Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Bromley · London
Farnborough Alcove Units
We make alcove units for homes in Farnborough, designed around the room you have. Your alcove unit is designed at a visit to your home and made in our workshop.
- Somewhere to keep books and records
- Furniture that doesn’t fit the alcove
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
Alcove units designed for your room
How we make alcove units for Farnborough
Even a chimney that is been blocked or capped needs some ventilation to help keep damp out of the breast. We keep any vent clear when we design alcove units. If there are signs of damp on the chimney breast or in the alcoves, they’re best sorted before fitting, as cupboards fitted over damp walls can suffer. We make alcove units from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, finished by spray or by hand, and people most often get in touch about a place for a small desk and standard units leaving gaps at the sides.
If you live in one of the interwar houses or semis around Farnborough, the main room is often well proportioned, with a bay, a chimney breast and not many other recesses. Alcove units can fill the alcoves, run the length of a wall or frame 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 written quote follows the design visit. It sets out the design we have talked through, the materials and the finish, so it is clear what’s included.
- Location
- Farnborough (BR6)
- Borough
- Bromley
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- Design visit, then a written quote
- Made
- Made in our workshop and fitted on site
- Boards and paint
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- When we fit
- Weekdays (Saturdays if arranged)
- Enquiries
- Send us a message
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Questions from Farnborough
Can parking be tricky on fitting day in Farnborough?
It can be, depending on whether your street is in a controlled parking zone. A van may need a visitor permit, a pay-and-display bay or a suspended bay, which the council arranges, often with notice. It helps to tell us about parking during the design visit.
Do you make alcove units for homes in Farnborough?
Yes, Farnborough is within the area we cover, which takes in all of Bromley and the rest of London. The first step is a design visit, where we measure and talk through the design, and then we send a quote.
How much will my alcove unit cost?
Size, doors and drawers, what goes inside and the finish all affect it. The price comes in a quote in writing after the design visit.
Can an alcove unit include a desk?
Yes. One alcove can take a desk with shelves above and a drawer or cupboard beneath. Height and depth are agreed with you, with a way planned for cables to reach the sockets.
How long will the fitting take?
How long the fitting takes depends on the size and number of units, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. The units are made in our workshop first, so the time in your home is mostly fitting, scribing and finishing.
Can the fitting be on a Saturday?
Yes, we can arrange Saturdays. Just mention it when you get in touch.
How fitting works for alcove units
Fitting day follows a set order: we protect the floors, bring the sections in, set them level, scribe them to the walls, fix them and finish them. At the end, we tidy up and go over the work with you. How long fitting takes depends on the size of the alcoves and what goes in them, and we confirm the fitting days in your quote. In a 1920s or 1930s house, the hall and stairs are usually simple, though we still measure the route in not just the room. The furniture comes in sections and is put together where it is going.
- You get in touch about alcove units and the room they’re for.
- We visit to measure the alcoves and discuss the design, including the paint finish. You can choose a spray-painted finish from our workshop or a hand-painted one done in your home.
- A quote in writing follows, with the finish written in alongside the design and materials.
- The units are built in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood. If you chose spray painting, that’s done in the workshop too, for a smooth, even surface.
- We fit the units in your home and scribe them to the walls.
- Paint needs time to cure, so go gently with the new units at first.
Before we arrive
- Let us know where the boiler and meters are
- Empty the space we’ll be working in
- Keep pets out of the room and the hallway
Ask for a quote
Because every job is different, the cost is set out in a written quote after the visit. Each room is different, so we quote after seeing it, once the room is measured and the design talked through. To arrange a visit, use our contact form.
Related advice
Bespoke or off-the-shelf?
Off-the-shelf units come in the colours the maker chose. 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. Ready-made furniture rarely suits a bay, a box room or a bulkhead over the stairs, and interwar homes often have all three. Fitted furniture is made around them.
Getting to the room affects the job as well. Narrow halls, tight stairs or a small lift may mean the furniture is made in more sections. Your quote is written for your room once we’ve visited and measured.
