Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Enfield · London
Alcove Units in Palmers Green
We make alcove units for homes in Palmers Green, designed around the room you have. Your alcove unit is designed at a visit to your home and made in our workshop.
- Somewhere to keep books and records
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
- Cupboards in keeping with an older house
Alcove units in Palmers Green
Bespoke or off-the-shelf?
To be fair, a standalone bookcase or cabinet can go with you to your next home. Built-in units become part of the room and remain when you move on. Which suits you depends on your plans. Tall standalone furniture needs fixing back to the wall so it cannot tip, and in an older house that can mean fixing into brick or lath and plaster. Fitted furniture is designed with the wall in mind.
Getting to the room affects the job as well. Several flights of stairs, a small lift or a narrow hall can mean smaller sections and more carrying. Your quote is written for your room once we’ve visited and measured.
Why choose us
- More than 300 projects completed
- Spray painted or hand painted, in the colour you choose
- Fitted tight to walls that aren’t straight
- Made in moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood
Take a look at bespoke vs off-the-shelf and what to look for in a quote.
How we make alcove units for Palmers Green
In a tall room, a full-height alcove cupboard holds a great deal. In bedrooms, this often becomes a compact wardrobe or a place for bedding, and in a dining room a home for china and glass. We ask what you want to store before we plan the inside, and set out the shelves and rails around it. If you are living with worn or badly fitted alcove units and bare alcoves beside the fireplace, alcove units made from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted can solve it.
A large share of the homes around Palmers Green were built before 1919, and in London most homes of that age are Victorian or Edwardian. Houses of that age typically have a chimney breast in the front and back reception rooms, with an alcove either side, which gives alcove units an obvious place to go. Because old walls bow and floors slope, the units are scribed to follow the wall and levelled at the base.
Everything we agree at the measuring visit goes into the written quote: the layout and internal fittings, the materials and the finish. If you’d like to change anything, it is easier before the furniture is made.
- Location
- Palmers Green (N13, N22, N11)
- Borough
- Enfield
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Making
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Boards and paint
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Working days
- Monday to Friday; Saturdays by arrangement
- Enquiries
- Our contact form
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Also near Palmers Green
Other services in Palmers Green
Living-room carpentry in Palmers Green: local notes
The biggest shares of homes in the streets around Palmers Green were built before 1919 (about 49%) and between 1919 and 1939 (about 30%), according to Valuation Office Agency council tax figures (2025). We take that into account during the design visit, since older and newer walls take different fixings. Entries on the National Heritage List near the centre of Palmers Green include Broomfield House Broomfield Park (Grade II*), under half a mile west, and Parish Church of St John the Evangelist (Grade II*), less than half a mile north-east. Works inside a listed home that affect its character, for example removing original joinery or fixing into it, can need listed building consent from the council. An early word with the council’s conservation officer is the best first step. Around Palmers Green, about 49% of homes date from before 1919, well above the figure for Enfield as a whole, about 23%, according to Valuation Office Agency council tax figures (2025). That makes period details like uneven walls, alcoves and picture rails more likely to shape the design.
Bruce Castle, about 1.9 miles south-east, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. If your own home is a period one, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at. If your home is one of the older houses near Palmers Green United Reformed Church, walls that bow and floors that slope are why alcove units are scribed to fit rather than pushed into place.
Palmers Green is in the London Borough of Enfield, about 2 miles east of Edmonton. Wherever you are in Palmers Green, it works the same way: a design visit, a written quote, furniture built in our workshop and fitting in your home. Our Enfield coverage includes Palmers Green.
We cover every part of the N13, N22 and N11 postcode area for alcove units. Whether you live on a street like Oak Lane, Fox Lane and York Road or on one nearby, we can arrange a design visit for alcove units. The A105 and A1004 run close to Palmers Green, so if your home is on a main road, mention it when you contact us. Neighbouring places we cover for alcove units include Oakthorpe Park (1 mile south-east), Arnos Grove (1 mile west), Bounds Green (1 mile south-west), Bowes Park (1 mile south) and Southgate (1 mile north-west). Elsewhere in Enfield, we also cover Edmonton (2 miles east), Enfield (3 miles north-east), Enfield Chase (3 miles north), Bush Hill Park (2 miles north-east), Upper Edmonton (2 miles east) and Gordon Hill (3 miles north). As one of the bigger places in Enfield, Palmers Green is covered for alcove units and everything else we make.
