Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Hammersmith and Fulham · London
Brackenbury Village Alcove Units
Cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast, for homes in Brackenbury Village. Every piece is made at our workshop and fitted in your home, with a spray or hand-painted finish.
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
- Cupboards in keeping with an older house
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
Need alcove units in Brackenbury Village?
Alcove units in Brackenbury Village
Period rooms often have skirting boards, picture rails and cornices. Units can be cut around them, stop just below them or run neatly up to them, depending on the look you want. A plinth can be set to line up with the skirting for a tidy line around the room. These details are settled when we visit, before anything is made. If you are living with everyday clutter left on show and shop-bought shelving that doesn’t fill the recess, that is what alcove units are for, made from birch plywood and moisture-resistant MDF with a spray-painted or hand-painted finish.
Older houses tend to come with picture rails, tall skirtings and cornices, and alcove units need to meet those lines neatly. A large share of the housing around Brackenbury Village went up before 1919, so mouldings are something we expect to talk about at the measuring visit. The top line can stop at the rail or run on to the cornice, depending on the room.
Our quotes are written in plain words. They say what will be made, what it’s made from and how it will be finished, all taken from the design visit.
- Place
- Brackenbury Village (W6, W12, W14)
- Area
- Hammersmith and Fulham
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- First step
- Design visit, then a quote in writing
- Making
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Made from
- MDF and plywood, painted to order
- Fitting days
- Weekdays; Saturdays on request
- Enquiries
- Our contact form
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
How we price alcove units
To work out the quote, we look at:
- The internal fittings
- Parking and unloading on your street
- Access to the room, like stairs, lifts and narrow halls
- Whether you choose a spray or hand-painted finish
Getting to the room affects the job as well. Several flights of stairs, a small lift or a narrow hall can mean smaller sections and more carrying, and that is part of the price. The price comes in a written quote, worked out from the measurements and the design you choose.
What to send when you contact us
What helps most when you first contact us:
- The type of home and how the room is reached
- Rough sizes: width, height and depth
- Where you live, with the postcode
- How you want to use the space
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, tell us about the room on our contact form and tell us about the room. The written quote follows the visit.
When is bespoke worth it?
Shop-bought shelves can sag over a long span. How much a shelf bends depends on its span, depth and load, and long runs need a thicker shelf, a lip along the front or a support. We design shelves with that in mind.
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 scribing and fixings that suit the wall are important.
Caring for painted furniture
Fitted furniture is part of the room, so it’s worth looking after. Here are a few tips worth knowing:
- Look for a chimney vent that needs to stay clear
- Talk to your electrician early if you want new sockets
- Consider whether the units should reach the ceiling
- Decide what goes behind doors and what goes on show
Doors can settle a little once the units are in use. Most hinges can be adjusted to line the doors up again.
Avoid placing a heater hard up against the units, because constant heat isn’t kind to a painted finish.
Questions we’re often asked
Can you make alcove units for a home in Brackenbury Village?
Yes, we work across Hammersmith and Fulham, Brackenbury Village included, and across the rest of London. To get started, you can use our contact form with a few details.
Does a conservation area in or near Brackenbury Village affect fitted furniture?
Not normally. Conservation area controls are mostly concerned with the outside of buildings, so fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. Listed buildings are different, as works inside that affect their character can require listed building consent from the council. If you’re unsure, the council can confirm.
How much will my alcove unit cost?
Each room is quoted on its own: the size, what goes inside, the finish and how square the room is all count. The written quote follows the design visit.
What if the wall is cold or damp?
External walls can be colder and damper than internal ones, so ventilation behind and inside the furniture helps. Any damp needs sorting by the right specialist before fitting.
Do I need to be in when you fit?
Someone needs to be there to let us in. After that, you do not need to stay in the room, but it helps to be around at the end.
How tall should alcove units be?
That depends on the room and what you’d like to store. Units can stop just under the picture rail or run up to the cornice, or run to the ceiling for a built-in look. The height is settled at the measuring visit.