Why choose Bespoke Carpentry in Farnborough
- Saturdays by arrangement
- Built from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood
- A design visit, then a written quote
- Made for your room, not a standard size
Take a look at bespoke vs off-the-shelf or how to compare quotes.
Nearby places to Farnborough
More for homes in Farnborough
Could you do it yourself?
A confident DIYer can manage simple shelves or a standard wardrobe in a square room. Sloping ceilings, uneven floors and lath-and-plaster walls make it harder, because scribing and the right fixings start to matter.
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. In an older room, standard units rarely manage that.
Where other trades come in
Before you plan the job, it is useful to know what we do not do:
- Taking out a chimney breast or opening up a fireplace
- Finding and fixing the cause of damp
- Making good damaged walls before fitting
If you’re not sure what’s possible in your room, you can tell us about the room on our contact form and we will give you a straight answer. How it works.
Materials and parts
- Birch plywood
- Scribed side panels
- Spray-painted finish
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Adjustable shelves
- Hand-painted finish
- Panelled or flat doors
What affects the price in Farnborough
Not every room costs the same, and it comes down to:
- How many doors and drawers there are
- The width and height of the space
- Access to the room, like stairs, lifts and narrow halls
- Hanging rails, shelves, drawers and other fittings inside
The inside of the furniture affects the price as well: rails, shelves, drawers and dividers all add work. At the design visit, we work out what you need inside, and the quote follows.
Helping us understand the room
You do not need exact measurements or a plan. Just send what you can:
- How you want to use the space
- Rough measurements: width, height and depth
- Anything in the way, like radiators, sockets, switches, a boiler or meters
- A few pictures of the space, taken from the doorway and from each corner
To get a quote, fill in our short enquiry form and tell us a little about the room and what you want the furniture to do. We then arrange a design visit to measure and go through the design, and a quote in writing follows.
Living-room carpentry in Farnborough: local notes
The biggest shares of homes in the neighbourhood around Farnborough were built between 1973 and 1999 (about 31%) and between 1945 and 1972 (about 27%), on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. Knowing roughly when a home was built helps, because walls and fixings change from one era to the next. Entries on the National Heritage List near the centre of Farnborough include Church of St Giles the Abbot (Grade II*), under half a mile south-west, and Elm House (Grade II), less than half a mile west. If you live in a listed building, fixing into or taking out original features such as panelling can require listed building consent. The council’s conservation officer is the person to ask before work starts. About 59% of households in the area around Farnborough live in detached or semi-detached houses, going by Census 2021 figures from the ONS. A house like that usually has more rooms to plan around than a flat, and sometimes a driveway that makes unloading easier.
Down House, about 2.1 miles south-west, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. If your own home is a period one, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at. For a family home near Farnborough Primary School, low doors that small hands can open, with books and ornaments higher up, suit a busy family room. If you live near South Park, alcove units can be arranged to keep the window and the light clear.
Farnborough is about 2 miles north-east of Orpington, part of the London Borough of Bromley. We work across all London boroughs and the City of London, and Farnborough is part of that. Our work takes in places right across Bromley, from the busiest high streets to quiet residential roads.
In BR6, the process is the same as anywhere else in London. Whether you live on a street like Tye Lane, Peel Road and Pitt Road or on one nearby, we can arrange a design visit for alcove units. Neighbouring places we cover for alcove units include Green Street Green (1 mile south-east), Locksbottom (1 mile north-west), Crofton (1 mile north), Farthing Street (1 mile south-west) and Downe (2 miles south-west). We also make alcove units in nearby places like Orpington (2 miles north-east), Bromley (4 miles north-west), Beckenham (6 miles north-west), St Mary Cray (3 miles north-east), Chislehurst (4 miles north) and Penge (7 miles north-west).
Landmarks near Farnborough
Around Farnborough, we cover homes near Newstead Wood School and The Buff pub, among other places. The nearest railway station is Orpington station, about 1.2 miles north-east of the centre. Other landmarks nearby include Crofton Roman Villa (1.1 miles north-east) and Orpington Hospital (0.9 miles east).