What’s near Palmers Green
Our area takes in the homes around St Thomas More Catholic School, The Alfred Herring pub and Hazelwood Infant School, among other places. Palmers Green has its own railway station: Palmers Green station. Well-known places in the area include Greentrees Hospital (0.6 miles south-east) and The Mall Wood Green (1.6 miles south).
Is it time for alcove units?
Where a fireplace has been blocked up or removed, the chimney breast can look bare. A pair of alcove units frames it and gives the wall a sense of order, whether or not the fireplace is used.
We are often asked to help with:
- Somewhere to keep books and records
- Bare alcoves beside the fireplace
- Walls too uneven for standard furniture
- Clutter with nowhere to go
For families living near St Anne's Catholic High School for Girls, shelving with deep cupboards below keeps books, games and school things in one place.
Choosing a carpenter
- Can you see real work of theirs?
- Are the boards named, such as MDF or plywood?
- Which parts of the job need an electrician or a plumber
- Whether the quote follows a visit to your home
Common questions about alcove units
Can parking be tricky on fitting day in Palmers Green?
It can be, depending on whether your street is in a controlled parking zone. A van may need a visitor permit, a pay-and-display bay or a suspended bay, which the council arranges, often with notice. Let us know what parking is near you during the design visit, so we can plan the day around it.
Do I need permission for fitted furniture in a conservation area?
Not normally. Conservation area controls are largely about how buildings look from outside, so fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. If your home is listed, internal works that affect its character may need listed building consent, so check with the council first. If you are unsure, the council can confirm.
Can you add sockets inside the units?
Your electrician handles sockets and wiring. Ideally it is done before fitting. The units are made with cut-outs and cable gaps to suit.
Can you fit a desk into an alcove?
Yes. One alcove can take a desk with shelves above and a drawer or cupboard beneath. We plan the height and depth with you, with a way planned for cables to reach the sockets.
Can you build alcove units for alcoves that aren’t square?
Yes. Few alcoves in older houses are truly square, so each unit is scribed to the wall on site. A plinth or adjustable feet set it level on a sloping floor.
Do alcove units need to reach the ceiling?
That depends on the room and what you’d like to store. Units can stop just under the picture rail or run up to the cornice, or run to the ceiling for a built-in look. We agree the height at the design visit.
Boards, parts and paint
Moisture-resistant MDF
Moisture-resistant MDF is stable and takes paint well, so we use it for doors, panels and the faces you see. It is a sensible choice where an alcove sits against an external wall.
Hand-painted finish
With a hand-painted finish, you see the colour in your own light as it goes on. Scribed edges and joins are painted along with the rest.
What affects the cost of alcove units
The price for your room depends on:
- The width and height of the space
- The finish: spray painted or hand painted
- Hanging rails, shelves, drawers and other fittings inside
- Doors and drawers, and how many
The inside of the furniture affects the price as well: 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, and the quote follows.
Before the design visit
There’s no need for exact sizes or plans. Just send what you can:
- Where you live, with the postcode
- Rough sizes: width, height and depth
- Anything in the way, like radiators, sockets, switches, a boiler or meters
- Pictures of the whole wall or room, including the floor and ceiling
To get a quote, tell us about the room on our contact form and let us know which room you have in mind and what you want the furniture to do. From there, we arrange a design visit to measure up and talk through your ideas, and a written quote follows.
What happens on fitting day
Period rooms often have skirting boards, picture rails, cornices or coving for the furniture to meet. On fitting day, we cut and scribe the furniture around these details, so it sits neatly against the room. 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. If your hall still has its original tiles or boards, they’re covered before any carrying starts. Drilling into lath and plaster is done with care, so the plaster around stays sound. Decorating around the furniture afterwards is for your decorator.
- You get in touch and let us know 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.
- You receive a written quote setting out the units, materials and finish.
- Each unit is built in our workshop to the measurements we took, using moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood.
- We install the units, set them level and scribe them to the alcoves.
Before fitting day
- Make sure pets are kept safely away
- Take down pictures, mirrors and shelves from the wall
- Let us know where the boiler and meters are
How to get a quote
For a quote for alcove units in Palmers Green, use our contact form. Tell us which room it is and roughly what you have in mind, with sizes if you have them. Next comes a design visit, followed by a quote in writing.