Fitting day, step by step
If anything comes up on the day, just ask. Most of the decisions were made at the measuring visit and set out in your quote, so fitting day is about putting it in place carefully and leaving the room tidy. The time the fitting takes depends on the size of the alcoves and what goes in them, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. Scribing is done on site, which means some cutting in the room or close by, so a clear area to work in near the room helps. We keep dust down and tidy as we go. Hand painting, if that’s your finish, can follow the fitting.
- To begin, message us from the contact page; a brief note on the alcoves is plenty.
- We visit to measure the alcoves, discuss the design and check the route from the street to the room.
- Your written quote sets out the design, materials and finish.
- The units are made at our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, in sections sized to come through your door.
- On fitting day the sections come in, are joined in place and scribed to the walls. A spray-painted finish arrives done; a hand-painted one is applied once the units are in.
Before fitting day
- Make sure pets are kept safely away
- Check the building’s rules for trades and lift bookings
- Leave a clear route from the front door to the room
Arranging a design visit
To make a start, fill in our short enquiry form and let us know which room you have in mind and roughly what you’d like. We then arrange a design visit to measure and talk through the design, and a written quote follows.
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Neighbourhoods near Brackenbury Village
Also in Brackenbury Village
What prompts alcove units in Brackenbury Village
A chimney breast without its fireplace can leave a wall that feels unfinished. Units on both sides frame the chimney breast and balance the room, whether or not the fireplace is used.
People usually get in touch with us about needs like these:
- Cupboards in keeping with an older house
- Clutter with nowhere to go
- Bare alcoves beside the fireplace
- Furniture that does not fit the alcove
If you live in a flat close to Shepherds Bush station, each piece is planned so it can be carried up and joined together in the room.
Questions to ask before you hire anyone
- How they’ll get the furniture into the room
- How the furniture will be finished, and where
- Real projects you can actually look at
- Will the doors close with even gaps?
Living-room storage in Brackenbury Village
About 63% of the homes in the area around Brackenbury Village went up before 1919, and about 12% since 2000, in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. Each era brings its own kind of wall, ceiling height and floor, so it shapes the design from the first measurement. Part of Brackenbury Village is in a conservation area, going by Historic England’s data. The controls in a conservation area are mostly about the outside of buildings, so furniture fitted inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. If you want to be certain, ask the council’s planning team. Controlled parking zones cover much of inner London, and each borough runs its own. A van working in Brackenbury Village will usually need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a bay suspension arranged through the council, which often needs notice. We ask about parking at the design visit, so the van can be planned for.
If your home is as old as some of the listed buildings nearby, like Church of the Holy Innocents, original features like shutters, panelling and fireplaces are worth designing around. For a listed home, fixing into original features can require listed building consent. The wider area includes historic houses like Kelmscott House, about 0.6 miles south. If your own home is a period one, walls that bow and floors that slope are why alcove units are scribed to fit rather than pushed into place.
Brackenbury Village is about 2 miles south-east of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Homes in Brackenbury Village are part of the area we cover for alcove units, as part of our work in every London borough. Brackenbury Village is one of the places in Hammersmith and Fulham where we make alcove units.
We cover every part of W6, W12 and W14 for alcove units. Our area takes in homes on streets such as Adie Road, Stowe Road and Percy Road, for alcove units and any of our other fitted furniture. Nearby, we also make alcove units in Hammersmith (1 mile south-east), Brook Green (1 mile east), Old Chiswick (1 mile south-west), Chiswick (1 mile south-west) and North End (1 mile south-east). Across the rest of Hammersmith and Fulham, our area takes in Fulham (2 miles south-east), Parsons Green (2 miles south-east), Walham Green (2 miles south-east), West Brompton (2 miles south-east), Hurlingham (2 miles south-east) and Chelsea Harbour (3 miles south-east).
Landmarks near Brackenbury Village
In Brackenbury Village, that includes homes near Polish Library POSK in London, Corona Theatre School and Salutation pub. The closest station to Brackenbury Village is Shepherds Bush station, about 0.8 miles north-east of the centre. Other landmarks nearby include Livat Hammersmith (less than half a mile south-east) and West London Hospital (0.6 miles south-east). Not far away are WWT London Wetland Centre and Campden Hill.