Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Wandsworth · London
Southfields Alcove Units
Alcove units in Southfields: 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.
- Worn or badly fitted alcove units
- Somewhere to keep books and records
- Bare alcoves beside the fireplace
Alcove units for your home in Southfields
How we make alcove units for Southfields
Period rooms often have skirting boards, picture rails and cornices. We can cut units around these details, stop beneath them or run up to meet them, depending on the look you want. The plinth height can match the skirting for a tidy line around the room. We agree these details during the design visit, before anything is made. We make alcove units from birch ply and moisture-resistant MDF, painted by hand or sprayed, and the usual reasons to get in touch are empty alcoves either side of the chimney breast and everyday clutter left on show.
With a large share of homes around Southfields built before 1919, lots of living rooms are two reception rooms knocked into one, each with its own chimney breast. One pair of alcoves might take shelves and the other cupboards, a TV or a desk. Older internal walls can be lath and plaster rather than brick, which changes how shelving is fixed.
After the design visit, we send you a quote in writing. It describes the design we discussed, the materials and the finish.
- Location
- Southfields (SW18, SW19, SW17)
- Borough
- Wandsworth
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- First step
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Making
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Boards and paint
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- Fitting days
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Get in touch
- Send us a message
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
Your questions about alcove units in Southfields
Will parking be an issue for fitting furniture in Southfields?
It can be: much of inner London is covered by 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. It is useful to let us know about parking during the design visit.
Do you cover homes near Earlsfield station?
Yes, homes across Wandsworth and the rest of London are within the area we cover. 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.
Should I send pictures?
Yes, they help. A few pictures of the room, from floor to ceiling, tell us a lot, particularly with rough sizes. You can send them when you tell us about the room on our contact form.
How much will my alcove unit cost?
Size, doors and drawers, what goes inside and the finish all affect it, along with access and parking. We send a written quote after the design visit.
How do I get a quote?
Simply send us a few details through our contact form. Rough measurements and a few photos help, and then we arrange a visit to measure and discuss the design.
How long will the fitting take?
How long fitting takes depends on the size and number of units, and we confirm the fitting days in your quote. Most of the making happens in our workshop, so the work in your home is about fitting and finishing.
Looking after your furniture
A few practical points help before and after fitting day. Here are some things worth bearing in mind:
- Note the sizes of large things you want to store
- Look for a chimney vent that needs to stay clear
- Plan any new sockets with your electrician before fitting
- Deal with any damp on the chimney breast first
Make a note of the paint colour used for future touch-ups. Hand-painted finishes are the easiest to touch up in place, and it’s useful to keep a little of the paint.
Avoid placing a heater hard up against the units, as strong heat can mark paint over time.
Bespoke or off-the-shelf?
The depth of an alcove is set by the chimney breast. A shop-bought cabinet may stick out past the chimney breast or leave a deep gap behind it. We set the depth to suit the room, flush with the chimney breast or set back from it. Ready-made units stop well short of a tall period ceiling, wasting space that could hold things you rarely use. Built-in pieces can run to the cornice or the picture rail.
We do not publish set prices, because each job is designed for a single room. Instead, we measure, go through the design and then quote in writing, with the materials and finish set out. To arrange a design visit, use our contact form.
What you get with us
- Scribed to uneven walls
- Every quote follows a design visit
- Saturday visits and fitting by prior arrangement
- A spray or hand-painted finish
Take a look at how bespoke compares with ready-made or what to look for in a quote.
When you need someone else
Electrics, plumbing, gas, plastering and structural work are not part of what we do. There are a few other points to bear in mind:
- Removing or altering a chimney breast, which is structural work
- Finding and fixing the cause of damp
- Electrical work, like new sockets or switches, which is for your electrician
If you are not sure what’s possible in your room, you can tell us about the room on our contact form and we’ll give you a straight answer. How it works.
