Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Bromley · London
Broom Hill Alcove Units
Few London rooms are perfectly square, and we scribe the furniture to follow the walls. We make alcove units for homes in Broom Hill, each designed at a visit to your home.
- Walls too uneven for standard furniture
- Somewhere to keep books and records
- Tired cupboards in the alcoves
Alcove units in Broom Hill
From workshop to your room
Once the main sections are fixed in place, any doors go on and any drawers or lids are fitted. Each one is adjusted until the gaps are even and it closes cleanly, then checked again. The time the fitting takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and your quote sets out the fitting days. In a 1920s or 1930s house, the hall and stairs are typically straightforward, though we still measure the route in along with the room itself. Alcove units arrive in sections and are assembled in place, with floors protected throughout.
- You contact us about the alcoves you want to fill.
- A design visit follows, where we measure up and agree the layout with you.
- We put the design, materials and finish into a quote in writing, ready for you to check.
- The units are built in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood. A spray-painted finish is applied there too, if that’s what you chose.
- The units are fitted in your home, ready to fill.
Getting ready for fitting day
- Let us know if your street is in a controlled parking zone
- Take down pictures, mirrors and shelves from the wall
- Get any new sockets or wiring done by your electrician before fitting day
Getting a quote
To get a quote, drop us a line using the contact form and tell us which room you have in mind and roughly what you’d like. From there, we arrange a design visit to measure up and talk through your ideas, and send you a quote in writing afterwards.
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Alcove units in Broom Hill: what you get
One alcove can be given over to a desk, with shelves above and a drawer or cupboard below. It gives you a place to work without turning a room into an office. Desk height and depth are agreed with you, and leave a route for cables to reach the sockets. We make alcove units from MDF made to resist moisture and birch plywood, then spray-painted or hand-painted, and the usual reasons to get in touch are bowed walls and sloping floors and a desk that tucks into an alcove.
Around Broom Hill, with interwar houses or semis making up much of the housing, the main room is often well proportioned, with a bay, a chimney breast and not many other recesses. That leaves room for alcove units in the alcoves, along a full wall or around 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.
A quote in writing is the clearest record of what we’ve agreed. It sets out the alcove unit designed for your room, what it is made from and how it’s finished, and the workshop works from it.
- Location
- Broom Hill (BR6, BR5)
- Area
- Bromley
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- First step
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Making
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Boards and paint
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- Fitting days
- Monday to Friday; Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Enquiries
- Send us a message
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
When you need someone else
As carpenters, we leave some work to other trades. These are worth knowing before you plan:
- Plastering or repairing loose plaster in the alcoves
- Any structural work on the chimney breast
- Treating damp in the chimney breast or walls
If you are not sure what’s possible in your room, you can drop us a line using the contact form and we will give you a straight answer before you arrange a visit. How it works.
What goes into it
- Birch plywood
- Spray-painted finish
- Panelled or flat doors
- Hand-painted finish
- Scribed side panels
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Adjustable shelves
Also near Broom Hill
Other services in Broom Hill
Practical tips
New paint needs time to cure fully, so treat it gently at first. Beyond that, these tips help:
- Decide whether the units stop at the picture rail or run to the ceiling
- Talk to your electrician early if you want new sockets
- Have any damp looked at before the units are made
- Bring the sizes of anything that has to fit in the cupboards
Do not let stored things block the chimney breast vent. Air moving through the chimney helps keep damp away, which protects the units too.
Every so often, check that hinges and handles haven’t worked loose.
Bespoke alcove units or ready-made?
In fairness, standalone furniture comes with you when you move. Built-in units become part of the room and are left behind when you go. It depends on how long you expect to stay. Doors, windows and radiators rarely leave a gap that matches a standard width, which leaves ready-made pieces sitting awkwardly. Built-in pieces are planned around those fixed points.
How it is painted is part of the price: spray painting is done in the workshop, while hand painting can be done on site. Your choice, along with the size and the fittings, is reflected in the written quote.
Why choose us
- More than 300 projects completed
- Saturdays by arrangement
- Scribed to uneven walls
- Built in our workshop and fitted in your home
See our comparison of bespoke and off-the-shelf or what to look for in a quote.
