You might remember this from a post I made last summer:

It was a previous owner’s attempt to create some storage in the open space over the staircase. The execution was a little rough, but the bigger problem was that the floor here (which is the ceiling over the staircase) was too low in relationship to the stairs (and that distance got even smaller when we had the new up-to-code staircase built), so tall people hit their heads. So we demolished the closet:

We removed about two feet of floor (basically the area indicated by that utility bar you see above-right), and we had this custom cabinet built:

And we stained it Classic Grey by Minwax.

It provides a little perch as well as some storage. Below the seat is simply open space to make room for tall people walking up these stairs. And by tall I just mean “not short.”

(The last photo was photoshopped to remove some glare from the window; that’s why it looks a little hazy in the middle.)

We also had the rough paneling in the stairway replaced with solid wood paneling, grooved to match what is already upstairs:

Eventually we will redo the wavy, uber-textured walls and ceilings upstairs with more of this paneling and fresh drywall.

It’s pretty amazing that we were able to maximize on the small space intended only for attic access, and do it without having to remove either of the two adjacent windows—both the built-in shelf/seat and the bottom few steps of the staircase end up filling in space directly below a window:

We like the way this whole project turned out, and truth be told, all these little quirks just make the house feel more “ours.” Maybe you know the feeling. As Donna put it, “you know every square inch of that place.” And I haven’t even told you the half of the quirks! Thanks for checking in on our little house.