Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Bexley · London
Alcove Units in Slade Green
Cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast, for homes in Slade Green. We make each piece in our workshop and fit it in your home.
- Walls too uneven for standard furniture
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
- Shelving for books and records
Ask about alcove units in Slade Green
How we price alcove units
A few things affect what fitted furniture costs:
- Spray painting or hand painting
- How many doors and drawers there are
- How big the furniture is
- Awkward walls, sloping ceilings and uneven floors
There’s no price list: each design is priced in writing after we’ve seen the space. A larger piece means more material and more time. After that, the number of doors and drawers, the internal fittings and the finish all play a part.
Getting in touch
A little information at the start saves time later. Where you can, include:
- Whether it is a house or a flat, and if there are stairs or a lift
- Rough sizes: width, height and depth
- The postcode, so we can plan the visit
- Examples of the look you’re after
Photos help us understand the room before we visit. Pictures of the whole wall, the corners and the ceiling line give us a good feel for the space, along with rough measurements. To share them, drop us a line using the contact form, and we’ll suggest a time for a design visit.
How we make alcove units for Slade Green
Most Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses have a chimney breast in the main rooms, with an alcove on each side. Built-in alcove units put that space to work as cupboards and shelving that sit as part of the room. Where a room in Slade Green has a pair of alcoves, we design a unit for each one. People typically come to us about bowed walls and sloping floors and shelving for books and records; the furniture is made from birch ply and moisture-resistant MDF, painted by hand or sprayed.
Across London, neighbouring streets can be decades apart in age, and a wall might be brick, lath and plaster, blockwork or plasterboard. We check what the walls are made of during the design visit, then choose the fixings. If your room has a chimney breast, the alcoves are an obvious place for alcove units; if not, a full wall works well.
The furniture is built in our workshop after you have had the quote and decided to go ahead. The quote sets out the agreed design, materials and finish, so you can check every detail beforehand.
- Where
- Slade Green (DA8, DA1, DA7)
- Area
- Bexley
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Made
- Made in our workshop and fitted on site
- Made from
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- Fitting days
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by arrangement
- Get in touch
- Send us a message
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Neighbourhoods near Slade Green
Also in Slade Green
Bespoke or off-the-shelf?
Cost matters, and it’s fair to say so: flat-pack is typically cheaper to buy. Bespoke earns its place where the room is tricky, space is tight or you want the furniture to look part of the house.
Bespoke work comes into its own in rooms that are not square. Older London rooms tend to have leaning walls, sloping floors and alcoves of different widths, which leaves standard units with gaps at the sides and top.
Caring for painted furniture
Most of what helps is simple. What we’d suggest:
- Tell us about parking and access at the measuring visit
- Decide whether the units stop at the picture rail or run to the ceiling
- Think about what you will store before we meet
- Sort out damp patches before fitting
To clean painted units, a soft cloth that is barely damp is enough. Skip scouring pads and harsh cleaners, as they can mark the finish. Dry the surface afterwards.
Watch for damp marks on the chimney breast or the walls near the units. The cause is a job for the right trade, not something paint will hide.
Common questions about alcove units
Can you make alcove units for a home in Slade Green?
Yes, Slade Green is within the area we cover, which takes in all of Bexley and the rest of London. We start with a design visit to measure the room and talk through what you need, and then we send a quote.
Is parking a problem for fitting in Slade Green?
It depends on the street, as many London boroughs run controlled parking zones. 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. Let us know what parking is near you during the design visit.
What do you do at the measuring visit?
We measure the room, check how level the walls and floors are and talk through the design with you. We will also ask about access and parking, and a written quote follows.
What paint finish can I have on alcove units?
You can choose a spray-painted finish from our workshop or a hand-painted finish in your home. Both are in a colour agreed with you. Spraying gives a smooth, even surface, and hand painting is easy to touch up.
Can you fit furniture on an external wall?
An outside wall can be colder and damper than an inside one, so we allow for ventilation behind and inside the furniture. Any damp needs sorting by the right specialist before fitting.
Can you add sockets inside the units?
Your electrician handles sockets and wiring. It is best done before the units go in so the sockets line up with the design. The units are made with cut-outs and cable gaps to suit.
How fitting day works
However carefully a piece is made in the workshop, it still has to meet the room, and that happens on fitting day. Walls in older homes are rarely 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. Before fitting day, we check the route in as well as the room, so the furniture comes in sections sized for the route. We cover floors and doorways on the way in.
- You tell us which room it is and roughly what you’d like in the alcoves.
- At the design visit, we measure both alcoves, check the walls and look at the skirting and picture rail. We also talk through heights, doors and shelves.
- You receive a quote with the design, the materials and the paint finish. If anything needs changing, just tell us.
- Once you are happy, the units are made in our workshop.
- We fit the units, scribe them to the walls and set them level. The finish is sprayed in our workshop or hand-painted on site, as agreed.
Before we arrive
- Get any new sockets or wiring done by your electrician before fitting day
- Tell us about parking near your home
- Move anything in the hall or on the stairs out of the way
How to get a quote
If you already have something in mind, tell us; if not, we can work it out together at the visit. The design is talked through at the visit, once we’ve measured, and the written quote then sets it out. To arrange a visit, get in touch through our contact form.
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Boards, parts and paint
Spray-painted finish
Spraying in the workshop means the units arrive already finished, in the colour agreed with you. Treat the units gently while the paint cures fully.
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’s a good match for alcoves on an external wall.
Alcove units in Slade Green: local notes
Homes built between 1973 and 1999 make up about 27% of the housing in the area around Slade Green, with about 27% built since 2000, in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. Each era brings its own kind of wall, ceiling height and floor, so it shapes the design from the first measurement. The Oak Road Conservation Area is close by, within about a quarter of a mile of the centre of Slade Green. Conservation area controls are mostly concerned with the outside of buildings, and fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. The council can confirm if you’re not sure. A quarter or more of the homes in the streets around Slade Green (about 27%) were built since 2000, based on the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax data. Newer homes normally have plasterboard stud walls and open-plan rooms, often with no chimney breast, so the fixings go into the studs, or heavier pieces stand on the floor.
If your home is one of the older houses near St. Augustine's Church, the alcoves beside a chimney breast are the natural place for alcove units. The wider area includes historic houses such as Hall Place and Gardens, about 2.1 miles south-west. For a period home anywhere nearby, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at. Close to Braeburn Park? Alcove units can be planned to frame a window with a view rather than block it.
Slade Green is about 5 miles south-west of Sidcup, within the London Borough of Bexley. We work across all London boroughs and the City of London, and Slade Green is part of that. Our Bexley coverage includes Slade Green and the places around it.
Design visits and fitting in DA8, DA1 and DA7 work the same way as everywhere else we cover. Whether you live on a street such as Oak Road, Elm Road and Moat Lane or on one nearby, we can arrange a design visit for alcove units. Nearby, we also make alcove units in North End (1 mile west), Bexley Riverside (1 mile west), Barnehurst (1 mile west) and Northumberland Heath (1 mile west). Elsewhere in Bexley, we also cover Sidcup (5 miles south-west), Welling (4 miles west), Bexley (3 miles south-west), Belvedere (2 miles north-west), Lessness Heath (2 miles north-west) and Bexleyheath (3 miles west).
Around Slade Green
We fit furniture in homes around Haberdashers' Aske's Crayford Academy and Railway Tavern. Slade Green has its own railway station: Slade Green station. A little further out are Joyce Green Hospital (1.3 miles east) and Erith Museum (1.3 miles north-west).