Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Ealing · London
Alcove Units in Ealing
Few London rooms are perfectly square, and we scribe the furniture to follow the walls. We make alcove units for homes in Ealing, each designed at a visit to your home.
- Furniture that does not fit the alcove
- Somewhere to keep books and records
- Clutter with nowhere to go
Alcove units designed for your room
How fitting day works
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, and then we check it all again. The time the fitting takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and we confirm the fitting days in your quote. Older London houses often have narrow hallways and tight turns on the stairs, so alcove units are made in sections sized to get through. Floors, stairs and doorways are covered before anything is carried through, and the sections are joined and scribed in the room.
- You get in touch with a short description of the alcoves and your ideas.
- At the design visit, we measure both alcoves, check the walls and look at the skirting and picture rail.
- You receive a quote with the design, the materials and the paint finish. If anything needs changing, just tell us.
- The cupboards and shelves are then built in our workshop, each one sized to its own alcove.
- Fitting day: the units go in, are scribed to the alcoves and levelled on a plinth or feet.
Preparing the room
- Empty the space we will be working in
- Keep pets in another room while we work
- Move anything in the hall or on the stairs out of the way
How to get a quote
For a quote for alcove units in Ealing, fill in our short enquiry form. Let us know the room and the rough idea, with sizes if you have them. We’ll arrange a design visit, then send a quote in writing.
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Alcove units in Ealing
Skirting boards, picture rails and coving are common in older rooms. We can cut units around these details, stop beneath them or run up to meet them, whichever suits the room. The plinth height can match the skirting. These details are settled when we visit. If you are living with bowed walls and sloping floors and somewhere to keep books and records, that’s what alcove units are for, made from birch plywood and moisture-resistant MDF with a spray-painted or hand-painted finish.
Rooms in houses from before 1919 tend to have generous ceiling heights, and around Ealing, a large share of homes are that age. Full-height alcove units can run up to the picture rail or the cornice, so the furniture looks as if it belongs to the house. Where a fireplace has been blocked up, the chimney still needs ventilating, and any damp is sorted before units go in.
The written quote puts the design visit in writing: the layout and internal fittings, the materials and the finish. If something is not quite right, tell us before anything is made.
- Place
- Ealing (W5, W13, W3, NW10)
- Area
- Ealing
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- First step
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Made
- Made in our workshop and fitted on site
- Materials and finish
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Fitting days
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Contact
- Send us a message
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
How it is made
Spray-painted finish
Spraying in the workshop means the units arrive already finished. Give the paint time to cure fully once fitted.
Birch plywood
For alcove shelves that carry books, birch plywood helps keep them straight across a broad recess. Thickness is chosen to suit the span and the weight.
Nearby places to Ealing
What else we make in Ealing
The problems alcove units solve
Where a fireplace has been blocked up or removed, the chimney breast can look bare. Units on both sides frame the chimney breast and balance the room, whether or not the fireplace is used.
We are often asked to help with:
- Standard units leaving gaps at the sides
- A place for a small desk
- Empty alcoves either side of the chimney breast
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
Pitzhanger Manor, about 0.1 miles east, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. For a period home anywhere nearby, walls that bow and floors that slope are why alcove units are scribed to fit rather than pushed into place.
Before you hire any carpenter
- Whether the finish is set out in the quote
- Whether the quote says what the furniture is made from
- Have they measured the stairs, lift and doorways?
- Real projects you can actually look at
Built-in living-room furniture in Ealing
Homes built before 1919 make up about 56% of the housing in the area around Ealing, with about 19% built since 2000, in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. The age of a home tells us a lot about its walls, floors and ceilings, and so about how alcove units are fixed and fitted. The National Heritage List has 32 entries within half a mile of the centre of Ealing. Older homes nearby may have original joinery, shutters or panelling worth keeping, and alcove units can be designed to work around them. The share of homes built before 1919 around Ealing, about 56%, is well above the figure for the rest of London as a whole, about 28%, based on the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax data. That makes period details like uneven walls, alcoves and picture rails more likely to shape the design.
If your home is as old as some of the listed buildings nearby, like Pitzhanger Manor House, original features like shutters, panelling and fireplaces are worth designing around. If your own home is listed, check with the council before fixing into original features. If your children go to Ealing Independent College or a school nearby, low doors that small hands can open, with books and ornaments higher up, suit a busy family room.
Ealing is one of London’s 33 local authority areas. We work across all London boroughs and the City of London, and Ealing is part of that. We cover places right across the rest of London.
Every address in W5, W13, W3 and NW10 is covered for alcove units, from the main roads to the quieter streets. You’ll find streets here such as High Street, Coleridge Square and Station Road, and homes on each of them are within our area for alcove units. Ealing sits close to the A40 and B452. Close by, we also work in South Ealing (1 mile south), Pitshanger (1 mile north), Brentham Garden Suburb (1 mile north), Hanwell (1 mile west) and West Ealing (1 mile west). Across the rest of the rest of London, our area takes in Acton (2 miles east), Southall (3 miles west), Greenford (3 miles north-west), Northolt (4 miles north-west), Acton Green (2 miles east) and Bedford Park (2 miles east).
Local landmarks in Ealing
The streets we cover here include those near Great Ealing School, Library for Iranian Studies and Christ the Saviour Church of England Primary School and the streets around them. For rail, the closest station is Ealing Broadway station, roughly 0.5 miles north-east of the centre. A little further out are Ealing Hospital (1.6 miles west) and Gunnersbury Park House - Large Mansion (1.2 miles south-east). Not far away are Castlebar Hill and Fox Wood.
Questions from Ealing
Can you make alcove units for a home in Ealing?
Yes, Ealing is within the area we cover, which takes in all of London. We start with a design visit to measure the room and talk through what you need, and then we send a quote.
I live near Ealing Broadway station. Is that in your area?
Yes, homes across London are within the area we cover. You can get in touch through our contact form to arrange a design visit, and let us know about parking and access at the same time.
Can I send photos before the visit?
Yes. Pictures help us understand the room before the design visit, along with rough measurements. It’s useful to show radiators, sockets and anything else on the wall.
Can the fitting be on a Saturday?
Yes, by prior arrangement. If a Saturday works better for you, say so when you contact us.
What if the wall is cold or damp?
It can be done with some care: leaving ventilation behind and inside helps stop condensation. We do not treat damp, so any damp should be sorted before fitting day.
Do you move sockets for alcove units?
We don’t do electrical work. 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 can plan cut-outs and cable routes in the units around them.
Flats, conversions and leaseholders
Blocks of flats often have their own rules on lift bookings, entry systems and times for trades. Let us know about them at the design visit, and we will plan the fitting around them.
Some blocks ask for notice before trades arrive, often through a building manager or concierge. Lifts sometimes need to be booked, and the lift size helps decide how big each section can be. Tell us about it when you get in touch.
Flat-pack or bespoke?
Cost matters, and it is fair to say so: flat-pack is normally cheaper to buy. Bespoke earns its place where the room is tricky, space is tight or you want the furniture to look part of the house.
Shop-bought shelves can sag over a long span. Span, depth and the weight on it decide whether a shelf sags, so a long run needs a thicker shelf, a stiffening lip or a support. We design shelves with that in mind.