Loft Storage and Fitted Joinery Costs at a Glance (2026)
Fitted joinery for a loft conversion starts from £1,500 for an under-eaves drawer bank or a wardrobe built under a sloping ceiling, and runs to £2,500-£4,500 for a full wall of eaves storage. Lofts need it because sloping ceilings and shallow eaves defeat standard furniture. All figures exclude VAT.
| Loft joinery item | Typical cost | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Under-eaves drawer bank | From £1,500 | Deep drawers built into the void behind the knee wall |
| Fitted wardrobe under a sloping ceiling | From £1,500 | Carcass built to the rake, with hanging and shelving |
| Full wall of eaves storage | £2,500-£4,500 | A run of eaves cupboards, drawers and doors, wall to wall |
| Dormer desk and shelving | £1,500-£3,000 | Built-in desk, shelves and often a window seat |
| Staircase (standard flight) | £2,000-£3,600 | Softwood or MDF, painted, to building regulations |
| Bespoke staircase | £6,000-£14,000+ | Hardwood, glass balustrade or a made-to-measure feature stair |
Last updated: 2026. Prices are a guide and exclude VAT.
Fitted wardrobes start from £1,500 wherever they go, and our fitted wardrobes cost guide explains what moves that figure. In a loft the extra work is in the shaping rather than the size, so a narrow wardrobe on a steep rake can cost more than a wider one on a flat wall.
Scope note: This guide covers the fit-out rather than the structure: eaves cupboards, built-in eaves storage, fitted wardrobes for sloping ceilings, dormer desks and window seats, and the staircase. Noba & Stod is a joinery studio, so we do not build the loft itself. houseUP, our sister company handles the structural build, including loft conversions, extensions and basements, and we make the joinery that goes into it. For the joinery side, see our loft wardrobes and eaves storage page, or interior fit-out if the loft sits within a wider refurbishment. For whole-property budgets, our house renovation cost guide sets out costs by tier.
Under-Eaves Drawers and Eaves Cupboards
The triangular void behind the knee walls is the largest piece of dead space in a finished loft. It is usually left as a crawl hole with a hatch, or boarded over and forgotten. Built in properly, it becomes the storage that stops the rest of the room filling up with boxes.
What can go in there is decided by one measurement: the usable height at the front face of the run. The rules of thumb below are the ones we design to.
| Usable height | What works in that band | Why |
|---|---|---|
| About 1.5m and above | Hanging for long garments | Coats and dresses need roughly 1.5m of clear drop |
| About 1m to 1.5m | Hanging for shirts and jackets, with a shelf above | Short hanging needs about 1m, so the rest becomes shelving |
| About 600mm to 1m | Drawers, shoe storage and low shelving | Too low to hang, but a good working depth for drawers |
| Below about 600mm | Pull-out units or hinged eaves access | You cannot reach into it, so the storage has to come out to you |
A drawer bank from £1,500 is the usual starting point, typically three or four deep drawers set into the knee wall where the height sits between 600mm and 1m. Run the same treatment along a full wall and you are into a full wall of eaves storage at £2,500-£4,500, mixing drawers, hinged eaves cupboards and pull-out shoe racks in the shallowest sections.
Two details matter more than they sound. The first is depth: eaves runs are far deeper than a normal cupboard, so without drawers or pull-outs the back half is unusable. The second is the fit, because the knee wall is rarely straight and the rafters behind it never are. End panels and top rails are shaped to follow the contours of your walls and rafters rather than packed out with filler strips. Our built-in storage is designed around the roof pitch for that reason.
Fitted Wardrobes for Sloping Ceilings
A loft bedroom is the hardest room in the house to furnish, and a freestanding wardrobe shows why. It can only stand where the ceiling is already full height, which is the part of the room you wanted to walk through.
Fitted wardrobes for sloping ceilings solve it by treating the rake as the design, not the obstacle. Prices start from £1,500.
How the carcass is built to the rake
The carcass is made as a series of vertical sections of different heights, each cut to the ceiling line where it lands. The top follows the slope in steps or as a single raked panel, and the side and top panels are shaped to follow the contours of your walls and rafters so the run sits tight to the plaster. Where the ceiling drops below hanging height, that section becomes drawers or shelving instead.
Doors that clear the slope
Doors are where a sloping-ceiling wardrobe succeeds or fails. A hinged door has to swing clear of the rake, so on a steep pitch we keep the doors within the full-height section, use narrower leaves that sweep a smaller arc, or angle the top of the door to match the ceiling. Sliding doors are often better in a narrow loft because nothing swings into the walkway, though the track needs a level head rail.
An under eaves wardrobe next to it
The two work best together. The full-height section takes hanging; the under eaves wardrobe alongside it takes folded clothes, shoes and luggage. Designed in one go, they read as a single fitted wall rather than two separate pieces. See our fitted wardrobes service for how we plan the internal layout.
