Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Hillingdon · London
Sipson Alcove Units
Cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast, designed for your room in Sipson. After a design visit and a written quote, it is made in our workshop and fitted in your home.
- Empty alcoves either side of the chimney breast
- Shop-bought shelving that does not fill the recess
- Cupboards in keeping with an older house
Ask about alcove units in Sipson
Bespoke or off-the-shelf?
Cost matters, and it’s fair to say so: off-the-shelf furniture usually costs less up front. Bespoke makes more sense where the room is tricky, the space is valuable or you want the furniture to look built in.
Off-the-shelf cupboards come in fixed sizes, so there is typically a gap left over at the top or at one end. Furniture we make is built to the room’s own sizes, so it can run to the ceiling and fill the width.
Alcove units in Sipson: what you get
In a typical Victorian or Edwardian terrace, the chimney breast leaves an alcove on either side of it. Alcove units turn that space into cupboards and shelves that sit as part of the room. Where a room in Sipson has a pair of alcoves, we design a unit for each one. We make alcove units from moisture-resistant MDF and strong birch plywood, with a painted finish, and the usual reasons to get in touch are furniture that doesn’t fit the alcove and walls too uneven for standard furniture.
Across London, neighbouring streets can be decades apart in age, and a wall might be brick, lath and plaster, blockwork or plasterboard. That’s why every wall is checked during the design visit before the fixings are chosen. If your room has a chimney breast, the alcoves are an obvious place for alcove units; if not, a full wall works well.
The written quote is your record of the job. It describes the alcove unit we’ve designed for the room, its materials and its finish, and it is what the workshop builds to.
- Place
- Sipson (UB7, UB3)
- Borough
- Hillingdon
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Making
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Boards and paint
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- Working days
- Monday to Friday; Saturdays by arrangement
- Contact
- Send us a message
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
Places near Sipson
What else we make in Sipson
Questions we’re often asked
Is Sipson in the area you cover for alcove units?
Yes. We cover all of Hillingdon and the rest of London, and Sipson is part of that. The first step is a design visit, where we measure and discuss the design, and then we send a quote.
Do you cover homes near West Drayton station?
Yes. We cover all of Hillingdon and the rest of London. To get started, you can drop us a line using the contact form with some details about the room, and let us know about parking and access at the same time.
Does someone need to be home during the fitting?
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.
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. You’ll get a written quote once we have measured up.
Do alcove units affect the chimney’s ventilation?
Any vent is kept clear in the design. Ventilation helps keep a capped chimney dry, which protects the units as well as the wall. If there’s damp on the breast already, it is best sorted before fitting.
What do you do at the measuring visit?
We measure the space and discuss the design, materials and finish. We look at the walls, floors and anything the furniture has to work around, then send a written quote.
From workshop to your room
However carefully a piece is made in the workshop, it still has to meet the room, 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, closing the gaps a standard unit would leave. 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. If you live in a block, check any rules on lifts, deliveries and working hours; for a house, steps, paths and parking are the things to mention. Either way, the day is planned during the design visit. Saturdays can be arranged.
- It starts with a short message from you about the alcoves.
- We visit to measure the alcoves and discuss the design, including the paint finish.
- The written quote then sets out the design, the materials and the finish you have picked.
- We make the units in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF, which takes paint well, and birch plywood.
- We fit the units in your home and scribe them to the walls.
- Paint needs time to cure, so go gently with the new units at first.
Before fitting day
- Make sure pets are kept safely away
- Clear the hallway and stairs so the sections can come through
- Get any new sockets or wiring done by your electrician before fitting day
Ask for a quote
You don’t need exact measurements to get started. Everything is measured properly when we visit, including how level the floor and ceiling are. To get started, send us a few details through our contact form and let us know about the room. The written quote follows the visit.
Read more
What we do not do
Damp treatment and building work are for other specialists, so these points are worth knowing:
- Finding and fixing the cause of damp
- Taking out a chimney breast or opening up a fireplace
- Moving sockets or switches, which needs an electrician
If in doubt, you can message us from the contact page and describe the room. How a job runs, step by step.
Boards, parts and finishes
- Adjustable shelves
- Hand-painted finish
- Birch plywood
- Spray-painted finish
- Scribed side panels
- Panelled or flat doors
- Moisture-resistant MDF
Why bespoke in Sipson?
Alcoves vary in depth, and the chimney breast decides how far a unit can come out. A shop-bought cabinet may stick out past the chimney breast or leave a deep gap behind it. Bespoke units are made to the depth you want, whether that’s flush with the breast or a little shallower. Standalone furniture leaves gaps behind and above it that gather dust, while fitted pieces are scribed tight to the walls and ceiling.
Awkward rooms take more time: walls that lean, floors that slope and sloping ceilings all mean more scribing and cutting. That’s reflected in the quote, written once we’ve measured up.
Why us?
- Made in moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood
- Saturday visits and fitting by prior arrangement
- A spray or hand-painted finish
- A design visit, then a quote in writing
See bespoke vs off-the-shelf or what a quote should include.
Practical tips
The finish lasts best with a little care, whether it was spray painted or hand painted. Here are our suggestions:
- Plan any new sockets with your electrician before fitting
- Clear the alcoves before the design visit if you can
- Tell us about parking and access at the measuring visit
- Measure anything large that must fit inside, like a record player
To clean painted units, a soft cloth that’s barely damp is enough. Skip scouring pads and harsh cleaners, as they can mark the finish. Dry the surface afterwards.
Put coasters or mats under anything that holds water, since standing water can mark painted shelves. Wipe up spills right away.
Living-room storage in Sipson
Homes built since 2000 make up about 34% of the housing in the neighbourhood around Sipson, with about 27% built between 1919 and 1939, going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. That matters for alcove units, as the build era decides whether a wall is solid brick, lath and plaster, block or plasterboard. Entries on the National Heritage List near the centre of Sipson include The King William IV Public House (Grade II), about 0.5 miles south-west, and Lanz Farmhouse (Grade II), about 0.5 miles south-west. For a listed home, internal works that affect its character can require listed building consent from the council, for example removing or fixing into original panelling. The council’s conservation officer is the person to ask before work starts. A quarter or more of the homes in the area around Sipson (about 26%) were built between 1945 and 1972, on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. Rooms from that era are often squarer, with fewer alcoves and sometimes no chimney breast, so alcove units often run along a full wall, fixed to suit the wall, which may be concrete or block.
If you live in a flat close to West Drayton 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. If you live in a period home close to Christ Church, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at. For a family home near Cherry Lane Primary School, a cupboard for board games and a shelf for reading books can go into the same design.
Sipson is about 6 miles north of Ruislip, part of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Homes in Sipson are part of the area we cover for alcove units, as part of our work in every London borough. In Hillingdon, Sipson is one of the places we cover, and the borough has 17 places on our list.
In UB7 and UB3, the process is the same as anywhere else in London. We cover homes on streets such as East Road, Sipson Lane and Sipson Road, whether you want alcove units or another piece made for the room. We also cover Harlington (1 mile south-east), Harmondsworth (1 mile south-west), Cranford (2 miles south-east) and Hatton (2 miles south-east). Elsewhere in Hillingdon, we also cover Ruislip (6 miles north), Hayes (2 miles north-east), Hillingdon (3 miles north), Yeading (4 miles north-east), Yiewsley (4 miles north-east) and Ruislip Manor (6 miles north).
What’s near Sipson
Our area takes in the homes around The Plough pub and Harlington Community School. The nearest railway station is West Drayton station, roughly 1.4 miles north-west. Nearby you will also find Harlington (close by, under half a mile south).