Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Westminster · London
Alcove Units in Little Venice
Cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast, for homes in Little Venice. Every piece is made at our workshop and fitted in your home, with a spray or hand-painted finish.
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
- Somewhere to keep books and records
- Standard units leaving gaps at the sides
Need alcove units in Little Venice?
Questions we are often asked
My home in Little Venice is a flat. How do you get the furniture in?
At the design visit, we measure the way in as well as the room. Alcove units are built in our workshop in sections sized to fit that route, then assembled in your flat. If your building has rules on lift booking or working hours, or your lease needs consent for alterations, it’s worth checking those early.
Can you fit furniture in a home close to London Paddington station?
Yes, homes across Westminster and the rest of London are within the area we cover. You can drop us a line using the contact form to arrange a design visit.
What do you do at the measuring visit?
We take full measurements, look at the walls and floors and work through the design together. Access and parking are worth talking about too, and afterwards we send a quote in writing.
Who moves the sockets behind the alcove units?
Electrical work isn’t something we do. New or moved sockets are a job for your electrician, ideally before fitting, and some electrical work in homes is covered by Part P of the Building Regulations. We can plan cut-outs and cable routes in the units around them.
How do I get a quote for alcove units in Little Venice?
Simply get in touch through our contact form. It is useful to send rough measurements and a few pictures, and then we arrange a visit to measure and go through the design, followed by a written quote.
What affects the price of alcove units?
Size, doors and drawers, what goes inside and the finish all affect it. The price comes in a written quote after the design visit.
Alcove units in Little Venice
Even a chimney that’s 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. Any damp in the alcoves should be dealt with by the right trade before the units go in, as cupboards fitted over damp walls can suffer. Typical reasons to get in touch are storage that suits a period room and shop-bought shelving that doesn’t fill the recess, and the answer is made in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted.
With a large share of homes around Little Venice built before 1919, plenty of living rooms are two reception rooms knocked into one, each with its own chimney breast. One pair of alcoves might take shelves and the other cupboards, a TV or a desk. Older internal walls can be lath and plaster rather than brick, which changes how shelving is fixed, and long shelves are sized so they do not sag under books.
Once you’ve read the quote and decided to go ahead, the furniture is made at our workshop. It describes the design, the materials and the finish agreed at the visit, so every detail can be checked first.
- Location
- Little Venice (W2, W9, NW8)
- Area
- Westminster
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Made
- Made in our workshop and fitted on site
- Made from
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- Fitting days
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Get in touch
- The contact form
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Little Venice homes and alcove units
The biggest shares of homes in the neighbourhood around Little Venice were built before 1919 (about 47%) and between 1945 and 1972 (about 16%), going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. That matters for alcove units, as the build era decides whether a wall is solid brick, lath and plaster, block or plasterboard. Within a mile of the centre of Little Venice, 12 conservation areas are recorded by Historic England. Historic England says England has around 10,000, and the controls mainly cover the outside of buildings, so fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. Much of inner London is covered by controlled parking zones run by the boroughs. That usually means a van in Little Venice needs a visitor permit, a paid bay or a bay suspension through the council. It’s useful to tell us about parking at the measuring visit.
For a flat near London Paddington station, alcove units are made in sections sized for the stairs, landings and lift, so measuring the route matters as much as measuring the room. The wider area includes historic houses such as Winfield House, about 1 mile north-east. For a period home anywhere nearby, the alcoves beside a chimney breast are the natural place for alcove units.
Little Venice is about 1 mile east of City of Westminster, in the City of Westminster. We cover Little Venice as part of our work across Westminster. Little Venice is one of 29 places on our list for Westminster.
Every address in W2, W9 and NW8 is covered for alcove units, from the main roads to the quieter streets. Our area takes in homes on streets such as Harrow Road, Alfred Road and Newton Road, along with the roads around them, for alcove units and any of our other fitted furniture. Little Venice sits close to the A5 and A40, and we plan where the van can stop before fitting day. Other places close to Little Venice include Westbourne Green (1 mile west), Paddington Green (1 mile east), Paddington (1 mile south-east), Maida Vale (1 mile north-west) and Lisson Grove (1 mile north-east). Other parts of Westminster we cover include Marylebone (2 miles east), Soho (2 miles east), Chinatown (2 miles east), St James's (2 miles east), Covent Garden (3 miles east) and Mayfair (2 miles south-east).
Near you in Little Venice
The streets we cover here include those near The Bridge House, Royal Society of Medicine Library and International Community School and the streets around them. There is a railway station in Little Venice itself: London Paddington station. Nearby you’ll also find Maida Vale Hospital for Nervous Diseases (within half a mile north) and Kensington Arcade (1.5 miles south). For a walk, there’s Campden Hill and The Long Water.
What alcove units cannot fix
It is worth being clear about where our work stops:
- Treating damp in the chimney breast or walls
- Removing or altering a chimney breast, which is structural work
- Moving sockets or switches, which needs an electrician
Not sure whether your space suits alcove units? You can use our contact form and we’ll tell you before you arrange a visit. How a job runs, step by step.
Materials and parts
- Hand-painted finish
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Scribed side panels
- Spray-painted finish
- Birch plywood
- Adjustable shelves
- Panelled or flat doors
What prompts alcove units in Little Venice
A busy family living room is another reason. Toys, games, post and chargers all need a home, and closed cupboards hide them away. The shelves above can then stay tidy.
If you recognise any of these, it’s worth talking to us:
- Standard units leaving gaps at the sides
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
- Units that sit well with original features
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
For a family home near Ark Paddington Green Primary Academy, shelving with deep cupboards below keeps books, games and school things in one place.
Before you choose who makes it
- Which parts of the job need an electrician or a plumber
- Can you see real work of theirs?
- Which materials they’ll use, named in the quote
- How they’ll get the furniture into the room
When is bespoke worth it?
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.
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. We design shelves with that in mind.
Materials and finishes
Plinths and scribe strips
Scribing means trimming the edges on site so they follow the wall. This closes the gap between a straight unit and a bowed alcove.
Birch plywood
For alcove shelves that carry books, birch plywood helps keep them straight over a wider alcove. We size the shelf for the span and the load.
How fitting works for alcove units
When the fitting is done, we tidy the room and lift the floor protection. Before we leave, we go over the finished piece together. The time the fitting takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and we confirm the fitting days in your quote. Scribing is done on site, which means some cutting in the room or close by, so we ask for a clear space to work near the room. Dust is kept down and cleared up as we go. Hand painting, if that is your finish, can follow the fitting.
- You get in touch with a short description of the alcoves and your ideas, even if the design is only a rough idea so far.
- We visit to measure, look at how the walls run and note the skirting, picture rail and any vent. We also talk through heights, doors and shelves.
- You receive a quote with the design, the materials and the paint finish.
- Once you’re happy, the units are made in our workshop, using moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood.
- We fit the units, scribe them to the walls and set them level. The finish is sprayed in our workshop or hand-painted on site, as agreed.
How to prepare
- Get any new sockets or wiring done by your electrician before fitting day
- Take down pictures, mirrors and shelves from the wall
- Keep pets in another room while we work
Arranging a design visit
To get a quote, message us from the contact page and let us know 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.