Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Tower Hamlets · London
Alcove Units in Hackney Wick
For homes in Hackney Wick, we make alcove units from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood. The finish is spray painted or hand painted, in a colour agreed with you.
- Everyday clutter left on show
- Units that sit well with original features
- Somewhere to keep books and records
Alcove units for your home in Hackney Wick
About our alcove units in Hackney Wick
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, rather than boxing it in. If there are signs of damp on the chimney breast or in the alcoves, they’re best sorted before fitting so the new furniture starts on a dry wall. If you’re living with room to work in an alcove and furniture that doesn’t fit the alcove, alcove units made from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted can solve it.
Open-plan living is usual in homes built since 2000, and around Hackney Wick many homes date from those years. Alcove units can give the sitting end of an open-plan room its own identity. Finished floors in newer homes mark easily, so they’re covered while we work.
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.
- Where
- Hackney Wick (E3, E9, E20)
- Area
- Tower Hamlets
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Made
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Made from
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- Working days
- Weekdays (Saturdays if arranged)
- Get in touch
- The contact form
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
Flats, blocks and rented homes
Landlords furnishing a let use fitted furniture too, often to make the most of a small or awkward room. The materials are the same as for any home: moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, finished by spray or by hand.
A lot of London’s terraced houses are now converted flats, and that often means a shared hallway and a tight turn on the stairs. Each section is sized with that in mind, once we have measured the way in.
Looking after your furniture
Looking after painted furniture is simple with a little care. These habits help most:
- Move things out of the alcoves so we can measure properly
- Let us know about stairs, parking and access early
- Consider whether the units should reach the ceiling
- Bring the sizes of anything that has to fit in the cupboards
Paint is dry to the touch well before it has fully cured. For the first while, treat the units gently: lift things onto the shelves rather than sliding them, and don’t scrub the surfaces.
Use a mat under plants, vases and drinks, since standing water can mark painted shelves. Dry any spills quickly.
Places near Hackney Wick
Also in Hackney Wick
Could you do it yourself?
If you’re handy, a simple shelf or a standard wardrobe in a square room is a reasonable DIY job. Sloping ceilings, uneven floors and lath-and-plaster walls make it harder.
Flat-pack and off-the-shelf furniture has its place. If the walls are straight and the space suits standard sizes, it often does the job.
Questions we’re often asked
I live near Hackney Wick station. Is that in your area?
Yes, homes across Tower Hamlets and the rest of London are within the area we cover. To get started, you can use our contact form with some details about the room.
Do I need permission for fitted furniture in a conservation area?
Normally not: conservation area rules mainly cover the outside of buildings, and fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. If your home is listed, works inside that affect its character can need listed building consent, so check with the council first. If you are unsure, the council can confirm.
Will alcove units fit if my walls are not straight?
Yes. We measure each alcove carefully at the design visit, make the units in our workshop and trim the edges on site to meet the wall.
Should alcove units go up to the ceiling?
It is up to you. Full-height units give the most storage, while others stop them at the picture rail or leave open shelves above a low cupboard. We go through the options at the measuring visit.
Can the two alcove units be different?
That is your choice. Matching units give a balanced, formal look around the chimney breast, but many people put a desk or a TV in one alcove and cupboards in the other. We can keep the details the same so they still look like a pair.
Who moves the sockets behind the alcove units?
Electrical work is not something we do. New or moved sockets are a job for your electrician, ideally before fitting. We plan the units around the sockets, with cut-outs where needed.
Hackney Wick homes and alcove units
The biggest shares of homes in the area around Hackney Wick were built since 2000 (about 65%) and between 1973 and 1999 (about 15%), according to Valuation Office Agency council tax figures (2025). Knowing roughly when a home was built helps, because walls and fixings change from one era to the next. There are 11 entries on the National Heritage List within half a mile of the centre of Hackney Wick. You can check whether a particular building is listed on Historic England’s list. About 76% of households in the neighbourhood around Hackney Wick live in purpose-built flats, going by Census 2021 figures from the ONS. For a flat, alcove units are made in sections sized for the stairs, the lift and the doors. Building management rules on lifts, deliveries and working hours are worth checking early.
Living in a block of flats near Hackney Wick station? Then each piece is planned so it can be carried up and joined together in the room. If you live near Mabley Green, shelving that stops short of the window keeps the view of the green. The wider area includes historic houses such as Sutton House, about 1.3 miles west. 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.
Hackney Wick is about 3 miles south-west of Whitechapel, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Design visits and fitting in Hackney Wick can be on a Saturday, by arrangement. We cover places right across Tower Hamlets.
Every home in E3, E9 and E20 is within our area for alcove units, from the main roads to the quieter streets. Whether you live on a street such as Wick Lane, Dace Road and Wyke Road or on one nearby, we can visit to measure up for alcove units. If you’re just outside Hackney Wick, we also cover Fish Island (1 mile south), Donnybrook Quarter (1 mile south-west), Old Ford (1 mile south), Temple Mills (1 mile north-east) and East Village (1 mile north-east). Across the rest of Tower Hamlets, our area takes in Whitechapel (3 miles south-west), Spitalfields (3 miles south-west), Tower Hill (3 miles south-west), Bethnal Green (2 miles south-west), Bow Common (2 miles south) and Shadwell (3 miles south-west).
Around Hackney Wick
Around Hackney Wick, we cover homes near The Lea Tavern, Mulberry UTC and Mulberry UTC and the streets around them. There is a railway station in Hackney Wick itself: Hackney Wick station. Well-known places in the area include Homerton University Hospital (1.2 miles north-west) and V&A East (within half a mile east). Not far away are Old Ford Island.
How we price alcove units
The price for your room depends on:
- The internal fittings
- Spray painting or hand painting
- Stairs, lifts and the route to the room
- Parking near your home
Rooms that are not square take more work: walls that lean, floors that slope and sloping ceilings all mean more scribing and cutting. The quote allows for it, which we write after seeing the room.
Helping us understand the room
These details help when you contact us:
- Radiators, sockets, pipes or meters on or near the wall
- Rough measurements: width, height and depth
- The type of home and how the room is reached
- Pictures of the whole wall or room, including the floor and ceiling
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. A written quote follows the visit, so you can take your time with it. To arrange the visit, fill in our short enquiry form.
How fitting day works
Finishing comes last. If the furniture was spray painted in the workshop, we fill the fixing holes and touch up on site; hand painting, if that’s what you chose, can be done in place once everything is fitted. Either way, the finish is the one set out in your quote. Stud walls can carry pipes and cables, so we check before drilling, with heavier pieces tied into the studs. Any new sockets or plumbing are for your electrician or plumber, ideally before fitting day.
- You get in touch and describe the alcoves you want to fill.
- We visit to measure the alcoves top, middle and bottom, and check the floor for level, then go through the design with you.
- We send the design, materials and finish in a quote in writing.
- The units are built in 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.
Before we arrive
- Empty the space we’ll be working in
- Move anything in the hall or on the stairs out of the way
- Let us know where the boiler and meters are
Starting with a design visit
To get a quote, tell us about the room on our contact form and tell us which room you have in mind. We then arrange a design visit to measure and talk through the design, and a quote in writing follows.