Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Westminster · London
Maida Vale Alcove Units
Walls in older London homes are rarely straight, so we scribe the furniture to follow them. Our work on alcove units in Maida Vale starts with a design visit, and everything is built in our workshop.
- Walls too uneven for standard furniture
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
- Storage that suits a period room
Need alcove units in Maida Vale?
Alcove units for homes in Maida Vale
Some alcoves suit a full-height unit, with doors from floor to ceiling. In a bedroom, it can become a small wardrobe or a linen cupboard, while in a dining room it can keep china, glass and table linen. We ask what you want to store before we plan the inside, so shelves and rails go where they’re needed. If you are living with shelving for books and records and room to work in an alcove, that is what alcove units are for, made from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted.
In a house from the Victorian or Edwardian years, the chimney breast tends to survive even when the fireplace itself has been blocked up. That matters around Maida Vale, as a large share of the homes there were built before 1919. The recesses either side take alcove units scribed to the plaster and cut around the skirting.
The quote comes in writing, so you can read it at your own pace and share it with anyone else involved. It records the design, the materials and the finish we discussed.
- Where
- Maida Vale (W9, NW8, NW6)
- Area
- Westminster
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Making
- Made in our workshop and fitted on site
- Materials and finish
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Fitting days
- Weekdays; Saturdays on request
- Get in touch
- Send us a message
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
What alcove units can’t fix
It is worth being clear about where our work stops:
- New sockets or wiring (your electrician handles those)
- Finding and fixing the cause of damp
- Any structural work on the chimney breast
Not sure whether your space suits alcove units? You can send us a few details through our contact form and we will tell you before you arrange a visit. How a job runs, step by step.
Materials and parts
- Scribed side panels
- Adjustable shelves
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Panelled or flat doors
- Birch plywood
- Hand-painted finish
- Spray-painted finish
Questions from Maida Vale
How do you fit alcove units in a flat in Maida Vale?
We measure the route in along with the room itself: the stairs, landings, lift and doors. The furniture is made in sections that fit the stairs and lift, and put together in the room. It’s useful to check any building rules and your lease before fitting day.
I live near Kilburn High Road station. Is that in your area?
Yes. We cover all of Westminster and the rest of London. To get started, you can get in touch through our contact form with a few details about the room, and let us know about parking and access at the same time.
Should I send pictures?
Yes, they help. Photos of the whole wall or room, including the floor and ceiling, give us a good idea of the space. To send them, fill in our short enquiry form.
How do I get a quote for alcove units in Maida Vale?
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.
Does someone need to be home during the fitting?
Someone needs to be there to let us in. After that, you don’t need to stay in the room.
What paint finish can I have on alcove units?
There are two options: a spray-painted finish done in our workshop, or a hand-painted finish done on site. Either way, the colour is agreed with you. Spraying gives a smooth, even surface, and hand painting is easy to touch up.
How fitting works for alcove units
Finishing comes last. If the furniture was spray painted in the workshop, we fill the fixing holes and touch up on site; if you chose hand painting, that can be done in the room once the furniture is fitted. The finish is always the one agreed in your quote. Where a period house has been split into flats, the way in often goes through shared parts, so it is useful to let neighbours know about fitting day. The sections are sized for the narrowest point on the route. Saturdays can be arranged.
- You get in touch and tell us about the room and the alcoves, and we arrange a design visit at a time that suits you.
- We visit to measure the alcoves and go through the design.
- We send a quote in writing for the units, for you to read through at your own pace.
- Each unit is built in our workshop to the measurements we took, ready for a spray-painted finish or for hand painting on site.
- The units are fitted in your home and scribed to follow the walls, so they sit tight to the chimney breast.
Preparing the room
- Point out meters, boilers and fuse boards near the furniture
- Book any lift and let the concierge or building manager know
- Clear the walls of pictures and shelves
Ask for a quote
To get a quote, message us from the contact page and tell us a little about the room. We then arrange a design visit to measure and discuss the design, and a quote in writing follows.
