Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Hounslow · London
Alcove units in Chiswick, Hounslow
Alcove units in Chiswick: cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast. Every piece is made in our workshop and fitted in your home.
- Cupboards in keeping with an older house
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
Alcove units in Chiswick
About our alcove units in Chiswick
Many people choose cupboards at low level and shelves above them. Closed cupboards hide everyday clutter, while the shelves hold books and the things you want on show. The cupboard top gives you a ledge for a lamp, a speaker or a plant. We set the heights to suit the room and what you will store. We make alcove units from birch ply and moisture-resistant MDF, painted by hand or sprayed, and the things people most often want solved are clutter with nowhere to go and storage that suits a period room.
Victorian and Edwardian houses were built with solid brick outside walls, and internal walls may be brick or lath and plaster. With so many homes around Chiswick built before 1919, the wall type is checked before any fixing for alcove units is chosen. Lath and plaster in particular needs fixings chosen for it.
Everything we agree at the design visit goes into the written quote: the layout and internal fittings, the materials and the finish. If something is not quite right, tell us before anything is made.
- Location
- Chiswick (W4, SW14)
- Borough
- Hounslow
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- Design visit, then a quote in writing
- Made
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Materials and finish
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- When we fit
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Get in touch
- Send us a message
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
When you need someone else
We design, make and fit the furniture. That means:
- Any structural work on the chimney breast
- Making good damaged walls before fitting
- Moving sockets or switches, which needs an electrician
If in doubt, you can tell us about the room on our contact form and describe the room before you arrange a visit. How a job runs, step by step.
Boards, parts and finishes
- Scribed side panels
- Hand-painted finish
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Adjustable shelves
- Spray-painted finish
- Panelled or flat doors
- Birch plywood
When is bespoke worth it?
Long shelves are where off-the-shelf often struggles. 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. That is something we plan for in the design.
Cost matters, and it’s fair to say so: off-the-shelf furniture normally costs less up front. Bespoke makes more sense where the room is awkward, the space is valuable or you want the furniture to look built in.
Places near Chiswick
More for homes in Chiswick
Tips worth knowing
The finish lasts best with a little care. Here are our suggestions:
- Check whether there is a vent in the chimney breast
- Book your electrician first if sockets need moving
- Measure anything large that must fit inside, such as a record player
- Make the alcoves easy to reach for measuring
Keep any chimney vent clear once the units are in, even when the cupboards fill up. Ventilation helps keep the chimney breast dry, which protects the units too.
Now and then, check handles and hinges are still tight and adjust a door before a small rub becomes a mark.
From workshop to your room
With the carcasses fixed and level, any doors go on and any drawers or lids are fitted. We adjust each one so the gaps line up and it closes cleanly, and then we check it all again. The time the fitting takes depends on the size of the alcoves and what goes in them, and we confirm the fitting days in your quote. If your hall still has its original tiles or boards, they’re covered before any carrying starts. Fixings into older walls are made carefully, as lath and plaster can crack if treated roughly. Any decorating around the new pieces is for your decorator.
- You contact us with some details about the chimney breast and alcoves.
- We visit to measure the alcoves top, middle and bottom, and check the floor for level.
- You get a written quote for the units, materials and finish.
- The units are made at our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, leaving a scribing allowance where they meet the walls.
- At fitting, we set each unit level on a plinth or feet and trim that edge to follow the wall. Spray-painted units arrive finished; hand-painted ones are painted once fitted.
Preparing the room
- Book any lift and let the concierge or building manager know
- Keep pets in another room while we work
- Move anything in the hall or on the stairs out of the way
Starting with a design visit
Rough measurements are fine at the start. We measure everything properly at the design visit, along with the walls, floor and ceiling. To arrange it, get in touch through our contact form and let us know about the room. The written quote follows the visit.
Read more
Why bespoke in Chiswick?
