Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Bexley · London
Alcove Units in Bexleyheath
For homes in Bexleyheath, we make alcove units from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood. The finish is spray painted or hand painted, in a colour agreed with you.
- Walls too uneven for standard furniture
- Furniture that doesn’t fit the alcove
- Bare alcoves beside the fireplace
Need alcove units in Bexleyheath?
About our alcove units in Bexleyheath
A capped or blocked chimney should still be ventilated to help stop damp. Units are planned so any vent stays clear. If there are signs of damp on the chimney breast or in the alcoves, they’re best sorted before fitting. People usually come to us about a place for a small desk and tired cupboards in the alcoves, and the answer is built in our workshop from birch ply and moisture-resistant MDF, painted by hand or sprayed.
If you live in one of the interwar houses or semis around Bexleyheath, the main room is often well proportioned, with a bay, a chimney breast and not many other recesses. Alcove units can fill the alcoves, run the length of a wall or frame the chimney breast, depending on how you use the room. The carcasses are made from moisture-resistant MDF or birch plywood, painted in a colour agreed with you.
The written quote is your record of the job. It describes the alcove unit we’ve designed for the room, what it is made from and how it is finished.
- Place
- Bexleyheath (DA7, DA6, DA16)
- Borough
- Bexley
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- First step
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Made from
- MDF and plywood, painted to order
- Fitting days
- Weekdays (Saturdays if arranged)
- Contact
- The contact form
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
What alcove units cannot fix
Some parts of a job need another trade, such as an electrician, a plumber or a Gas Safe registered engineer. Here’s what to know:
- Electrical work, such as new sockets or switches, which is for your electrician
- Replastering, which is a plasterer’s job
- Removing or altering a chimney breast, which is structural work
If you’re not sure what’s possible in your room, you can fill in our short enquiry form and we’ll give you a straight answer. How a job runs, step by step.
Materials and parts
- Birch plywood
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Hand-painted finish
- Adjustable shelves
- Panelled or flat doors
- Scribed side panels
- Spray-painted finish
Living-room storage in Bexleyheath
About 51% of the homes in the streets around Bexleyheath went up between 1919 and 1939, and about 19% between 1945 and 1972, based on the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax data. For carpentry, the era of a house is a useful clue to how square its rooms are and what its walls are made of. There are 11 entries on the National Heritage List within half a mile of the centre of Bexleyheath. Being near listed buildings does not make a home listed, and you can check any address on Historic England’s list. More than half of the homes in the neighbourhood around Bexleyheath (about 51%) date from between 1919 and 1939, according to Valuation Office Agency council tax figures (2025). Houses from the 1920s and 1930s often have a bay window and a chimney breast in the front room, which shape where alcove units go.
For families living near Upland Primary School, alcove units can be planned with low cupboards for toys and higher shelves for everything else. Red House, about 0.4 miles south-west, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. If your own home is a period one, the alcoves beside a chimney breast are the natural place for alcove units. Close to Danson Park? Alcove units can be arranged to keep the window and the light clear.
Bexleyheath is in the London Borough of Bexley, about 2 miles south-west of Sidcup. We can visit homes in Bexleyheath on weekdays, or on a Saturday by arrangement. Bexleyheath is one of 27 places on our list for Bexley.
Design visits and fitting in DA7, DA6 and DA16 work the same way as everywhere else we cover. Whether you live on a street such as Lion Road, Hyde Road and Upton Road or on one nearby, we can arrange a design visit for alcove units. Close by, we also work in Upton (1 mile west), Crook Log (1 mile west), Blendon (1 mile south-west), Bexley (1 mile south) and Welling (1 mile west). Across the rest of Bexley, our area takes in Sidcup (2 miles south-west), Erith (2 miles north-east), Belvedere (2 miles north), Northumberland Heath (2 miles north-east), Lessness Heath (2 miles north) and Albany Park (3 miles south-west).
