Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Croydon · London
Alcove Units in New Addington
We make alcove units in moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood for homes in New Addington. The finish is spray painted or hand painted, in a colour agreed with you.
- Shop-bought shelving that does not fill the recess
- Worn or badly fitted alcove units
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
Need alcove units in New Addington?
Common questions about alcove units
Will parking be an issue for fitting furniture in New Addington?
It can be, depending on whether your street is in a controlled parking zone. Depending on the street, a visitor permit, a paid bay or a bay suspension through the council may be needed, and suspensions often need notice. Let us know what parking is near you at the design visit.
Can you make alcove units for a home in New Addington?
Yes. We cover all of Croydon and the rest of London, and New Addington is part of that. The first step is a design visit, where we measure and go through the design, followed by a quote.
Do alcove units need to reach the ceiling?
That’s your choice. Full-height units give the most storage, while a low cupboard with shelves above keeps the room feeling lighter. We will go through what suits your room when we visit.
Is an outside wall a problem for fitted furniture?
It can be done with some care: ventilation behind and inside the furniture helps avoid condensation and mould. Damp treatment isn’t something we do, so any damp needs sorting first.
Do you move sockets for alcove units?
Electrical work is not something we do. If you want sockets moved or added, your electrician should do that before we fit. We can plan cut-outs and cable routes in the units around them.
What paint finish can I have on alcove units?
Either a spray-painted or a hand-painted finish. A sprayed finish is very smooth and even. We talk through both at the measuring visit.
Alcove units in New Addington: what you get
An alcove can also take a small desk, with shelving overhead and storage underneath. It gives you a place to work without turning a room into an office. Desk height and depth are agreed with you, and leave a route for cables to reach the sockets. If your home has clutter with nowhere to go and a place for a small desk, alcove units made from MDF made to resist moisture and birch plywood, then spray-painted or hand-painted can solve it.
A good share of the homes around New Addington were built in the post-war years, between 1945 and the early 1970s. Rooms from that era are often squarer than in older houses, and many have no chimney breast at all. So alcove units often run along a whole wall, or create their own recesses around the screen or a window. Some walls of that age are concrete or blockwork, and the fixings are matched to them.
A written quote follows the design visit. It sets out the design we’ve talked through, the materials and the finish.
- Where
- New Addington (CR0, CR9)
- Area
- Croydon
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- First step
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Making
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Made from
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Fitting days
- Weekdays; Saturdays on request
- Contact
- The contact form
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Also near New Addington
More for homes in New Addington
Alcove units for homes in New Addington
In the area around New Addington, the largest groups of homes date from between 1945 and 1972 (about 78%) and between 1919 and 1939 (about 13%), according to Valuation Office Agency council tax figures (2025). That matters for alcove units, as the build era decides whether a wall is solid brick, lath and plaster, block or plasterboard. Each London borough runs its own parking controls, and Croydon is no exception. Depending on your street in New Addington, a visitor permit, a paid bay or a council bay suspension may be needed. Let us know about parking at the measuring visit. More than half of the homes in the streets around New Addington (about 78%) were built between 1945 and 1972, going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. Post-war rooms tend to be simple shapes, often without a chimney breast, so alcove units often run along a full wall, with fixings chosen for the wall.
Addington Palace, about 1.5 miles north-west, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. For a period home anywhere nearby, the alcoves beside a chimney breast are the natural place for alcove units. Close to Addington Vale? Alcove units can be arranged to keep the window and the light clear. For a family home near Rowdown Primary School, shelving with deep cupboards below keeps books, games and school things in one place.
New Addington is about 6 miles north-west of Thornton Heath, part of the London Borough of Croydon. From period terraces to newer flats in New Addington, the furniture is designed around the room as we find it. Across Croydon, we cover New Addington and the places around it.