Dormer Desks, Window Seats and Other Loft Storage Ideas
A dormer gives you the one piece of vertical wall and full head height in the room, usually with the best window in the house in it. That makes it the natural home for a built-in desk or a window seat, and a dormer desk with shelving runs £1,500-£3,000.
A built-in desk works there because the depth is fixed by the dormer reveal, so the desk sits flush and the shelving above it carries on into the slope on either side. A window seat does the same job for a bedroom or a snug, and a lift-up lid or drawers underneath turn the bay into storage.
The other loft conversion storage ideas worth designing in early, rather than bolting on later:
- Storage in the stair void. The triangle under the new top flight is often big enough for a linen cupboard or a run of shallow shelves.
- A shallow run on the gable wall. Where a hip to gable has given you a flat wall, 300mm of depth is enough for books, and it keeps the floor clear.
- Bookcases built into the knee wall. In an office or a snug, open shelving reads better than cupboard doors and costs no more.
- A media wall in the dormer. Cables and boxes disappear into the joinery instead of trailing across the only flat wall you have.
Our Victorian penthouse in Chiswick shows how this reads when the top floor is planned as one piece of joinery rather than a set of separate items.
The Loft Staircase: Standard Flight or Bespoke?
The staircase is the one piece of loft joinery you cannot leave out, and the gap between the two options is wide. A standard flight costs £2,000-£3,600 in softwood or MDF, painted, built to building regulations. A bespoke staircase costs £6,000-£14,000+ in hardwood, with a glass balustrade or a made-to-measure feature design.
The decision is usually made for you by the position. Where the new stair sits directly above the existing one, a standard flight fits and there is no reason to spend more. Where it has to turn, land against a low ceiling or arrive in the middle of a room, the geometry stops being standard and a made-to-measure stair is the only way to get the headroom and the going right.
A bespoke stair is also the first thing anyone sees on the new floor, and it can carry storage in the void alongside it. Our bespoke joinery service covers stairs and the fitted pieces that go with them, and the Victorian house renovation in Chelsea shows a stair treated as part of the joinery scheme.
What Does the Loft Conversion Itself Cost?
Joinery is the last stage of a loft project, so it helps to see it against the whole budget. The figures in this section are for the structural conversion, and they are here as context for planning the full job rather than as a quote from us. houseUP, our sister company carries out that structural build, including loft conversions, extensions and basements, while Noba & Stod makes the joinery that fits it out.
A loft conversion costs between £20,000 and £95,000 across the UK in 2026, depending on the type of conversion. In London, a standard rear dormer, the most common choice, costs £50,000 to £90,000. All figures exclude VAT.
Cost by conversion type
| Type | UK cost | London cost | Time on site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rooflight (Velux) | £20,000-£40,000 | £28,000-£50,000 | 4-6 weeks |
| Standard rear dormer | £40,000-£70,000 | £50,000-£90,000 | 6-8 weeks |
| L-shaped dormer | £55,000-£90,000 | £70,000-£120,000 | 6-8+ weeks |
| Hip to gable | £50,000-£85,000 | £65,000-£110,000 | 6-8+ weeks |
| Mansard | £55,000-£95,000 | £75,000-£140,000 | 10-12+ weeks |
The type dictates how much of the roof is removed or rebuilt. A rooflight conversion leaves the roof shape untouched and suits lofts that already have head height, typically around 2.2 metres once the new floor is in. A rear dormer turns a cramped triangular space into a full-height double bedroom. An L-shaped dormer adds a second dormer over the rear outrigger. A hip to gable replaces the sloping hip end with a vertical gable wall. A mansard rebuilds the roof slopes to an almost vertical angle and almost always needs planning permission. London projects typically run 20-40% above UK prices.
Cost by property type
| Property type | Typical UK cost | What drives the range |
|---|---|---|
| Terraced house | £45,000-£90,000 | Party walls both sides, street-only access; rear or L-shaped dormer most common |
| Semi-detached house | £50,000-£90,000 | Hipped roof often needs hip to gable plus dormer; one party wall |
| Detached house | £45,000-£110,000 | Widest range: roof shapes vary hugely; no party walls |
| Bungalow | £45,000-£80,000 | Generous footprint, but the staircase takes ground-floor space |
The terraced figure surprises some homeowners, because terraces are usually the smallest houses. The reason is access: materials come in through the front door or over scaffolding, skips need permits, and two party wall agreements are needed rather than one.
Cost per square metre and the loft conversion fit out cost
A loft conversion costs roughly £2,400-£4,100 per square metre in 2026, excluding finishes. That covers structure, roof, insulation, windows, staircase, first fix and plasterboard, but not sanitaryware, tiling, fitted joinery, flooring, decoration or professional fees. That exclusion is the point: the loft conversion fit out cost sits on top of the per-metre rate, and the joinery table at the top of this guide is how you put a number on it.
