I think I would tear out the carpet in the area you are talking about and put the same flooring down as you have at the front door so you have a much larger "landing" area when you

come in the door. Then you could build a wall where the char is and make a closet

behind it, so the "stuff" can't be seen when in the living room.

@Angel 18432 We were thinking something along these lines as well, I have another 50 square feet or so of the flooring. My one concern would be that the closet would be strange covering up part of the stair railing? Or would I build it out away from the stairs about six inches?

Yes if you were going to do the whole wall. Here is an idea. You could do something similar, but just do a closet on the left side and have a seating area on the right.

https://www.bhg.com/decorating/storage/organization-basics/add-storage-around-staircases/?slide=slide_e4270d18-c157-42c8-a775-4476a3cbc8d0#slide_e4270d18-c157-42c8-a775-4476a3cbc8d0

There are lots of ideas for under stairs storage if you just google it.

That corner by the stairs is perfect for a taller storage unit to replace your two small pieces against the wall. Think about using the vertical height with a combination of open and closed storage so it stays tidy. You can buy a free standing piece, build something in place, or even repurpose a beautiful armoire for storage.

@Angel 18432 We can't do under the stairs storage - our basement stairs are directly underneath these stairs.

@calidesign Yeah we think we're going to go with an open built-in closet with a bench at the bottom.

Thanks guys!

Oh I see now that you don't have any space under the stairs, I thought it was open. Good luck