Living-room carpentry in Broom Hill: local notes
In the area around Broom Hill, the largest groups of homes date from between 1919 and 1939 (about 39%) and between 1945 and 1972 (about 31%), on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. Each era brings its own kind of wall, ceiling height and floor, so it shapes the design from the first measurement. Entries on the National Heritage List near the centre of Broom Hill include Church of All Saints (Grade II*), under half a mile south-east, and Perry Hall Farmhouse (Grade II), under half a mile north-west. For a listed home, changes inside that alter its character can require listed building consent from the council, for example removing or fixing into original panelling. It’s worth speaking to the council’s conservation officer before the design is final. More than a third of the homes in the area around Broom Hill (about 39%) date from between 1919 and 1939, in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. Houses from the 1920s and 1930s often have a bay window and a chimney breast in the front room, and alcove units are planned around both.
For a family home near Perry Hall Primary School, alcove units can be planned with low cupboards for toys and higher shelves for everything else. If you live near Jubilee Country Park, alcove units can be arranged to keep the window and the light clear. Living in a block of flats near Orpington station? Then alcove units are made in sections sized for the stairs, landings and lift, so measuring the route matters as much as measuring the room.
Broom Hill is about 1 mile north-east of Orpington, in the London Borough of Bromley. Homes in Broom Hill are part of the area we cover for alcove units. Broom Hill is one of the places in Bromley where we make alcove units, and the borough has 49 places on our list.
Here we cover the BR6 and BR5 postcode area for alcove units. If your home is on a street such as New Road, Irene Road and Sandy Lane, or close by, we can visit to measure up for alcove units. If you’re just outside Broom Hill, we also cover Crofton (1 mile south-west), Petts Wood (1 mile north-west), Locksbottom (2 miles west), Farnborough (2 miles south-west) and Green Street Green (2 miles south). Across the rest of Bromley, our area takes in Bromley (4 miles west), Beckenham (6 miles west), Chislehurst (3 miles north-west), Penge (7 miles west), Anerley (8 miles west) and Crystal Palace (8 miles west).
Local landmarks in Broom Hill
Our area takes in the homes around The Cricketers pub, The Priory School and Harris Academy Orpington and the streets around them. For rail, the closest station is Orpington station, roughly 0.6 miles south-west. Well-known places in the area include Orpington Hospital (1.3 miles south) and London Borough of Bromley Museum (close by, under half a mile south-east).
How we price alcove units
To work out the quote, we look at:
- Spray painting or hand painting
- How big the furniture is
- Hanging rails, shelves, drawers and other fittings inside
- Where a van can park, like a permit bay or a bay suspension
Awkward rooms take more time: walls that lean, floors that slope and sloping ceilings all mean more scribing and cutting. That’s reflected in the quote, written once we’ve measured up.
Helping us understand the room
Ahead of the design visit, we will normally ask about:
- How you want to use the space
- Anything in the way, such as radiators, sockets, switches, a boiler or meters
- What kind of home it is, and which floor the room is on
- Pictures of the whole wall or room, including the floor and ceiling
For a quote for alcove units in Broom Hill, get in touch through our contact form. Let us know which room it is and roughly what you have in mind, with sizes if you have them. Next comes a design visit, followed by a quote in writing.
Your questions about alcove units in Broom Hill
Is parking a problem for fitting in Broom Hill?
It depends on the street, as many London boroughs run controlled parking zones. A van may need a visitor permit, a pay-and-display bay or a suspended bay, which the council arranges, often with notice. Let us know what parking is near you at the design visit, and we’ll plan around it.
Can you fit furniture in a home close to Orpington station?
Yes. We cover all of Bromley and the rest of London. You can fill in our short enquiry form to arrange a design visit, and let us know about parking and access at the same time.
Should both alcoves have the same units?
It is up to you. Matching units give a balanced, formal look around the chimney breast, but many people put a desk or a TV in one alcove and cupboards in the other. We can keep the details the same so they still look like a pair.
What happens when you come to measure?
We measure the space and discuss the design, materials and finish. We also check the walls and floors and note radiators, sockets and other things in the way, then send a quote in writing.
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.
Will alcove units block the chimney vent?
Any vent is kept clear in the design. Air moving through a capped chimney helps stop damp, which protects the units as well as the wall. If there’s damp on the breast already, it is best sorted before fitting.