With bought furniture you are limited to the maker’s finishes. We paint ours in the colour you pick, either spray painted in the workshop or hand painted. They can match the walls, the woodwork or neither. Tall standalone furniture needs fixing back to the wall so it cannot tip, and in an older house that can mean fixing into brick or lath and plaster. Fitted furniture is designed with the wall in mind.
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. Because every job is different, the cost is set out in a written quote after the visit.
Why work with us in Chiswick
- Every London borough and the City of London covered
- Over 300 projects completed
- Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Made in our workshop, then fitted in your home
See our comparison of bespoke and off-the-shelf or how to compare quotes.
Your questions about alcove units in Chiswick
I live near Chiswick station. Is that in your area?
Yes, homes across Hounslow and the rest of London are within the area we cover. To get started, you can tell us about the room on our contact form with some details about the room.
Will parking be an issue for fitting furniture in Chiswick?
It can be, depending on whether your street is in a controlled parking zone. Depending on the street, a visitor permit, a paid bay or a bay suspension through the council may be needed, and suspensions often need notice. Let us know what parking is near you at the design visit.
How long are you in the house for the fitting?
It depends on the size of the alcoves and what goes in them, and we confirm the fitting days in your quote. We’ll explain what to expect before we arrive.
Which finishes are there for alcove units?
Either a spray-painted or a hand-painted finish. A sprayed finish is very smooth and even; a hand-painted one is easy to touch up later. We talk through both at the measuring visit.
Who moves the sockets behind the alcove units?
Electrical work is not something we do. If you want sockets moved or added, your electrician should do that before we fit, and some electrical work in homes is covered by Part P of the Building Regulations. We plan the units around the sockets, with cut-outs where needed.
Can the two alcove units be different?
It is entirely your choice. The two alcoves are often slightly different sizes, so each unit is made for its own recess. They can share a style while doing different things.
Alcove units in Chiswick: local notes
About 53% of the homes in the streets around Chiswick went up before 1919, and about 14% between 1973 and 1999, in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. 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 168 entries on the National Heritage List within half a mile of the centre of Chiswick. Older homes nearby may have original joinery, shutters or panelling worth keeping, and alcove units can be designed to work around them. TfL’s Ultra Low Emission Zone covers every part of London, Hounslow included. It applies to every van that comes to fit furniture in Chiswick. How the van gets to your door is planned at the design visit.
If your home is as old as some of the listed buildings nearby, such as Chiswick House Conservatory, original features like shutters, panelling and fireplaces are worth designing around. For a listed home, fixing into original features can need listed building consent. For a family home near The William Hogarth Primary School, a cupboard for board games and a shelf for reading books can go into the same design. If your home is one of the older houses near St. Nicholas Church, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at.
Chiswick is part of the London Borough of Hounslow, about 4 miles west of Hounslow. We cover Chiswick as part of our work across Hounslow. Chiswick is one of the places in Hounslow where we make alcove units, and the borough has 25 places on our list.
We work across W4 and SW14. We cover homes on streets such as Pumping Station Road, Dale Street and Devonshire Road, whether you want alcove units or another piece made for the room. Other places close to Chiswick include Turnham Green (1 mile south), Old Chiswick (1 mile south-east), Grove Park (1 mile south-west), Gunnersbury (1 mile west) and Strand-on-the-Green (1 mile west). Elsewhere in Hounslow, we also cover Hounslow (4 miles west), Feltham (7 miles south-west), Brentford (2 miles west), Isleworth (3 miles south-west), Woodlands (4 miles west) and Lampton (5 miles west). Being one of the larger places in Hounslow, Chiswick is covered for alcove units and everything else we make.
Local landmarks in Chiswick
In Chiswick, that includes homes near The Swedish School, Chiswick School and Mawson Arms, among other places. Chiswick’s nearest station is Chiswick station, roughly 0.8 miles south-west of the centre. Other landmarks nearby include West London Hospital (1.5 miles east) and Kurdish Museum Library and Archive (0.8 miles east). Green spaces nearby include Duke's Hollow.