Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Richmond upon Thames · London
Alcove Units in Hampton Hill
Alcove units in Hampton Hill: cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast. We make each piece in our workshop and fit it in your home, with a spray or hand-painted finish.
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
- Storage that suits a period room
- Furniture that does not fit the alcove
Alcove units for your home in Hampton Hill
Questions from Hampton Hill
Can you make alcove units for a home in Hampton Hill?
Yes. Hampton Hill is one of the places we work, along with the rest of Richmond upon Thames and London. You can tell us about the room on our contact form to arrange a design visit.
Does a conservation area in or near Hampton Hill affect fitted furniture?
Not normally. Conservation area controls are largely about how buildings look from outside, so fitted furniture inside a house does not normally need planning permission. If your home is listed, works inside that affect its character can require listed building consent, so check with the council first. The council’s planning or conservation team can tell you if in doubt.
Do alcove units affect the chimney’s ventilation?
Any vent in the chimney breast is kept clear when we design the units. Even a blocked chimney needs some ventilation to help keep damp away.
Should alcove units go up to the ceiling?
It is up to you. Full-height units give the most storage, while a low cupboard with shelves above keeps the room feeling lighter. We go through the options during the design visit.
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 will help you choose at the measuring visit.
Do I need to be in when you fit?
We need access, so someone has to let us in. You do not need to watch us work, but it helps to be around at the end.
How we make alcove units for Hampton Hill
Period alcoves are rarely square. The walls lean, the chimney breast may bow and the floor often slopes, sometimes all in one recess. Each unit is made at 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. Adjustable feet or a plinth set it level. Typical reasons to get in touch are toys and paperwork with no proper home and bowed walls and sloping floors, and the answer is made at our workshop from birch ply and moisture-resistant MDF, painted by hand or sprayed.
Where housing types are mixed, as they are in much of London, living rooms vary a lot in shape. You might have alcoves, a bay, a wide open-plan room or a compact one. The design for your home in Hampton Hill starts from its own walls, and long shelves are sized not to sag.
The written quote puts the design visit in writing: the layout, what goes inside, the materials used and the finish. If you’d like to change anything, it’s easier before the furniture is made.
- Where
- Hampton Hill (TW12, TW11, TW2)
- Area
- Richmond upon Thames
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Where it’s made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Made from
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- When we fit
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by arrangement
- Contact
- Our contact form
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
What alcove units cannot fix
We’re carpenters, so some jobs belong to other trades. These are worth knowing before you plan:
- Treating damp in the chimney breast or walls
- Electrical work, such as new sockets or switches, which is for your electrician
- Plastering or repairing loose plaster in the alcoves
Not sure whether your space suits alcove units? You can message us from the contact page and we will tell you. Our process from visit to fitting.
Materials and parts
- Hand-painted finish
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Adjustable shelves
- Panelled or flat doors
- Birch plywood
- Spray-painted finish
- Scribed side panels
How fitting day works
Once the main sections are fixed in place, we hang any doors and fit any drawers or lids. Each one is adjusted until the gaps are even and it closes cleanly, then checked again. How long fitting takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and your quote sets out the fitting days. Clearing the room and the way in beforehand makes the day easier, including pictures on nearby walls. Floors and doorways are protected before anything comes in. Then the sections come in and are joined in place.
- You get in touch to say you’d like alcove units.
- A design visit follows, where we measure up and agree the layout with you. If one alcove needs a desk or a TV space, this is when we plan it.
- A written quote follows, with the finish set out.
- The units are built in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood. A spray-painted finish is applied there too, if that is what you chose.
- We bring them to your home and fit them in place.
Before fitting day
- Let us know about any meters, fuse boards or boilers in the area
- Leave a clear route from the front door to the room
- Get any new sockets or wiring done by your electrician before fitting day
How to get a quote
Rough measurements are fine at the start. We measure everything properly at the measuring visit. To get started, fill in our short enquiry form. You receive a written quote after the visit.
