Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Southwark · London
Dulwich Alcove Units
Cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast, designed for your room in Dulwich. After a design visit and a written quote, it is made in our workshop and fitted in your home.
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
- Alcoves that aren’t square
Need alcove units in Dulwich?
Alcove units in Dulwich
Period alcoves are rarely square. Walls bow, corners wander and floors slope, sometimes all in one recess. Each unit is made in our workshop to our measurements and scribed to the walls when we fit it, so the sides meet the wall closely rather than showing a dark line. A plinth or adjustable feet take up any slope in the floor. We make alcove units from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted, and the things people most often want solved are somewhere to keep books and records and old alcove cupboards that have seen better days.
Victorian and Edwardian houses were built with solid brick outside walls, and internal walls may be brick or lath and plaster. Since a large share of the homes around Dulwich date from 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.
A quote in writing follows the design visit. It describes the design we discussed, the materials and the finish, so you know exactly what you’re getting.
- Where
- Dulwich (SE22, SE21, SE23)
- Borough
- Southwark
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Making
- Made in our workshop and fitted on site
- Materials and finish
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- When we fit
- Monday to Friday; Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Contact
- Send us a message
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
What alcove units cannot fix
Before you plan the job, it helps to know what we do not do:
- Taking out a chimney breast or opening up a fireplace
- New sockets or wiring (your electrician handles those)
- Curing damp, which needs the right specialist
Not sure whether your space suits alcove units? You can send us a few details through our contact form and we’ll tell you before you arrange a visit. How a job runs, step by step.
Boards, parts and finishes
- Hand-painted finish
- Birch plywood
- Adjustable shelves
- Panelled or flat doors
- Spray-painted finish
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Scribed side panels
Fitting day, step by step
Once the main sections are fixed in place, any doors go on and any drawers or lids are fitted. We adjust each one so the gaps line up and it closes cleanly, then checked again. How long the fitting takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. On fitting day in an older house, the main job is scribing to walls and levelling on floors that slope, so there is some trimming and adjusting on site. We protect the floors and keep dust to a minimum. Parking can be tight on terraced streets, so tell us about permits and bays at the design visit.
- To begin, tell us about the room on our contact form; a brief note on the alcoves is plenty, and mention if you live in a flat or up a few flights of stairs.
- We visit to measure the alcoves, talk through the design and check the route from the street to the room.
- Your written quote sets out the design, materials and finish.
- In our workshop we build the units from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, sized so each piece gets up the stairs and round the corners.
- 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.
Preparing the room
- Take anything hanging off the wall we are fitting to
- Mention any parking restrictions on your street
- Have your electrician move any sockets or switches beforehand
Ask for a quote
If you already have something in mind, tell us; if not, we can work it out together at the visit. The design is talked through at the visit, once we have measured, and the written quote that follows sets it out. To start, fill in our short enquiry form.
Related advice
FAQs: alcove units in Dulwich
Will parking be an issue for fitting furniture in Dulwich?
It can be, as controlled parking zones cover much of inner London. 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.
Can you fit furniture in a home close to West Dulwich station?
Yes. We cover all of Southwark and the rest of London. To get started, you can use our contact form with a few details about the room, and let us know about parking and access at the same time.
Will alcove units block the chimney vent?
We plan alcove units so any chimney vent stays clear. A capped or blocked chimney should still be ventilated to help stop damp, so we never box a vent in.
Do pictures help?
Yes. Pictures help us understand the room before the design visit, along with rough measurements. It helps to show radiators, sockets and anything else on the wall.
Is an outside wall a problem for fitted furniture?
An outside wall can be colder and damper than an inside one, so we allow for ventilation behind and inside the furniture to avoid condensation. Any damp needs sorting by the right specialist before fitting.
Does someone need to be home during the fitting?
We need someone to let us in. It’s good to have someone there at the end to look over the work with us.
Materials and finishes
Hand-painted finish
With a hand-painted finish, you see the colour in your own light. It also means any filling around scribed edges is painted in one go.
