Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Barnet · London
Alcove units in North Finchley, Barnet
Alcove units in North Finchley: cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast. We visit to measure and discuss the design, make the furniture in our workshop and fit it.
- Worn or badly fitted alcove units
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
- Bowed walls and sloping floors
Need alcove units in North Finchley?
Tips worth knowing
Looking after painted furniture is simple. These habits help most:
- Bring the sizes of anything that has to fit in the cupboards
- Think about what you’ll store before we meet
- Clear the alcoves before the design visit if you can
- Sort out damp patches before fitting
Don’t let stored things block the chimney breast vent, even when the cupboards fill up. Air moving through the chimney helps keep damp away, which protects the units too.
Avoid placing a heater hard up against the units, because constant heat isn’t kind to a painted finish.
About our alcove units in North Finchley
One alcove can be given over to a 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, with a gap or hole planned so cables can reach the sockets. We make alcove units from MDF made to resist moisture and birch plywood, then spray-painted or hand-painted, and the usual reasons to get in touch are storage that suits a period room and space for a growing book collection.
Where housing types are mixed, as they are in much of London, living rooms vary a lot in shape. You might have alcoves, a bay, a wide open-plan room or a compact one. The design for your home in North Finchley starts from its own walls, and long shelves are sized not to sag.
The quote comes in writing, so you can read it at your own pace and talk it over at home. It covers the design, materials and finish agreed at the visit.
- Place
- North Finchley (N12, N20, N11)
- Area
- Barnet
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Materials and finish
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- Fitting days
- Weekdays (Saturdays if arranged)
- Enquiries
- Our contact form
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
When you need someone else
We’re carpenters, so some jobs belong to other trades. These are worth knowing before you plan:
- Redecorating, which is for your decorator
- Taking out a chimney breast or opening up a fireplace
- Treating damp in the chimney breast or walls
Not sure whether your space suits alcove units? You can send us a few details through our contact form and we’ll tell you before you arrange a visit. How a job runs, step by step.
Materials and parts
- Birch plywood
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Panelled or flat doors
- Hand-painted finish
- Scribed side panels
- Adjustable shelves
- Spray-painted finish
Your questions about alcove units in North Finchley
Do you cover homes near New Southgate station?
Yes. We cover all of Barnet and the rest of London. You can use our contact form to arrange a design visit, and let us know about parking and access at the same time.
How do you fit alcove units in a flat in North Finchley?
At the design visit, we measure the way in not just the room. The furniture is made in sections that fit the stairs and lift, and put together in the room. It helps to check any building rules and your lease before fitting day.
Do I need permission in a conservation area?
Not normally. Conservation areas mostly control changes to the outside, and furniture inside a house does not normally need it. Listed buildings are different: check with the council’s conservation officer first.
How long will the fitting take?
It depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and your quote sets out the fitting days. We’ll explain what to expect before we arrive.
What do you do at the measuring visit?
It is a chance to measure properly and talk through what you’d like. We also check the walls and floors and note radiators, sockets and other things in the way, then send a quote in writing.
How do I get a quote for alcove units in North Finchley?
The first step is to send us a few details through our contact form. After that, we arrange a design visit and follow it with a written quote.
How fitting day works
If anything comes up on the day, just ask. Most of the decisions were made at the measuring visit and set out in your quote, so the day itself is about careful fitting. How long fitting takes depends on the size and number of units, and your quote sets out the fitting days. Parking varies a lot across London, from permit zones to private bays, so let us know what’s near you at the measuring visit. If you live in a flat, any lift or building rules are worth checking too.
- To begin, message us from the contact page; a brief note on the room and the alcoves is enough.
- At the design visit we measure the alcoves and also the way in: the front door, the hall and any stair turns. It is useful to tell us then about parking, as much of London is in a controlled parking zone.
- We then send a written quote for the units.
- The units are made at our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, in sections sized to come through your door.