Related advice
Looking after your furniture
These points come up often when people plan alcove units. They help whatever the room:
- Book your electrician first if sockets need moving
- Let us know about parking and access during the design visit
- Note any vent or air brick on the chimney breast
- Move things out of the alcoves so we can measure properly
Load the shelves evenly rather than piling weight in the middle. A full shelf of books is heavier than it looks, and an even load keeps the shelves straight.
Watch for damp marks on the chimney breast or the walls near the units. Damp needs its cause fixing by the right trade.
Could you do it yourself?
Standard units come in set widths and heights, so there’s often a strip of wasted space at the side or above. Fitted furniture is made to the room’s measurements, so it can use the full height and width.
Long shelves are where off-the-shelf often struggles. 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. That is something we plan for in the design.
Neighbourhoods near Hampton Hill
More for homes in Hampton Hill
Alcove units in Hampton Hill: local notes
The biggest shares of homes in the streets around Hampton Hill were built before 1919 (about 41%) and between 1945 and 1972 (about 21%), 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. Entries on the National Heritage List near the centre of Hampton Hill include Templeton Lodge (Grade II), less than half a mile north-east, and Upper Lodge (Grade II), under half a mile south-east. Works inside a listed home that affect its character, for instance removing original joinery or fixing into it, may need listed building consent from the council. Ask the council’s conservation officer before anything is fixed. More than a third of the homes in the area around Hampton Hill (about 41%) were built before 1919, going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. Houses of that age normally have a chimney breast with an alcove each side, and alcove units are built to those exact widths.
If you live in a period home close to Hampton Hill United Reformed Church, the alcoves beside a chimney breast are the natural place for alcove units. If you live in a flat close to Fulwell station, each piece is planned so it can be carried up and joined together in the room. For families living near Hampton Hill Junior School, alcove units can be planned with low cupboards for toys and higher shelves for everything else.
Hampton Hill is part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, about 2 miles north-east of Twickenham. We can visit homes in Hampton Hill on weekdays, or on a Saturday by arrangement. Across Richmond upon Thames, we cover Hampton Hill, along with the rest of the borough.
In TW12, TW11 and TW2, the process is the same as anywhere else in London. Whether you live on a street like Mays Road, Park Road and Holly Road or on one nearby, we can arrange a design visit for alcove units. Hampton Hill is near the A311 and A313; on busy main roads, unloading alcove units takes a little planning. Nearby, we also make alcove units in Fulwell (1 mile north-east), Hampton (1 mile west), Teddington (1 mile east), Hanworth (1 mile west) and Strawberry Hill (1 mile north-east). Other parts of Richmond upon Thames we cover include Twickenham (2 miles north-east), Richmond (3 miles north-east), Richmond upon Thames (4 miles north-east), Barnes (6 miles north-east), Kew (5 miles north-east) and Mortlake (5 miles north-east).
Landmarks near Hampton Hill
The streets we cover here include those near Turing House School, Lady Eleanor Holles School and Park Hotel, among other places. For rail, the closest station is Fulwell station, roughly 0.6 miles north-east. Nearby you will also find Metropolitan Traffic Police Museum (0.9 miles south-west) and Teddington Memorial Hospital (0.6 miles east). Open spaces near Hampton Hill include Oak Avenue Local Nature Reserve.
Why bespoke in Hampton Hill?
Some flat-pack shelves are thin and start to sag once they’re loaded. Shelves in a bespoke unit are sized for the span and the load, with birch plywood where it is needed. That said, if you’re renting or moving soon, a good off-the-shelf unit may make more sense. Gaps behind, beside and above ready-made furniture collect dust, and fitted furniture closes them.
The price comes in a written quote, worked out from the measurements and the design you choose. Bigger pieces use more board and take longer to make and fit, so size comes first. After that, the number of doors and drawers, the internal fittings and the finish all play a part.
Why choose Bespoke Carpentry in Hampton Hill
- Spray painted or hand painted, in the colour you choose
- Made for your room, not a standard size
- 300+ projects completed
- Every quote follows a design visit
Read how bespoke compares with ready-made or what to look for in a quote.