Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Barnet · London
East Barnet Alcove Units
Walls in older London homes are rarely straight, so we scribe the furniture to follow them. We make alcove units for homes in East Barnet, each designed at a visit to your home.
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
- A place for a small desk
- Worn or badly fitted alcove units
Alcove units designed for your room
About our alcove units in East Barnet
A capped or blocked chimney should still be ventilated to help keep damp out of the breast. Units are planned so any vent stays clear, with nothing covering it. Any damp in the alcoves should be dealt with by the right trade before the units go in so the new furniture starts on a dry wall. If you’re living with a desk that tucks into an alcove and space for a growing book collection, alcove units made from moisture-resistant MDF and strong birch plywood, with a painted finish can solve it.
In a semi from the 1920s or 1930s, the front room typically has a bay at one end and a chimney breast on the side wall. Interwar, semi-detached and detached houses make up a big part of the housing around East Barnet, so that layout is worth knowing well. We tend to plan alcove units along the chimney breast wall so the bay keeps its light, though every room is measured first.
Everything we agree at the measuring 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
- East Barnet (N20, EN4, N14)
- Area
- Barnet
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Making
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Made from
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- When we fit
- Weekdays (Saturdays if arranged)
- Contact
- Send us a message
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Your questions about alcove units in East Barnet
Do you cover homes near Oakleigh Park station?
Yes. We cover all of Barnet and the rest of London. You can send us a few details through our contact form to arrange a design visit.
Can you make alcove units for a home in East Barnet?
Yes, East Barnet is within the area we cover, which takes in all of Barnet and the rest of London. We start with a design visit to measure the room and talk through what you need, and then we send a quote.
Do I need planning permission for fitted furniture?
Not usually. Conservation areas mostly control changes to the outside, and fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. In a listed building, check with the council’s conservation officer before any work.
Are alcove units spray painted or hand painted?
We offer spray painting in the workshop and hand painting on site. Spray painting gives a smooth, factory-like finish; a hand-painted one is easy to touch up later. We’ll help you choose at the measuring visit.
Can you fit a desk into an alcove?
Yes. Many people use one alcove for a desk and the other for cupboards, or matching desks in both. We’ll plan the desk around how you work.
Should both alcoves have the same units?
That depends on how you use the room. Alcoves are often different widths anyway. They can match in style while doing different jobs.
Also near East Barnet
More for homes in East Barnet
Fitting day, step by step
Period rooms often have skirting boards, picture rails, cornices or coving for the furniture to meet. On fitting day, we cut and scribe the furniture around these details, so it looks as though it was always there. How long the fitting takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and your quote sets out the fitting days. On fitting day, the sections are carried in, assembled, scribed to the wall and levelled. Spray-painted pieces come finished from the workshop, while hand painting can happen on site. Saturday fitting is possible by prior arrangement.
- You contact us with some details about the chimney breast and alcoves.
- At the design visit we measure each alcove at several heights, because period walls are rarely flat or square, then discuss the design with you.
- You get a quote in writing for the units, materials and finish.
- In our workshop the units are made from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, with a little extra left on the edges that meet the wall.
- On fitting day we level the units and scribe the edges so they follow the line of the plaster. Spray-painted units arrive finished; hand-painted ones are painted once fitted.
Before we arrive
- Empty the space we’ll be working in
- Let us know if your street is in a controlled parking zone
- Leave a clear route from the front door to the room
Arranging a design visit
The quote is built from the design visit. We take full measurements, see how true the walls and floors are and work through the design together. Afterwards, we send a written quote, so you can take your time with it. To arrange the visit, message us from the contact page.
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Practical tips
Most of what helps is simple. Here’s what we suggest:
- Think about how the units meet the picture rail and cornice
- Deal with any damp on the chimney breast first
- Decide what goes behind doors and what goes on show
- Tell us about parking and access during the design visit
Once the cupboards are filled and in daily use, a door may settle slightly. Hinges can normally be adjusted to bring a door back in line.
Every so often, check that hinges and handles haven’t worked loose.
Flats, conversions and lettings
For flats on red routes or busy main roads, unloading takes some planning. Red routes are run by TfL and have strict stopping rules, so let us know about it at the design visit.
A lot of London’s terraced houses are now converted flats, which often brings a shared hall and tight turns on the stairs. We plan the size of each section around it, once we’ve measured the way in.
Alcove units for homes in East Barnet
About 54% of the homes in the neighbourhood around East Barnet went up between 1919 and 1939, and about 14% before 1919, in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. Knowing roughly when a home was built helps, because walls and fixings change from one era to the next. There are 7 entries on the National Heritage List within half a mile of the centre of East Barnet. Being near listed buildings does not make a home listed, and you can check any address on Historic England’s list. The Ultra Low Emission Zone has covered all of London since it reached the outer boroughs on 29 August 2023. It applies to the vans that deliver and fit furniture in East Barnet, as it does anywhere else in London. Access and parking are talked through during the design visit.
If you live in a period home close to St Mary the Virgin, walls that bow and floors that slope are why alcove units are scribed to fit rather than pushed into place. If you live near Oak Hill Park, a room that looks out on trees deserves a design that leaves the window alone. Near listed buildings like Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, less than half a mile north-east of the centre of East Barnet, older homes may keep original joinery that alcove units can be designed around. For a listed home, fixing into original features can require listed building consent.
East Barnet is about 3 miles south-west of Finchley, within the London Borough of Barnet. Wherever you are in East Barnet, the process is the same: we visit and measure, send a quote in writing, make the furniture in our workshop and fit it. Our Barnet coverage includes East Barnet, along with the rest of the borough.
We make alcove units across N20, EN4 and N14. We cover homes on streets such as Dene Road, Pine Road and Capel Road, for alcove units and any of our other fitted furniture. If you’re just outside East Barnet, we also cover Osidge (1 mile east), Brunswick Park (1 mile south-east), New Barnet (1 mile north-west), Whetstone (1 mile south-west) and Oakleigh Park (1 mile south-west). Elsewhere in Barnet, we also cover Finchley (3 miles south-west), Barnet (2 miles north-west), Burnt Oak (5 miles west), East Finchley (3 miles south), Hendon (4 miles south-west) and Edgware (5 miles west).
Near you in East Barnet
We fit furniture in homes around Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum, Salcombe School and The Cavalier pub. The nearest railway station is Oakleigh Park station, about 0.5 miles north-west of the centre. Other landmarks nearby include Grand Arcade (1.7 miles south-west) and Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum (1.8 miles south-west). Not far away are Oakleigh Park Rail Cutting.
DIY, flat-pack or bespoke
What you pay for with bespoke is mainly the fit: edges scribed to the wall, a level base on a sloping floor and a neat line where the furniture meets the ceiling. Off-the-shelf furniture can’t normally do that in an older room.
Off-the-shelf cupboards come in fixed sizes, so there is often a strip of wasted space at the side or above. Furniture we make is built to the room’s own sizes, so it can run to the ceiling and fill the width.
What it’s made from
Plinths and scribe strips
Scribe strips are the edges we trim on site to follow the wall. It is how a straight unit meets a wall that is not straight.
Shelves
How thick a shelf needs to be depends on how wide the alcove is and what it holds. Wider alcoves and heavy books need a thicker shelf, a stiffening lip or a support.