Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Ealing · London
Alcove Units in Perivale
Alcove units for your home in Perivale: cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast. Each piece is designed at a visit to your home, made in our workshop and fitted by us.
- Old alcove cupboards that have seen better days
- Space for a growing book collection
- Empty alcoves either side of the chimney breast
Alcove units in Perivale
Alcove units in Perivale
A classic layout is a low cupboard with open shelves above. Closed cupboards hide everyday clutter, while the shelves hold books and the things you want on show. The top of the cupboard makes a useful surface at a comfortable height. We set the heights to suit the room and what you’ll store. Typical reasons to get in touch are old alcove cupboards that have seen better days and units that sit well with original features; the furniture is made from MDF made to resist moisture and birch plywood, then spray-painted or hand-painted.
Around Perivale, interwar houses or semi-detached and detached homes make up a good part of the housing. If yours is a 1920s or 1930s house, the front room may have a bay window at one end and a chimney breast on the side wall, which decides where alcove units sit. Walls are often truer than in older houses, but they’re still measured carefully and scribed where they wander.
The quote names the materials: moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, each used where it suits the job. The finish is stated too, whether that’s spray painting or hand painting.
- Where
- Perivale (UB6, HA0, W5)
- Area
- Ealing
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Where it is made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Made from
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- Fitting days
- Weekdays; Saturdays on request
- Get in touch
- The contact form
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
How fitting day works
Every fitting follows the same order: floors are protected, the sections come in, everything is levelled, scribed to the walls, fixed and finished. At the end, we tidy up and go over the work with you. How long fitting takes depends on the size and number of units, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. Interwar houses typically have a straight run of stairs and a reasonable hallway, though we still measure the route in along with the room itself. Alcove units arrive in sections and are assembled in place.
- You get in touch and describe the alcoves you want to fill.
- We visit to measure the alcoves top, middle and bottom, and check the floor for level, then discuss the design with you.
- We send the design, materials and finish in a written quote.
- 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. Spray-painted units arrive finished; hand-painted ones are painted once fitted.
Before we arrive
- Clear the area where the furniture is going
- Check the building’s rules for trades and lift bookings
- Take anything hanging off the wall we are fitting to
Ask for a quote
To get a quote, drop us a line using the contact form and let us know which room you have in mind. From there, we arrange a design visit to measure up and talk through your ideas, and a quote in writing follows.
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Built-in living-room furniture in Perivale
Homes built between 1919 and 1939 make up about 77% of the housing in the area around Perivale, with about 11% built since 2000, according to Valuation Office Agency council tax figures (2025). Knowing roughly when a home was built helps, because walls and fixings change from one era to the next. Entries on the National Heritage List near the centre of Perivale include Church of St Mary the Virgin (Grade I), about 0.5 miles south, and Perivale Underground Station (Grade II), under half a mile south-west. If you live in a listed building, fixing into or taking out original features like panelling may need listed building consent. It is worth speaking to the council’s conservation officer before the design is final. Controlled parking zones are common across London, and Ealing sets its own rules. If your street in Perivale is in a controlled parking zone, a visitor permit, a paid bay or a parking bay suspension through the council may be needed. Let us know about parking at the design visit.
If your children go to St John Fisher Catholic Primary School or a school nearby, shelving with deep cupboards below keeps books, games and school things in one place. Close to Castle Bar Park? Alcove units can be arranged to keep the window and the light clear.
Perivale is within the London Borough of Ealing, about 2 miles south of Ealing. Wherever you are in Perivale, it works the same way: a design visit, a quote in writing, furniture made at our workshop and fitting in your home. Across Ealing, we cover Perivale, along with the rest of the borough.
Here we cover the UB6, HA0 and W5 postcode area for alcove units. Streets in the area include Lee Road, Wicket Road and Bilton Road, and homes on each of them are within our area for alcove units. Neighbouring places we cover for alcove units include Pitshanger (1 mile south), Brentham Garden Suburb (1 mile south-east), Sudbury Hill (1 mile north), Sudbury (1 mile north) and Greenford (1 mile west). Elsewhere in Ealing, we also cover Ealing (2 miles south), Acton (3 miles south-east), Southall (3 miles south-west), Northolt (2 miles west), Acton Green (4 miles south-east) and Bedford Park (4 miles south-east).
Near you in Perivale
Around Perivale, we cover homes near St Benedict's School, Brentham Clubhouse pub and Alperton Community School, among other places. Perivale’s nearest station is South Greenford station, about 0.8 miles south-west. Other landmarks nearby include Clementine Churchill Hospital (1.9 miles north) and London Designer Outlet (1.9 miles north-east). Open spaces near Perivale include Castlebar Hill and Perivale Wood.
Other services in Perivale
Materials and finishes
Shelves
How thick a shelf needs to be depends on how wide the alcove is and what it holds. For a wide span or heavy books, we use a thicker shelf, a lip on the front or a support.
Spray-painted finish
A sprayed coat covers edges and corners evenly, which suits panelled doors. The colour is agreed with you before we start.
Why people ask for alcove units in Perivale
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.
We’re often asked to help with:
- Room to work in an alcove
- Alcoves that aren’t square
- Clutter with nowhere to go
- Old alcove cupboards that have seen better days
Living in a block of flats near South Greenford station? Then the route in is measured not just the room, and the sections are sized to fit it.
Before you choose who makes it
- Are the boards named, like MDF or plywood?
- Have they measured the stairs, lift and doorways?
- How the furniture will be finished, and where
- Who does any electrics, plumbing or gas work
Your questions about alcove units in Perivale
Do I need permission for fitted furniture in a conservation area?
Typically not: conservation area rules mainly cover the outside of buildings, and fitted furniture inside a house does not normally need planning permission. If your home is listed, internal works that affect its character can need listed building consent, so check with the council first. The council’s planning or conservation team can tell you if in doubt.
Do you make alcove units for homes in Perivale?
Yes, we work across Ealing, Perivale included, and across the rest of London. To get started, you can use our contact form with some details.
How do I get started?
Simply tell us about the room on our contact form. Rough measurements and a few pictures help, and we will arrange a design visit, followed by a quote in writing.
Can alcove units be fitted to uneven walls?
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.
Is it possible to have a desk built into one alcove?
Yes. You can have a desk in one alcove and cupboards in the other, or matching desks in both. We will plan the desk around how you work.
Are alcove units spray painted or hand painted?
You can choose a spray-painted finish from our workshop or a hand-painted finish in your home. Either way, the colour is agreed with you. Spray painting is smooth and even, while hand painting is easy to touch up.
Flats, blocks and rented homes
Landlords furnishing a let use fitted furniture too. It’s made from the same moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood as any of our work, finished by spray or by hand.
For flats on red routes or busy main roads, getting the furniture from the van to the door needs planning. TfL runs the red routes, and the stopping rules are strict, so it is worth raising during the design visit.
How we price alcove units
There’s no set price, because there’s no set room. What affects it comes down to:
- The internal fittings
- The number of doors and drawers
- How square the room is
- How big the furniture is
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 will talk through what you need inside during the design visit, and the quote follows.
What we need to know
To give us a picture of the room, it is useful to include:
- Your postcode and the borough
- Photos of the whole wall or room, including the floor and ceiling
- Anything fixed to the wall that the furniture needs to work around
- Approximate measurements of the space
The design visit is where every quote starts. We measure the room properly, check how the walls and floors run and talk through the design with you. Afterwards, we send a written quote, so you can take your time with it. To arrange the visit, message us from the contact page.