Best way to utilise the space under a staircase

We will have a fair amount of space under our new staircase. Anyone have any thoughts on how we can use the space? Any pics?

Some of my thoughts are:

- storage space for toys
- wine cellar
- central media point for server etc
- dog house for when I am in trouble

Looking forward to your suggestion.

Being one for storage, I'd go for storage space unless you are big on wine. Because you can never have enough storage space.

Storage.... or depending on where the staircase is a study nook - http://www.pinterest.com/pin/180495897538829392/

The study idea actually looks quite good. The house we are building will have three living areas plus a study so we aren't short on space.

Beautiful area for books - your own library - but storage would win.
Look on the houzz website there are lots of beautiful ideas.

If the area is near the front door and you have kids, you could make it a "drop zone" (mud room type area).... so no school bags and stuff all over the place. Each kid (and adult) gets a hook for their bag and a little box. You could also add in a charging station for mobile phones etc.

Sounds like a great idea. That way our house can always look like a display home!!

lol - that's what I'm hoping for my house too Shambini. *wishful thinking*

I like the dog house idea lol or maybe a naughty spot for the kids . You can just lock them in there. But good idea to look at houzz web site. Love there ideas .

Harry potter exclusive place!

That's what we plan to do as well

And if we have any space left we plan to store the Xmas tree , Xmas wrappings etc under there

xmas tree is a good idea. It's a pain taking it down and back up again. I wonder if the room under the stairs will be big enough to put the tree away erect, with it's decorations still on. That way, I just take out each year - less hassle although Im not sure if the kids will agree.

Hahaha I find that hilarious for some reason. It's a slippery slope down to just using the bare metal rod of Festivus.

Lol but the older I get the more appealing the festivus pole appears

I like minimal effort!!

We have shelves along one wall under our stairs, and use it mainly for storage. We have our extra boxes of spare tiles under there, the Christmas tree and boxes of decorations. We also store our wine on racks under the shelves and have our patch panel there too. The four clothes horses get stored in there, too...that's about the only place they'll fit in a cupboard!

It's a great multi-purpose space which I couldn't do without! Shut the door and no one sees it

Sound like some great suggestions thanks Stormy.

What about a wine cellar?