Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Hillingdon · London
Harlington Alcove Units
Cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast, designed for your room in Harlington. We measure, design and quote first, then make it in our workshop and fit it.
- Bowed walls and sloping floors
- Alcoves that are wasted space
- Shelving for books and records
Alcove units in Harlington
Boards, parts and paint
Hand-painted finish
A hand-painted finish can be done on site, after the units are fitted. It is easy to touch up later.
Shelves
Shelf heights are planned around your things so tall books and records have room. Upper shelves can be shallower for a lighter look.
Alcove units in Harlington
We fit alcove units across Hillingdon and the rest of London. It starts with a design visit, where we measure the alcoves and discuss the design. After that we send a written quote; the units are then built in our workshop and fitted in your home. We make alcove units from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted, and people most often get in touch about shelving for books and records and a place for a small desk.
Concrete floors and ceilings are common in post-war blocks, and drilling into them takes the right tools and fixings. With many homes around Harlington dating from the post-war decades, we check the walls at the measuring visit before alcove units are designed. Where a wall is a lightweight partition, heavy pieces stand on the floor and are fixed back for stability.
If the job needs another trade, like an electrician or a plumber, we will tell you. Our quote covers the carpentry: the design, the materials and the finish.
- Place
- Harlington (UB3, TW6, UB7)
- Area
- Hillingdon
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Made from
- MDF and plywood, painted to order
- Fitting days
- Weekdays; Saturdays on request
- Enquiries
- The contact form
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
What else we make in Harlington
Bespoke or off-the-shelf?
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, because scribing and the right fixings start to matter.
Cost matters, and it is fair to say so: off-the-shelf furniture typically costs less up front. Bespoke makes more sense where the room is awkward, the space is valuable or you want the furniture to look built in.
Alcove units for homes in Harlington
Homes built between 1945 and 1972 make up about 49% of the housing in the area around Harlington, with about 27% built between 1919 and 1939, based on the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax data. Each era brings its own kind of wall, ceiling height and floor, so it shapes the design from the first measurement. There are 13 entries on the National Heritage List within half a mile of the centre of Harlington. You can check whether a particular building is listed on Historic England’s list. About 49% of homes in the neighbourhood around Harlington were built between 1945 and 1972, based on the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax data. Post-war rooms tend to be simple shapes, often without a chimney breast, so a full wall of alcove units is often the answer, with fixings chosen for the wall.
Near listed buildings like Church of St Peter and St Paul, about 0.5 miles north of the centre of Harlington, older homes may keep original joinery that alcove units can be designed around. If your own home is listed, check with the council before fixing into original features. If you live in a flat close to Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 Rail station, each piece is planned so it can be carried up and joined together in the room. If you live near Lake Farm Country Park, shelving that stops short of the window keeps the view of the green.
Harlington is part of the London Borough of Hillingdon, about 6 miles north of Ruislip. Our work covers every London borough and the City of London, Harlington included. We list Harlington among 17 places we cover in Hillingdon.
Every address in UB3, TW6 and UB7 is covered for alcove units. We cover homes on streets like New Road, Bath Road and Manor Lane, along with the roads around them, whether you want alcove units or another piece made for the room. We also cover the places around Harlington: Sipson (1 mile north-west), Hatton (1 mile south-east), Cranford (1 mile south-east), Harmondsworth (2 miles west) and Bedfont (2 miles south). Elsewhere in Hillingdon, we also cover Ruislip (6 miles north), Hayes (2 miles north), Hillingdon (4 miles north), Yeading (4 miles north-east), Yiewsley (4 miles north-east) and West Drayton (2 miles north-west).
Landmarks near Harlington
The streets we cover here include those near Harlington Community School and The Red Lion pub and the streets around them. The nearest railway station is Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 Rail station, roughly 1.2 miles south-west of the centre. Other landmarks nearby include Harlington (0.6 miles north-west). Not far away are Crane Meadows.
What it costs
What you pay depends on:
- Walls and floors that are out of level or out of square
- Parking and unloading on your street
- How big the furniture is
- The finish: spray painted or hand painted
Rooms that aren’t square take more work: walls that lean, floors that slope and sloping ceilings all mean more scribing and cutting. That is reflected in the quote, written once we’ve measured up.
What to send when you get in touch
To help us picture the room, please include:
- The postcode, so we can plan the visit
- Any ideas or images you have saved
- What the furniture needs to hold
- Approximate measurements of the space
Getting a quote starts with some details: the room, rough sizes and some pictures if you have them. When you’re ready, send us a few details through our contact form. We’ll then arrange a design visit and follow it with a written quote.
Questions from Harlington
Do I need permission for fitted furniture in a conservation area?
Not normally. Conservation area controls are mostly concerned with the outside of buildings, so fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. If your home is listed, changes inside that alter its character may need listed building consent, so check with the council first. The council’s planning or conservation team can tell you if in doubt.
Can parking be tricky on fitting day in Harlington?
It depends on the street, as many London boroughs run controlled parking zones. A van may need a visitor’s permit, a paid parking bay or a bay suspension, which the council arranges, often with notice. Let us know what parking is near you at the measuring visit, and we’ll plan around it.
Can you build alcove units for alcoves that are not square?
Yes. We measure each alcove carefully during the design visit, then the units are made at our workshop and scribed to the walls when we fit them.
Can you make alcove units for a home in Harlington?
Yes. We cover Harlington and the rest of Hillingdon. To arrange a design visit, get in touch through our contact form.
Where is the furniture made?
Everything is built in our workshop for your room, then brought to your home and fitted. It’s built from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood.
Do you work outside London?
No. We work in London and nowhere else, across all the boroughs and the City of London.
Before and after fitting day
Most of what helps is simple. What we’d suggest:
- Move things out of the alcoves so we can measure properly
- Book your electrician first if sockets need moving
- Have any damp looked at before the units are made
- Let us know about stairs, parking and access early
To clean painted units, a soft cloth that’s barely damp is enough. Skip scouring pads and harsh cleaners, which can dull or mark the paint. Dry the surface afterwards.
Keep heaters and very hot lamps from standing right against the paintwork.
Fitting day, step by step
Once the main sections are fixed in place, any doors go on and any drawers or lids are fitted. We adjust each one so the gaps line up and it closes cleanly, and then we check it all 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. In a post-war block of flats, the route in may include communal stairs, landings and a lift, so alcove units are made in sections sized for each. If the building has rules on lift use or working hours, it is useful to tell us during the design visit.
- You tell us which room it is and roughly what you’d like in the alcoves, even if the design is only a rough idea so far.
- At the design visit, we measure both alcoves, check the walls and look at the skirting and picture rail. We also talk through heights, doors and shelves.
- We send a written quote setting out the layout, materials and finish. If anything needs changing, just tell us.
- Once you are happy, the units are made 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. The finish is sprayed in our workshop or hand-painted on site, as agreed.
Getting ready for fitting day
- Move furniture and belongings away from the wall
- Move anything in the hall or on the stairs out of the way
- Let us know about any meters, fuse boards or boilers in the area
Starting with a design visit
Prices are quoted for your room, once we’ve measured and talked through the design. Because every room is different, the quote comes after the design visit, once the room is measured and the design talked through. To arrange a visit, fill in our short enquiry form.