Add-ons and professional fees
| Add-on or fee | Typical cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ensuite bathroom | £8,000-£15,000 | Shower room, tiled and plumbed, with extraction |
| Staircase (standard) | £2,000-£3,600 | Softwood or MDF, painted, to building regulations |
| Staircase (bespoke) | £6,000-£14,000+ | Hardwood, glass balustrade or a made-to-measure feature stair |
| Architectural drawings | £3,000-£6,000 | Survey, design and building regulations drawings |
| Structural engineer | £1,800-£3,600 | Steel and floor calculations for building control |
| Party wall agreement | £1,000-£2,000 per neighbour | Surveyor fees; terraces usually need two |
| Building control | About £1,000 | Inspections and completion certificate |
| Planning application | £548 | Needed for mansards and some conservation-area lofts |
| Lawful development certificate | £274 | Recommended proof that permitted development applied |
| Professional fees combined | £6,000-£15,000 | Drawings, engineer, party wall and building control together |
The ensuite is the add-on people underestimate most: it needs a soil connection, a drainage route, extraction, waterproofing, tiling and often a heavier floor. Positioning it above an existing bathroom keeps the cost towards the lower end. Allow a 10-15% contingency as well, because lofts are opened up rather than built from new.
How long it takes
| Stage | Typical duration | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Design and approvals | 4-8 weeks | Survey, drawings, structural calculations, approvals, party wall notices |
| Rooflight conversion | 4-6 weeks on site | Floor, insulation, rooflights, stair, fit-out |
| Dormer conversion | 6-8 weeks on site | Scaffold, steels, dormer, windows, stair, ensuite, finishes |
| Mansard conversion | 10-12+ weeks on site | Roof removal, new masonry and roof, windows, stair, full fit-out |
Party wall matters stretch the front end more than anything else, so serve notices as soon as drawings are ready. A well-run project has one dedicated team coordinating qualified electricians, plumbers and structural engineers, so there are no gaps between trades, and the joinery survey happens while the shell is being finished.
What pushes a loft to the top of the range
- Head height and steels. A marginal ridge height means lowering the floor or raising the roof, and steels cut and bolted together in a tight terrace loft cost more than steels craned in.
- Roof type and condition. A modern trussed roof has to be re-engineered before the space can be opened up; rotten rafters and chimney removals add more.
- An ensuite. It adds £8,000-£15,000 plus drainage, ventilation and structural complexity.
- Staircase position. Anywhere other than directly above the existing stair costs money, in space or in joinery.
- Access and party walls. No side access means everything is carried through the house, and every shared wall needs a notice.
- Specification and joinery. Engineered oak against carpet, a bespoke stair against a standard one, fitted wardrobes against freestanding furniture: this is where budgets diverge most.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do fitted wardrobes for a loft cost?
Loft fitted wardrobes start from £1,500 for a single run built under a sloping ceiling, excluding VAT. A full wall of eaves storage, mixing wardrobes, drawers and eaves cupboards, costs £2,500-£4,500. Width, door style and the internal fitting out move the figure more than the shape of the ceiling does.
Can you fit wardrobes under a sloping ceiling?
Yes. The carcass is built as vertical sections of different heights, each cut to the ceiling line where it lands, and the side and top panels are shaped to follow the contours of your walls and rafters. Doors either stay within the full-height section, use narrower leaves, or slide on a level head rail so nothing swings into the slope.
What is the minimum height for hanging space in a loft?
Allow about 1m of clear height for shirts and jackets, and about 1.5m for long garments such as coats and dresses. Where the ceiling drops below roughly 1m, drawers and shelving work better than hanging. Below about 600mm, use pull-out units or hinged eaves access, because you cannot reach into the space.
Is under-eaves storage worth it?
In most loft conversions, yes. The void behind the knee walls is otherwise dead space reached through a hatch, and an under-eaves drawer bank from £1,500 turns it into the storage that keeps the rest of the room clear. It is also the cheapest square metre of storage in the house, because the structure already exists.
When should loft joinery be designed?
As early as the structural drawings, and certainly before first fix. Knowing where the wardrobes and eaves cupboards go tells the electrician where sockets and lighting should not be, sets the knee wall position, and avoids the classic loft problem of a radiator landing on the one wall that should have been storage.
Who builds the loft conversion itself?
Noba & Stod is a joinery studio, so we make the fitted wardrobes, eaves storage, desks and stairs rather than the structure. The structural build is handled by houseUP, our sister company, which carries out loft conversions, extensions and basements in London. The two sit naturally together: they build the room, we fit it out.
Plan Your Loft Joinery with Noba & Stod
If your loft is being converted, or has been converted and never properly fitted out, we offer a free design consultation: we will measure the usable heights under the eaves, work out what hangs and what goes in drawers, look at the staircase and the dormer, and give you a realistic range before anything is drawn up. Book through our contact page or call 0207 118 9889.