We make alcove units across the CR0 and CR9 postcode area. We cover homes on streets such as Bothwell Road, Windham Avenue and Gascoigne Road, along with the roads around them, whether you want alcove units or another piece made for the room. Neighbouring places we cover for alcove units include Forestdale (1 mile west), Addington (1 mile north-west) and Nash (2 miles north-east). Across the rest of Croydon, our area takes in Thornton Heath (6 miles north-west), Croydon (4 miles north-west), Coulsdon (6 miles west), Purley (4 miles west), Broad Green (5 miles north-west) and Upper Norwood (6 miles north-west).
Landmarks near New Addington
Around New Addington, we cover homes near Meridian High School. The nearest railway station is Hayes (Kent) station, about 2.6 miles north-east of the centre. Well-known places in the area include Warlingham Park Hospital (1.8 miles south). For a walk, there’s Hutchinson's Bank.
How fitting works for alcove units
You will not need to do much on the day. We need someone to let us in at the start, and the room should already be cleared, as we will have talked about at the design visit. From there, we protect the floors, bring the furniture in and get on with the fitting. How long the fitting takes depends on the size of the alcoves and what goes in them, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. Fixing into concrete takes a heavy-duty drill and makes some noise, so if neighbours are close, a note before fitting day can help. Fitting day is planned around any building rules on noisy work. We tidy as we go.
- To begin, use our contact form; a brief note on the alcoves is plenty, and mention if you live in a flat or up a few flights of stairs.
- We visit to measure the alcoves, talk through the design and check the route from the street to the room.
- Your written quote sets out the design, materials and finish.
- In our workshop we build the units from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, sized so each piece gets up the stairs and round the corners.
- On fitting day the sections come in, are joined in place and scribed to the walls.
Preparing the room
- Get any new sockets or wiring done by your electrician before fitting day
- Let us know where the boiler and meters are
- Clear the hallway and stairs so the sections can come through
Ask for a quote
A quote begins with some details from you: which room it is, rough sizes and a couple of photos if you can take them. When you are ready, get in touch through our contact form. We will then arrange a design visit and follow it with a written quote.
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Made for the room, or bought in a box?
Shop-bought shelving and cabinets can go in an alcove, and they’re normally cheaper. The catch is the fit: standard widths rarely match the recess, and uneven walls make every gap obvious. A bespoke unit is built to the alcove and scribed to follow the wall. Concrete and block walls can make it hard to fix ready-made furniture securely, while fitted furniture is planned with the right fixings from the start. It matters most for tall cupboards and full shelves.
We do not publish set prices, because every piece is designed for one room. Instead, we measure, talk through the design and then quote in writing, with the materials and finish set out. To start, get in touch through our contact form.
Why us?
- Every quote follows a design visit
- Edges scribed to follow your walls
- Saturday visits and fitting by prior arrangement
- We work across all London boroughs
See our comparison of bespoke and off-the-shelf and what to look for in a quote.
How it is made
Plinths and scribe strips
The plinth raises the unit and takes up uneven floors. It can be set to line up with the skirting.
Hand-painted finish
A hand-painted finish suits alcove units in a period room. The colour is agreed with you.
Flats, blocks and rented homes
We also make and fit furniture for landlords furnishing a let, often to make the most of a small or awkward room. It is made from the same moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood as any of our work, finished by spray or by hand.
Conversions and newer flats often have stud walls rather than solid brick. Fixings are chosen to suit whatever the wall is made of.
Practical tips
Because fitted furniture stays put, a little upkeep goes a long way. Here are a few tips worth knowing:
- Sort out damp patches before fitting
- Think about what you will store before we meet
- Make the alcoves easy to reach for measuring
- Look for a chimney vent that needs to stay clear
Painted finishes feel dry quickly but take longer to cure fully. For the first while, treat the units gently: lift things onto the shelves rather than sliding them, and don’t scrub the surfaces.
Spread heavy loads and keep the heaviest things on lower shelves. Overloaded shelves are the main cause of sagging, so tell us during the design visit if a shelf will hold something heavy.