Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Enfield · London
Alcove Units in Oakwood
Alcove units in Oakwood: cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast. Every piece is made in our workshop and fitted in your home.
- Shelving for books and records
- Worn or badly fitted alcove units
- Shop-bought shelving that does not fill the recess
Alcove units designed for your room
Your questions about alcove units in Oakwood
Is parking a problem for fitting in Oakwood?
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. It is useful to tell us about parking at the measuring visit, and we’ll plan around it.
Is Oakwood in the area you cover for alcove units?
Yes. Oakwood is one of the places we work, along with the rest of Enfield and London. You can send us a few details through our contact form to arrange a design visit.
What happens to the chimney vent when alcove units go in?
We plan alcove units so any chimney vent stays clear. A capped or blocked chimney should still be ventilated to help stop damp and we design around it.
How tall should alcove units be?
That depends on the room and what you’d like to store. In a tall period room, units can stop under the picture rail or the cornice. We agree the height at the measuring 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. We’ll also ask about access and parking, and afterwards we send a quote in writing.
Should both alcoves have the same units?
It’s entirely your choice. Alcoves are often different widths anyway. They can match in style while doing different jobs.
How we make alcove units for Oakwood
A classic layout is a low cupboard with open shelves above. The cupboards take the things you’d rather not see, and the shelves are for books and favourite objects. The cupboard top gives you a ledge for a lamp, a speaker or a plant. Heights are agreed with you to suit the room and your things. If your home has old alcove cupboards that have seen better days and clutter with nowhere to go, that’s what alcove units are for, made from birch plywood and moisture-resistant MDF with a spray-painted or hand-painted finish.
With interwar houses or semis a big part of the picture around Oakwood, many homes have had the front and back rooms knocked together. The result is often a long room with a chimney breast, a good spot for alcove units. At the design visit we plan any cable routes and ventilation the room needs.
The furniture is made at our workshop after you’ve had the quote and decided to go ahead. It describes the design, the materials and the finish agreed at the visit, so every detail can be checked first.
- Place
- Oakwood (N14, N21, EN2)
- Area
- Enfield
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Made
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Materials and finish
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Working days
- Monday to Friday; Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Contact
- Our contact form
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Boards, parts and paint
Spray-painted finish
Spraying gets an even coat into corners and onto edges. The colour is agreed with you before we start.
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.
What it costs
Not every room costs the same, for these reasons:
- How easy it is to get the furniture into the room
- What goes inside: rails, shelves, drawers and dividers
- Where a van can park, like a permit bay or a bay suspension
- The number of doors and drawers
Prices are quoted for your room, once we’ve measured and talked through the design. The price depends mainly on the size of the piece, how many doors and drawers it has and what goes inside.
Before the design visit
Here’s what helps us most when you get in touch:
- The type of home and how the room is reached
- Pictures showing the full wall, from floor to ceiling
- Anything fixed to the wall that the furniture needs to work around
- Any ideas or images you have saved
Every quote follows a design visit. At the visit, we measure, look at the walls and floors and talk through the design with you, then send a written quote. The price comes in a written quote, worked out from the measurements and the design you choose. To arrange a visit, tell us about the room on our contact form.
Also near Oakwood
More for homes in Oakwood
Made for the room, or bought in a box?
Shelves in some flat-pack furniture are thin and can bow under books. Shelves in a bespoke unit are sized for the span and the load, with birch plywood where it’s needed. That said, if you are renting or moving soon, a good off-the-shelf unit may make more sense. Ready-made furniture rarely suits a bay, a box room or a bulkhead over the stairs, and interwar homes often have all three. Built-in pieces are designed to fit them.
What goes inside matters as much as the outside: drawers take more making than shelves, and each rail, divider or pull-out adds to the work. We’ll talk through what you need inside during the design visit.
Why choose us
- Moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood
- We work across all London boroughs
- Workshop-made and fitted by us
- Built around your room
Take a look at our comparison of bespoke and off-the-shelf or what to look for in a quote.
How fitting day works
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 we scribe the edges by hand to follow the wall. 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. Fitting day means carrying in the sections, joining them and fitting them to the walls. Spray-painted pieces come finished from the workshop, while hand painting can happen on site. Saturdays can be arranged.
- It starts with a short message from you about the alcoves.
- 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’ve picked.
- We make the units in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF, which takes paint well, and birch plywood. If you chose spray painting, that is done in the workshop too, for a smooth, even surface.
- We fit the units in your home and scribe them to the walls; a hand-painted finish is done on site after fitting and is easy to touch up later.
- Paint needs time to cure, so go gently with the new units at first.
Before we arrive
- Point out meters, boilers and fuse boards near the furniture
- If you live in a block, book the lift and tell the building manager
- Arrange any electrical changes with your electrician ahead of time
Getting a quote
It’s useful to see the room before we come. Pictures of the whole wall, the corners and the ceiling line tell us a lot about the space, along with rough sizes. To share them, drop us a line using the contact form, and we will suggest a time for a design visit.
Related advice
Living-room carpentry in Oakwood: local notes
About 44% of the homes in the streets around Oakwood went up between 1919 and 1939, and about 22% between 1945 and 1972, on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. It is a good starting point, though every room is still measured, as two homes of the same age rarely match. Entries on the National Heritage List near the centre of Oakwood include Oakwood Underground Station (Grade II*), less than half a mile north-west, and Station Sign to North of Oakwood Station (Grade II), under half a mile north-west. For a listed home, internal works that affect its character can need listed building consent from the council, for instance removing or fixing into original panelling. An early word with the council’s conservation officer is the best first step. Each London borough runs its own parking controls, and Enfield is no exception. If your road in Oakwood falls in a zone, the van may need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a suspended bay, which the council arranges, often with notice. We ask about parking during the design visit, so the day can be planned around it.
If you live in a period home close to St Thomas's Church, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at. For families living near Wolfson Hillel Primary School, shelving with deep cupboards below keeps books, games and school things in one place.
Oakwood is part of the London Borough of Enfield, about 3 miles south-east of Edmonton. We work across all London boroughs and the City of London, and Oakwood is part of that. Oakwood is one of 26 places on our list for Enfield.
Every address in N14, N21 and EN2 is covered for alcove units. Our area takes in homes on streets like Ivy Road, Green Road and Chase Road, for alcove units and any of our other fitted furniture. Other places close to Oakwood include World's End (1 mile east), Osidge (1 mile south-west), Southgate (1 mile south), Grange Park (1 mile east) and East Barnet (1 mile south-west). Other parts of Enfield we cover include Edmonton (3 miles south-east), Enfield (2 miles east), Palmers Green (2 miles south-east), New Southgate (2 miles south), Enfield Chase (2 miles north-east) and Bush Hill Park (2 miles east).
What’s near Oakwood
Our area takes in the homes around The New Crown pub, Southgate School and Southgate School, among other places. The nearest railway station is Winchmore Hill station, roughly 1.3 miles south-east. Well-known places in the area include Chase Farm Hospital (1.9 miles north-east) and Broomfield House Museum (1.9 miles south).
Is it time for alcove units?
Sometimes there are old units already, worn, badly fitted or the wrong size for how you live. Starting again lets you rethink the layout.
Common reasons to get in touch include:
- Old alcove cupboards that have seen better days
- Bare alcoves beside the fireplace
- Room to work in an alcove
- Somewhere to keep books and records
If you live in a flat close to Winchmore Hill station, each piece is planned so it can be carried up and joined together in the room.
What to check before you book
- Will they visit to measure before quoting?
- Which materials they’ll use, named in the quote
- Where they’ll park and unload
- Will the quote be in writing?