 posted 04-12-2013 02:48 AM
Great job and absolutely love the creativity and design
-- The Old Rednek Workshop https://www.facebook.com/theoldrednekworkshoptn
DBuonomano
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90 posts in 3107 days
#11 posted 04-12-2013 03:11 PM
This is really cool! Great design and use of space!
BTimmons
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2303 posts in 3497 days
#12 posted 04-12-2013 03:19 PM
Now that’s cool!
-- Brian Timmons - http://www.BigTWoodworks.com
KodaBear
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116 posts in 2900 days
#13 posted 04-12-2013 05:21 PM
great design
-- Kevin H. --Pennsylvania
Fishinbo
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11362 posts in 3187 days
#14 posted 04-15-2013 02:36 PM
Great idea and great use of the space. Like the practical and creative design. Makes a great addition to the house.
—www.sawblade.com
OakHill
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282 posts in 2806 days
#15 posted 06-27-2013 08:20 PM
What a great idea!! I’m sure you have solved the same problem for a lot of other homeowners.
Nice work.
-- John, Illinois, http://OakHillWoodCreations.com
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