What it’s made from
- Hand-painted finish
- Birch plywood
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Spray-painted finish
- Scribed side panels
- Adjustable shelves
- Panelled or flat doors
Built-in living-room furniture in Southfields
In the neighbourhood around Southfields, the largest groups of homes date from before 1919 (about 57%) and the years since 2000 (about 14%), in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. The age of a home tells us a lot about its walls, floors and ceilings, and so about how alcove units are fixed and fitted. There are 6 entries on the National Heritage List within half a mile of the centre of Southfields. Being near listed buildings doesn’t make a home listed, and you can check any address on Historic England’s list. Flats in converted or shared houses account for about 23% of households in the neighbourhood around Southfields, the 2021 Census shows. In a converted house, rooms can be odd shapes, with new partitions meeting old walls, and the route in may go through a shared hall and stairs. A lease can require consent for alterations, so it is worth checking yours first.
For families living near Floreat Wandsworth Primary School, a cupboard for board games and a shelf for reading books can go into the same design. For a flat near Earlsfield station, check any building rules on lifts and working hours early, and the sections will be sized for the way in.
Southfields is about 2 miles north-east of Clapham Junction, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Wherever you are in Southfields, the process is the same: we visit and measure, send a quote in writing, make the furniture in our workshop and fit it. Southfields is one of 15 places on our list for Wandsworth.
Design visits and fitting in SW18, SW19 and SW17 work the same way as everywhere else we cover. Streets in the area include Burr Road, Acuba Road and Mount Road, and homes on each of them are within our area for alcove units. Close by, we also work in Earlsfield (1 mile south-east), Wandsworth (1 mile north), Summerstown (1 mile south), Battersea (2 miles north-east) and Clapham Junction (2 miles north-east). Other parts of Wandsworth we cover include Putney (2 miles north-west), Tooting (2 miles south-east), Balham (2 miles east), Furzedown (2 miles south-east), Streatham Park (3 miles south-east) and Roehampton (2 miles west).
Landmarks near Southfields
The streets we cover here include those near Old Sergeant pub, Southfields Academy and Wandsworth School and the streets around them. Southfields has its own railway station: Earlsfield station. A little further out are Southside Wandsworth (0.6 miles north) and Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum (1.2 miles south-west). Not far away are Henman Hill.
Also near Southfields
More for homes in Southfields
What prompts alcove units in Southfields
Sometimes there are old units already, worn, badly fitted or the wrong size for how you live. Starting again lets you rethink the layout, from the shelf heights to the doors.
If any of these sound familiar, it’s worth getting in touch:
- Somewhere to keep books and records
- Standard units leaving gaps at the sides
- A place for a small desk
- Worn or badly fitted alcove units
If you live near King George's Park, alcove units can be planned to frame a window with a view rather than block it.
Before you hire any carpenter
- Have they thought about parking near you?
- Real projects you can actually look at
- A written quote that sets out the job
- Are the boards named, such as MDF or plywood?
How fitting day works
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 fitting takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. Hallways in period houses are often narrow, and the stairs turn sharply, so alcove units are made in sections sized to get through. Floors and stair carpets are protected on the way in and out, and the sections are joined and scribed in the room.
- It starts with a short message from you about the alcoves.
- We visit to measure the alcoves and talk through the design, including the paint finish. You can choose a spray-painted finish from our workshop or a hand-painted one done in your home.
- A quote in writing follows, with the finish written in alongside the design and materials.
- We make the units in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF, which takes paint well, and birch plywood.
- The units are fitted and scribed to the alcoves; a hand-painted finish is done on site after fitting and is easy to touch up later.
- Paint needs time to cure, so go gently with the new units at first.
How to prepare
- Move furniture and belongings away from the wall
- Take anything hanging off the wall we’re fitting to
- Leave a clear route from the front door to the room
Starting with a design visit
Your quote is written for your room once we’ve visited and measured. Each room is different, so we quote after seeing it, when we have measured up and talked through the design. To arrange a visit, use our contact form.