- We carry the sections in, assemble them in the alcoves and scribe them to the walls. A spray-painted finish arrives done; a hand-painted one is applied once the units are in.
Before fitting day
- Leave a clear route from the front door to the room
- Check the building’s rules for trades and lift bookings
- Arrange any electrical changes with your electrician in advance
How to get a quote
To get a quote, fill in our short enquiry form and let us know which room you have in mind and roughly what you’d like. We then arrange a design visit to measure and talk through the design, and a quote in writing follows.
Related advice
Built-in living-room furniture in North Finchley
In the streets around North Finchley, the largest groups of homes date from between 1919 and 1939 (about 29%) and before 1919 (about 26%), going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. The age of a home tells us a lot about its walls, floors and ceilings, and so about how alcove units are fixed and fitted. Entries on the National Heritage List near the centre of North Finchley include Coachhouse Between Number 34 and 36 (Grade II), under half a mile east, and Christ Church (Grade II), under half a mile south. Where a home is listed, listed building consent can be needed for inside works that affect its character, such as fixing into original panelling. Ask the council’s conservation officer before anything is fixed. About 29% of homes in the area around North Finchley date from between 1919 and 1939, on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. Interwar front rooms usually have a bay at the front and a chimney breast on the side wall, and alcove units are planned around both.
For a family home near Sacks Morasha Jewish Primary School, alcove units can be planned with low cupboards for toys and higher shelves for everything else. Heath Hall, about 2.9 miles south, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. For a period home anywhere nearby, walls that bow and floors that slope are why alcove units are scribed to fit rather than pushed into place. If you live in a flat close to New Southgate 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.
North Finchley is part of the London Borough of Barnet, about 1 mile south of Finchley. North Finchley is part of the area we cover. Our Barnet coverage includes North Finchley.
Design visits and fitting in N12, N20 and N11 work the same way as everywhere else we cover. If your home is on a street like High Road, Lodge Lane and Percy Road, or close by, we can visit to measure up for alcove units. Main roads around North Finchley include the A1000, and we plan where the van can stop before fitting day. We also cover Woodside Park (1 mile west), Oakleigh Park (1 mile north), Whetstone (1 mile north), Friern Barnet (1 mile east) and Finchley (1 mile south). Elsewhere in Barnet, we also cover Barnet (2 miles north), Burnt Oak (4 miles west), East Finchley (2 miles south), Hendon (3 miles south-west), Edgware (4 miles west) and Southgate (2 miles north-east).
Near you in North Finchley
The streets we cover here include those near St Michael's Catholic Grammar School, Woodhouse College and Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum. North Finchley’s nearest station is New Southgate station, roughly 1.4 miles east of the centre. Other landmarks nearby include Grand Arcade (within half a mile south) and Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum (0.5 miles west). Green spaces nearby include Darland's Lake and Glebelands Local Nature Reserve.
What affects the cost of alcove units
A few things affect what fitted furniture costs:
- Spray painting or hand painting
- How easy it is to get the furniture into the room
- The internal fittings
- The number of doors and drawers
We quote each job for the room it’s going into, after the design visit. The price depends mainly on the size of the piece, how many doors and drawers it has and what goes inside.
Getting in touch
The more you can tell us at the start, the better the design visit goes. It is useful to include:
- How you want to use the space
- Your postcode and the borough
- A few pictures of the space, taken from the doorway and from each corner
- Any ideas or images you’ve saved
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. For a quote, tell us about the room on our contact form.
Also near North Finchley
More for homes in North Finchley
Flat-pack or bespoke?
It’s worth being honest about cost: flat-pack is usually cheaper to buy. Bespoke earns its place where the room is tricky, space is tight or you want the furniture to look part of the house.
If you’re handy, a simple shelf or a standard wardrobe in a square room is a reasonable DIY job. It gets harder with sloping ceilings, out-of-level floors and lath-and-plaster walls, where scribing and fixings that suit the wall are important.