Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Westminster · London
Paddington Green Alcove Units
Alcove units for your home in Paddington Green: cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast. We visit to measure and go through the design, make the furniture in our workshop and fit it.
- Furniture that doesn’t fit the alcove
- Old alcove cupboards that have seen better days
- Room to work in an alcove
Alcove units designed for your room
Could you do it yourself?
Where bespoke earns its keep is in rooms that are not square. In period homes, walls lean, floors slope and the alcoves on each side are often different widths, which leaves standard units with gaps at the sides and top.
Long shelves are where off-the-shelf often struggles. How much a shelf bends depends on its span, depth and load, and long runs need a thicker shelf, a lip along the front or a support. That’s something we plan for in the design.
How we make alcove units for Paddington Green
Skirting boards, picture rails and coving are common in older rooms. We can cut units around these details, stop beneath them or run up to meet them, whichever suits the room. A plinth can be set to line up with the skirting for a tidy line around the room. These details are settled when we visit, before anything is made. People typically come to us about walls too uneven for standard furniture and space for a growing book collection, and the answer is made at our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted.
Getting long pieces into a flat often takes the most planning. Since most households around Paddington Green live in purpose-built flats, alcove units are designed in sections from the start, with the route in measured as well as the room. Joins are positioned so they’re hidden once everything is in place.
Our quotes are written in plain words. You’ll see what will be made, the boards used and the finish.
- Where
- Paddington Green (W2, W1H, NW8)
- Area
- Westminster
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Where it’s made
- Made in our workshop and fitted on site
- Boards and paint
- MDF and plywood, painted to order
- When we fit
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by arrangement
- Contact
- The contact form
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
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 fitting day is about putting it in place carefully and leaving the room tidy. How long fitting takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and we confirm the fitting days in your quote. Sections come into the flat in the order they’re fitted, so the flat doesn’t fill up. We protect the floors and keep dust to a minimum. The fixings suit each wall, whether solid or stud.
- You contact us with some details about the chimney breast and alcoves.
- At the design visit we measure each alcove at several heights, because period walls are rarely flat or square, then talk through the design with you.
- We send the design, materials and finish in a quote in writing.
- In our workshop the units are made from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, with a little extra left on the edges that meet the wall.
- On fitting day we level the units and scribe the edges so they follow the line of the plaster.
Before fitting day
- Take anything hanging off the wall we are fitting to
- Leave a clear route from the front door to the room
- Keep pets in another room while we work
How to get a quote
The quote is built from the design visit. We take full measurements, see how true the walls and floors are and work through the design together. A written quote follows the visit for you to look over. To book one, message us from the contact page.
Advice
Questions we’re often asked
Will parking be an issue for fitting furniture in Paddington Green?
It can be, as controlled parking zones cover much of inner London. A van may need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a parking bay suspension, which the council arranges, often with notice. Let us know what parking is near you at the design visit, so we can plan the day around it.
Is Paddington Green in the area you cover for alcove units?
Yes. Paddington Green is one of the places we work, along with the rest of Westminster and London. To get started, you can drop us a line using the contact form with some details.
Do I need to be in when you fit?
We need someone to let us in. It also helps to have someone around at the end, so we can go over the finished furniture together.
Should alcove units go up to the ceiling?
It’s up to you. Some people take the units right to the ceiling for the most storage, while a low cupboard with shelves above keeps the room feeling lighter. We go through the options during the design visit.
What affects the price of alcove units?
Each room is quoted on its own: the size, what goes inside, the finish and how square the room is all count. The written quote follows the design visit.
Can an alcove unit include a desk?
Yes. A desk in one alcove, with shelves above and storage below, works well in many rooms. Height and depth are agreed with you.
Flats, conversions and lettings
If your building is on a red route or a busy main road, unloading takes some planning. Red routes are run by TfL and have strict stopping rules, so it is worth raising at the design visit.
In a flat, the route in matters as much as the room. At the design visit, we measure the stairs, the landings, any lift and the doors, so each section is sized to get through without a struggle.
Living-room storage in Paddington Green
The biggest shares of homes in the neighbourhood around Paddington Green were built before 1919 (about 44%) and between 1945 and 1972 (about 16%), on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. That matters for alcove units, as the build era decides whether a wall is solid brick, lath and plaster, block or plasterboard. 14 conservation areas have at least part of their area less than a mile from the middle of Paddington Green. England has around 10,000 in all, and their controls are mostly concerned with the outside of buildings. Controlled parking zones cover much of inner London, and each borough runs its own. For fitting in Paddington Green, a van typically needs a visitor permit, a paid bay or a bay suspension, which the council arranges, often with notice. Let us know about parking near your home during the design visit.
Winfield House, about 0.9 miles north-east, 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. If your children go to Ark Paddington Green Primary Academy or a school nearby, alcove units can be planned with low cupboards for toys and higher shelves for everything else.
Paddington Green is about 1 mile south-east of City of Westminster, part of the City of Westminster. We cover Paddington Green as part of our work across Westminster. Our work takes in places right across Westminster.
Postcode districts we cover here for alcove units: W2, W1H and NW8. We cover homes on streets like Harrow Road, Craven Road and Lanark Road, whether you want alcove units or another piece made for the room. The A5 and A40 run close to Paddington Green; on busy main roads, unloading alcove units takes a little planning. Other places close to Paddington Green include Paddington (1 mile south-east), Little Venice (1 mile west), Lisson Grove (1 mile north-east), Hyde Park Estate (1 mile south-east) and Connaught Village (1 mile south-east). Other parts of Westminster we cover include Soho (2 miles east), Chinatown (2 miles east), St James's (2 miles south-east), Covent Garden (2 miles east), Aldwych (3 miles east) and Charing Cross (2 miles south-east).
Landmarks near Paddington Green
We fit furniture in homes around Royal Society of Medicine Library, North Westminster Community School and Sir Alexander Fleming pub, among other places. There is a railway station in Paddington Green itself: London Paddington station. Well-known places in the area include London Toy & Model Museum (0.6 miles south-west) and Maida Vale Hospital for Nervous Diseases (0.5 miles north-west). Not far away are Greville Place nature reserve and The Long Water.
Also near Paddington Green
Also in Paddington Green
What prompts alcove units in Paddington Green
Others want a proper home for books, records or a TV. An alcove unit can be shaped around what you own, with shelf heights and depths to suit.
Typical reasons people contact us include:
- Standard units leaving gaps at the sides
- Space for a growing book collection
- Storage that suits a period room
- Alcoves that aren’t square
Living in a block of flats near London Paddington station? Then the route in is measured along with the room itself, and the sections are sized to fit it.
Choosing a carpenter
- Will other trades be needed, and who arranges them?
- Whether the quote says what the furniture is made from
- How doors and drawers are fitted
- Where they’ll park and unload
What affects the price in Paddington Green
When we put a quote together, we consider:
- The number of doors and drawers
- Awkward walls, sloping ceilings and uneven floors
- The width and height of the space
- Spray painting or hand painting
There is no price list, because each job is designed for a single room. Instead, we measure, talk through the design and then quote in writing. To arrange a design visit, tell us about the room on our contact form.
Helping us understand the room
These details help when you get in touch:
- Pictures showing the full wall, from floor to ceiling
- Your postcode and the borough
- Radiators, sockets, pipes or meters on or near the wall
- Any ideas or images you’ve saved
It helps to see the room before we come. Pictures of the whole wall, the corners and the ceiling line give us a good feel for the space. To share them, fill in our short enquiry form, and we will arrange a design visit.