Advice
Why bespoke in Maida Vale?
With bought furniture you’re limited to the maker’s finishes. Ours are painted in a colour agreed with you, either spray painted in the workshop or hand painted. They can match the walls, the woodwork or neither. Standard furniture is drawn for modern rooms, so its proportions can look odd in a tall period room, while fitted furniture can follow the room’s own lines.
No two rooms cost the same to furnish, because the size, the layout and the finish all vary. Spray painting and hand painting are different processes, which affects the cost. The figure comes in your written quote after the design visit.
Why us?
- Designed for the room you have
- Workshop-made and fitted by us
- Every London borough and the City of London covered
- Moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood
See bespoke vs off-the-shelf and what to look for in a quote.
Also near Maida Vale
What else we make in Maida Vale
Why people ask for alcove units in Maida Vale
Moving into a period house often prompts it. People who have just moved in want storage that suits the age of the house, and the alcoves are the natural place for it. It’s easier to do before the room fills with boxes.
Typical reasons people contact us include:
- Empty alcoves either side of the chimney breast
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
- Standard units leaving gaps at the sides
- Alcoves that are not square
The wider area includes historic houses such as Winfield House, about 1.1 miles east. If your own home is a period one, walls that bow and floors that slope are why alcove units are scribed to fit rather than pushed into place.
Before you choose who makes it
- Is it spray painted or hand painted?
- How the doors are hung and adjusted
- How parking will work on your street
- Can you see real work of theirs?
Boards, parts and paint
Hand-painted finish
A hand-painted finish suits alcove units in a period room. You choose the colour.
Shelves
Shelves can be fixed in place or set on adjustable supports. Fixed shelves add stiffness to the unit, while adjustable ones let you change heights later.
Alcove units in Maida Vale: local notes
In the neighbourhood around Maida Vale, the largest groups of homes date from before 1919 (about 49%) and between 1945 and 1972 (about 16%), in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. For carpentry, the era of a house is a useful clue to how square its rooms are and what its walls are made of. The National Heritage List has 124 entries within half a mile of the centre of Maida Vale. Older homes nearby may have original joinery, shutters or panelling worth keeping, and alcove units can be designed to work around them. Controlled parking zones cover much of inner London, and each borough runs its own. That typically means a van in Maida Vale needs a visitor permit, a paid bay or a bay suspension through the council. We ask about parking at the design visit, so the van can be planned for.
For an older house near St Peter Elgin Avenue, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at. If you live near Emslie Horniman's Pleasance, shelving that stops short of the window keeps the view of the green.
Maida Vale is part of the City of Westminster, about 2 miles south-east of City of Westminster. Our work covers every London borough and the City of London, Maida Vale included. Maida Vale is one of the places in Westminster where we make alcove units, and the borough has 29 places on our list.
We make alcove units across the W9, NW8 and NW6 postcode area for alcove units. Whether you live on a street like The Lane, Hall Road and Hill Road or on one nearby, we can visit to measure up for alcove units. The A404 runs close to Maida Vale; on busy main roads, unloading alcove units takes a little planning. We also cover Westbourne Green (1 mile south), Little Venice (1 mile south-east), Paddington Green (1 mile south-east), Westbourne (1 mile south) and St John's Wood (1 mile north-east). Other parts of Westminster we cover include City of Westminster (2 miles south-east), Marylebone (2 miles east), Soho (3 miles east), Chinatown (3 miles south-east), St James's (3 miles south-east) and Covent Garden (3 miles east).
Local landmarks in Maida Vale
Our area takes in the homes around Maida Vale School, The Warrington pub and Cecil Sharp House. The nearest railway station is Kilburn High Road station, roughly 0.7 miles north. Well-known places in the area include O2 Centre (1.5 miles north) and Greek Orthodox Cathedral Treasury Museum (1 mile south). Green spaces nearby include The Long Water and Greville Place nature reserve.