Islington · London
Alcove Units in Islington
Wherever you are in Islington, we can design, make and fit alcove units. Every job starts with a design visit, then a written quote.
Planning alcove units in Islington?
Alcove units across Islington
We design, make and fit alcove units for homes of every age. The lists below link to a page for each place, or get in touch to arrange a design visit.
Larger neighbourhoods
Alcove units across Islington: what to expect
In a typical Victorian or Edwardian terrace, the chimney breast leaves an alcove on either side of it. Built-in alcove units put that space to work as cupboards and shelving that sit as part of the room. If your home in Islington has alcoves like these, each alcove gets a unit designed for it after we’ve measured them at a design visit. We make alcove units from MDF made to resist moisture and birch plywood, then spray-painted or hand-painted, and people most often get in touch about units that sit well with original features and walls too uneven for standard furniture.
Furniture made in a workshop still has to meet the room it’s going into, and fitting day is where that happens. Walls in older homes are rarely flat or square, so we scribe the edges by hand to follow the wall. How long the fitting itself takes depends on the size and number of units, and the fitting days are set out in your quote.
- You send us some details about the alcoves and what you’d like in them.
- We come to measure the alcoves, look at the walls and agree the design with you.
- Your quote follows, with the design, materials and finish set out, so you can look it over in your own time.
- We make the cupboards and shelves in our workshop, using moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood.
- We fit them in your home, scribing them to the walls.
What goes into your quote
The finish affects the cost: spray painting happens in the workshop, and hand painting can be done in your home. Your choice, along with the size and the fittings, is reflected in the written quote.
Why choose Bespoke Carpentry
- Spray painted or hand painted, in the colour you choose
- Built in our workshop and fitted in your home
- Scribed to uneven walls
- More than 300 projects completed
How to get a quote
You do not need exact measurements to get started. We measure everything properly during the design visit, along with the walls, floor and ceiling. To get started, fill in our short enquiry form and tell us about the room. The written quote follows the visit.
Near you in Highbury
The streets we cover here include those near Musical Theatre Academy, The Snooty Fox pub and Highbury Quadrant Primary School, among other places. Also close by are Highbury Fields (close by, under half a mile south-west), Christ Church (under half a mile north-west) and City of London Academy Highbury Grove (under half a mile south). There’s a railway station in Highbury itself: Canonbury station. A little further out are Arsenal Football Club Museum (0.6 miles north-west) and Hackney Walk (2 miles east). Green spaces nearby include Gillespie Park.
Alcove units for homes across Islington
Living rooms across Islington vary a lot, from knocked-through period rooms to open-plan new builds. Alcove units are designed for the one you have, with cable routes and ventilation for any screen or set-top boxes planned in. The carcasses are moisture-resistant MDF or birch plywood.
In Islington, the largest groups of homes date from before 1919 (about 44%) and the years since 2000 (about 19%), on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. Knowing roughly when a home was built helps, because walls and fixings change from one era to the next. More than a third of the homes in Islington (about 44%) were built before 1919, going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. Houses of that age usually have a chimney breast with an alcove each side, and alcove units are built to those exact widths. Flats in converted or shared houses account for about 24% of households in Islington, the 2021 Census shows. In a converted house, rooms can be odd shapes, with new partitions meeting old walls, and the way in often goes up shared stairs. If your flat is leasehold, check your lease before anything is fixed to the walls.
Homes across Islington range from period terraces to modern blocks, and we work in all of them. Wherever you live, it starts with a visit and a quote.
Highbury: Sutton House, about 2 miles east, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. If your own home is a period one, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at. Near listed buildings like Union Chapel, about 0.6 miles south-west of the centre of Highbury, older homes may keep original joinery that alcove units can be designed around. For a listed home, fixing into original features may need listed building consent.
When is bespoke worth it?
A confident DIYer can manage simple shelves or a standard wardrobe in a square room. It gets harder with sloping ceilings, out-of-level floors and lath-and-plaster walls.
Where bespoke earns its keep is in rooms that are not square. Older London rooms tend to have leaning walls, sloping floors and alcoves of different widths.
Why people ask for alcove units in Islington
Others want a proper home for books, records or a TV. An alcove unit can be shaped around what you own, with shelf heights and depths to suit.
If any of these sound familiar, it’s worth getting in touch:
- Room to work in an alcove
- Tired cupboards in the alcoves
- Alcoves that are wasted space
- Shop-bought shelving that doesn’t fill the recess
What affects the price in Islington
We quote each job after the design visit, because no two rooms are the same. These are the things that affect it:
- How big the furniture is
- Whether you choose a spray or hand-painted finish
- Stairs, lifts and the route to the room
- How square the room is
Every room is priced on its own, because size, layout and finish change from job to job. Spray painting and hand painting are different processes, which affects the cost. You’ll see the figure in your written quote, after the design visit.
Before the design visit
A little information at the start saves time later. If you can, send:
- The postcode, so we can plan the visit
- A few photos of the space, taken from the doorway and from each corner
- Whether it is a house or a flat, and if there are stairs or a lift
- Rough sizes: width, height and depth
A quote begins with some details from you: the room, rough measurements and some photos if you have them. When you are ready, message us from the contact page. We will then arrange a design visit and follow it with a written quote.
What we don’t do
We design, make and fit the furniture. In practice, that means:
- New sockets or wiring (your electrician handles those)
- Plastering or repairing loose plaster in the alcoves
- Finding and fixing the cause of damp
Materials and finishes
Shelves
Shelf heights are planned around your things, from paperbacks to tall art books. A shallower top shelf can keep things within reach.
Moisture-resistant MDF
With no grain to show through, MDF keeps the painted surface smooth and even. We choose the moisture-resistant grade for fitted furniture.
FAQs: alcove units in Islington
Do you work outside London?
No. We cover London only: every London borough and the City of London.
Do you move sockets for alcove units?
We do not do electrical work. New or moved sockets are a job for your electrician, ideally before fitting, and some electrical work in homes is covered by Part P of the Building Regulations. We can plan cut-outs and cable routes in the units around them.
What do you do at the measuring visit?
It is a chance to measure properly and talk through what you’d like. We look at the walls, floors and anything the furniture has to work around, then send a quote in writing.
How much will my alcove unit cost?
Size, doors and drawers, what goes inside and the finish all affect it, along with access and parking. The price comes in a written quote after the design visit.
Can the two alcove units be different?
That depends on how you use the room. Alcoves are often different widths anyway, so each unit is made for its own recess. They can share a style while doing different things.
How do I get started?
The first step is to tell us about the room on our contact form and let us know about the room. After that, we arrange a design visit and follow it with a written quote.
Is an outside wall a problem for fitted furniture?
External walls can be colder and damper than internal ones, so we allow for ventilation behind and inside the furniture, which helps avoid condensation and mould. If there’s damp, it should be sorted before anything is fitted.