Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Harrow · London
Alcove units in Little Stanmore, Harrow
Alcove units in Little Stanmore: cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast. Every piece is made at our workshop and fitted in your home.
- Standard units leaving gaps at the sides
- A place for a small desk
- Somewhere to keep books and records
Alcove units for your home in Little Stanmore
Alcove units in Little Stanmore: what you get
Skirting boards, picture rails and coving are common in older rooms. Units can be cut around them, stop just below them or run neatly up to them, whichever suits the room. A plinth can be set to line up with the skirting so the units feel part of the room. We agree these details at the measuring visit, before anything is made. People normally come to us about room to work in an alcove and walls too uneven for standard furniture; the furniture is made from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted.
Around Little Stanmore, interwar houses or semi-detached and detached homes make up a good part of the housing. If yours is a 1920s or 1930s house, the front room may have a bay window at one end and a chimney breast on the side wall, which decides where alcove units sit. Walls in houses of that age are usually straighter than in Victorian ones, though they’re still checked and scribed where needed.
If the job needs another trade, like an electrician or a plumber, we’ll tell you, so it can be arranged before fitting day. Our quote covers the carpentry: the design, the materials and the finish.
- Where
- Little Stanmore (HA8, HA7)
- Borough
- Harrow
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Making
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Boards and paint
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- When we fit
- Weekdays (Saturdays if arranged)
- Get in touch
- Send us a message
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
What we don’t do
We make and fit furniture, and we do not do electrics, plumbing, gas, plastering or structural work. Please bear these in mind too:
- Replastering, which is a plasterer’s job
- Taking out a chimney breast or opening up a fireplace
- Finding and fixing the cause of damp
If in doubt, you can drop us a line using the contact form and describe the room. How it works.
What it’s made from
- Hand-painted finish
- Adjustable shelves
- Birch plywood
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Panelled or flat doors
- Scribed side panels
- Spray-painted finish
Caring for painted furniture
Getting the most from alcove units starts with the planning and carries on after fitting day. Here are some things worth bearing in mind:
- Make the alcoves easy to reach for measuring
- Mention parking and access when we visit
- Sort out damp patches before fitting
- Talk to your electrician early if you want new sockets
Don’t let stored things block the chimney breast vent. Air moving through the chimney helps keep damp away.
If a damp patch appears near a unit, look into it early. Damp needs its cause fixing by the right trade, and it is easier to deal with before it spreads.
What prompts alcove units in Little Stanmore
A chimney breast without its fireplace can leave a wall that feels unfinished. Units on both sides frame the chimney breast and balance the room, whether or not the fireplace is used.
Alcove units can help with:
- Bare alcoves beside the fireplace
- Shop-bought shelving that doesn’t fill the recess
- Old alcove cupboards that have seen better days
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
If you live in a period home close to Church of St Lawrence, walls that bow and floors that slope are why alcove units are scribed to fit rather than pushed into place.
Choosing a carpenter
- Will other trades be needed, and who arranges them?
- Real projects you can actually look at
- How they’ll get the furniture into the room
- How doors and drawers are fitted
Living-room storage in Little Stanmore
About 66% of the homes in the streets around Little Stanmore went up between 1919 and 1939, and about 15% since 2000, on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. That matters for alcove units, as the build era decides whether a wall is solid brick, lath and plaster, block or plasterboard. Little Stanmore is partly covered by a conservation area, going by Historic England’s data. Being in a conservation area mainly affects changes to the outside of a building, and fitted furniture inside a house does not normally need planning permission. If in doubt, the council’s planning team can confirm. Strict stopping rules apply on red routes, which TfL runs. If your home is on or just off a main road, it helps to mention it. We can then plan where the van will stop.
For a family home near Krishna Avanti Primary School, a cupboard for board games and a shelf for reading books can go into the same design. If you live near Canons Park, shelving that stops short of the window keeps the view of the green.
Little Stanmore is about 4 miles south-west of Harrow, in the London Borough of Harrow. Anywhere in Little Stanmore, it works the same way: a design visit, a quote in writing, furniture made at our workshop and fitting in your home. Across Harrow, we cover Little Stanmore.
Every address in HA8 and HA7 is within our area for alcove units, from the main roads to the quieter streets. You’ll find streets here such as Mead Road, Tenby Road and Bacon Lane, and homes on each of them are within our area for alcove units. Neighbouring places we cover for alcove units include Canons Park (1 mile north-west), Edgware (1 mile north-east), Burnt Oak (1 mile east), The Hale (1 mile north-east) and Broadfields Estate (2 miles north). Across the rest of Harrow, our area takes in Harrow (4 miles south-west), Hatch End (4 miles west), Harrow Weald (2 miles west), Wealdstone (2 miles west), Greenhill (3 miles south-west) and South Harrow (4 miles south-west).
Near you in Little Stanmore
Around Little Stanmore, we cover homes near Railway Hotel and The Northgate School, among other places. For rail, the closest station is Mill Hill Broadway station, roughly 1.6 miles east. Nearby you will also find Broadwalk Centre (0.6 miles north-east) and Edgware Community Hospital (0.6 miles east). Open spaces near Little Stanmore include Mill Hill Old Railway Nature Reserve.
Questions we’re often asked
Can you make alcove units for a home in Little Stanmore?
Yes, we work across Harrow, Little Stanmore included, and across the rest of London. To get started, you can get in touch through our contact form with a few details.
I live near Mill Hill Broadway station. Is that in your area?
Yes. We cover all of Harrow and the rest of London. You can drop us a line using the contact form to arrange a design visit.
How do I get a quote?
It is easiest to use our contact form with some details about the room. We then arrange a design visit, measure up and send a written quote.
Will alcove units fit if my walls aren’t straight?
Yes. Few alcoves in older houses are truly square, so we scribe each unit to follow the wall. Adjustable feet or a plinth take care of a floor that slopes.
Can an alcove unit include a desk?
Yes. One alcove can take a desk with shelves above and a drawer or cupboard beneath. We plan the height and depth with you, with a route left for cables.
What affects the price of alcove units?
Size, doors and drawers, what goes inside and the finish all affect it, along with access and parking. We send a quote in writing after the design visit.
Flats, leases and landlords
If your building is on a red route or a busy main road, unloading takes some planning. Red routes are run by TfL and have strict stopping rules, so it is worth raising at the design visit.
For a rented home, access for the design visit and fitting day has to be agreed with the tenants, at times that suit them. A letting agent can arrange this on a landlord’s behalf, and the written quote can go to whoever needs it.
Fitting day, step by step
Furniture made in a workshop still has to meet the room it’s going into, and fitting day is where that happens. Few walls in older London homes are truly flat or square, so each edge that meets a wall is scribed to follow it. How long the fitting itself takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. In a 1920s or 1930s house, the hall and stairs are normally straightforward, 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.
- At the design visit we measure up, agree the layout and talk about colour and finish. You can choose a spray-painted finish from our workshop or a hand-painted one done in your home.
- The written quote then sets out the design, the materials and the finish you have picked.
- The units are built in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood.
- 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.
Getting ready for fitting day
- Book any lift and let the concierge or building manager know
- Move anything in the hall or on the stairs out of the way
- Keep pets in another room while we work
Arranging a design visit
To get a quote for alcove units in Little Stanmore, fill in our short enquiry form. Tell us which room it is and roughly what you have in mind. Next comes a design visit, followed by a quote in writing.