Spray-painted finish
A sprayed coat covers edges and corners evenly, which suits panelled doors. You choose the colour at the design stage.
How we price alcove units
Each piece is designed for one room, so each price is too. What affects it comes down to:
- Whether you choose a spray or hand-painted finish
- Where a van can park, like a permit bay or a bay suspension
- How many doors and drawers there are
- The internal fittings
There’s no price list: each design is priced in writing after we’ve seen the space. Bigger pieces use more board and take longer to make and fit. After that, the number of doors and drawers, the internal fittings and the finish all play a part.
Helping us understand the room
Here’s what helps us most when you contact us:
- Pictures of the whole wall or room, including the floor and ceiling
- What you’d like to store or use the space for
- Any ideas or images you have saved
- Approximate measurements of the space
You don’t need exact measurements to get started. Everything is measured properly when we visit. To arrange it, fill in our short enquiry form. The written quote follows the visit.
Bespoke alcove units or ready-made?
Off-the-shelf units come in the colours the maker chose. Ours are painted in a colour agreed with you, either spray painted in the workshop or hand painted. You can match the walls or choose a contrast. Chimney breasts in older houses stand out by different amounts, so the recesses either side are rarely the same, and standard units bought as a pair rarely suit both. Fitted furniture is made to each one separately.
The price comes in a written quote, worked out from the measurements and the design you choose. Size, the number of doors and drawers and the internal fittings make the biggest difference to the price.
Why work with us in Dulwich
- Scribed to uneven walls
- Work across the whole of London
- Over 300 projects completed
- Saturday work by prior arrangement
Read how bespoke compares with ready-made and what a quote should include.
Built-in living-room furniture in Dulwich
About 73% of the homes in the neighbourhood around Dulwich went up before 1919, and about 15% 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 66 entries on the National Heritage List within half a mile of the centre of Dulwich. Original fireplaces, shutters and panelling are worth keeping where they survive, and the furniture can be designed around them rather than over them. About 73% of homes in the streets around Dulwich were built before 1919, going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. Most London houses of that age have chimney breasts with an alcove either side in the main rooms, the classic place for alcove units, scribed to walls that are rarely straight.
The wider area includes historic houses such as Kingswood House, about 1.1 miles south. If your own home is a period one, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at. Near listed buildings like Bell House, under half a mile west of the centre of Dulwich, older homes may keep original joinery that alcove units can be designed around. For a listed home, fixing into original features can need listed building consent. If you live in a period home close to Christ's Chapel of God's Gift, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at.
Dulwich is in the London Borough of Southwark, about 1 mile north of East Dulwich. Design visits and fitting in Dulwich can be on a Saturday, by prior arrangement. In Southwark, Dulwich is one of the places we cover.
Here we cover the SE22, SE21 and SE23 postcode area for alcove units. We cover homes on streets like Court Lane, Druce Road and Boxall Road, along with the roads around them, for alcove units and any of our other fitted furniture. Dulwich is near the A2216; on busy main roads, unloading alcove units takes a little planning. Other places close to Dulwich include Dulwich Village (1 mile north-west), West Dulwich (1 mile south), Herne Hill (1 mile north-west), Sydenham Hill (1 mile south-east) and Forest Hill (1 mile east). Across the rest of Southwark, our area takes in Bermondsey (4 miles north), Elephant and Castle (4 miles north), Bankside (4 miles north), Southwark (4 miles north), St George's Fields (4 miles north) and Newington Butts (3 miles north).
What’s near Dulwich
We fit furniture in homes around Alleyn's School, The Crown and Greyhound pub and The Charter School and the streets around them. The closest station to Dulwich is West Dulwich station, about 0.7 miles south-west. A little further out are Dulwich Community Hospital (0.9 miles north) and Horniman Museum and Gardens (0.8 miles south-east). Green spaces nearby include Centre for Wildlife Gardening and Knight's Hill.