Near you in Bexleyheath
Our area takes in the homes around Bexleyheath Academy, The Volunteer pub and St Catherine's Catholic School and the streets around them. There is a railway station in Bexleyheath itself: Bexleyheath station. Other landmarks nearby include Bexley Hospital (close by, under half a mile west) and Bexley Museum (1.2 miles south-east).
Boards, parts and paint
Plinths and scribe strips
The plinth raises the unit and takes up uneven floors. It can be set to line up with the skirting.
Birch plywood
Birch plywood is also good for drawer boxes because it stands up to daily use. The edge can be painted or shown as a detail.
Other services in Bexleyheath
Why bespoke in Bexleyheath?
Shelves in some flat-pack furniture are thin and can bow under books. We size our shelves for their span and what they’ll carry. That said, if you are renting or moving soon, a good off-the-shelf unit may make more sense. Ready-made units come in standard depths that rarely suit every space, so they can stick out too far or waste space behind. Fitted furniture is made to the depth the space can take.
Prices are quoted for your room, once we’ve measured and talked through the design. The price depends mainly on the size of the piece, how many doors and drawers it has and what goes inside.
Why us?
- Every quote follows a design visit
- Made in our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Saturday work by prior arrangement
- Made in moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood
See our comparison of bespoke and off-the-shelf and what a quote should include.
Questions from Bexleyheath
Can you fit furniture in a home close to Bexleyheath station?
Yes, homes across Bexley and the rest of London are within the area we cover. You can drop us a line using the contact form to arrange a design visit, and tell us about parking and access at the same time.
Do you make alcove units for homes in Bexleyheath?
Yes. We cover all of Bexley and the rest of London, and Bexleyheath is part of that. We start with a design visit to measure the room and talk through what you need, followed by a quote.
Is it possible to have a desk built into one alcove?
Yes. You can have a desk in one alcove and cupboards in the other, or matching desks in both. We will plan the desk around how you work.
Do I need permission in a conservation area?
Not normally. Inside a house, fitted furniture doesn’t normally need planning permission. Listed buildings may need listed building consent for works that affect their character, so check with the council first.
Does someone need to be home during the fitting?
We need someone to let us in at the start of the day. It also helps to have someone around at the end, so we can go over the finished furniture together.
What happens when you come to measure?
We measure the room, check how level the walls and floors are and go through the design with you. Access and parking are worth talking about too, and afterwards we send a written quote.
Tips worth knowing
Painted fitted furniture is easy to look after. A few things help it stay looking good:
- Consider whether the units should reach the ceiling
- Decide what goes behind doors and what goes on show
- Measure anything large that must fit inside, like a record player
- Check whether there’s a vent in the chimney breast
Load the shelves evenly rather than piling weight in the middle. A full shelf of books is heavier than it looks.
Use a mat under plants, vases and drinks to stop rings and water marks on the paint. Wipe up spills right away.
How fitting day works
When the fitting is done, we tidy the room and take up the floor coverings. Before we go, we look over the finished furniture with you. How long the fitting takes depends on the size of the alcoves and what goes in them, and we confirm the fitting days in your quote. On fitting day, the sections are carried in, assembled, scribed to the wall and levelled. Hand-painted furniture can be finished on site; spray-painted pieces arrive finished from the workshop. Saturday fitting is possible by prior arrangement.
- It starts with a short message from you about the alcoves.
- At the design visit we measure up, agree the layout and talk about colour and finish. You can choose a spray-painted finish from our workshop or a hand-painted one done in your home.
- A quote in writing follows, with the finish written in alongside the design and materials.
- The units are built in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood. If you chose spray painting, that is done in the workshop too, for a smooth, even surface.
- We fit the units in your home and scribe them to the walls; a hand-painted finish is done on site after fitting and is easy to touch up later.
- Paint needs time to cure, so go gently with the new units at first.
Before we arrive
- Take down pictures, mirrors and shelves from the wall
- Leave a clear route from the front door to the room
- Make sure pets are kept safely away
Ask for a quote
Photos help us understand the room before we visit. A few pictures showing the walls, the corners and where the ceiling meets them give us a good feel for the space, especially with rough sizes. To share them, message us from the contact page, and we will arrange a design visit.