Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Newham · London
Stratford Alcove Units
Cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast, for homes in Stratford. After a design visit and a written quote, it’s made in our workshop and fitted in your home.
- Old alcove cupboards that have seen better days
- Space for a growing book collection
- Shop-bought shelving that does not fill the recess
Alcove units in Stratford
Where other trades come in
Our work is the furniture itself: designing it, making it in our workshop and fitting it. That means:
- Replastering, which is a plasterer’s job
- New sockets or wiring (your electrician handles those)
- Decorating the rest of the room
If in doubt, you can fill in our short enquiry form and describe the room. How a job runs, step by step.
Materials and parts
- Birch plywood
- Adjustable shelves
- Scribed side panels
- Spray-painted finish
- Hand-painted finish
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Panelled or flat doors
Alcove units for homes in Stratford
Most Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses have a chimney breast in the main rooms, with an alcove on each side. Alcove units turn that space into cupboards and shelves that sit as part of the room. If your home in Stratford has alcoves like these, each alcove gets a unit designed for it, starting with a design visit to measure. Most enquiries start with bare alcoves beside the fireplace and walls too uneven for standard furniture, and the answer is built in our workshop from birch plywood and moisture-resistant MDF with a spray-painted or hand-painted finish.
A large share of the homes around Stratford date from 2000 onwards, and newer homes rarely come with any built-in shelving or media storage. We plan alcove units around the existing sockets and aerial points, with routes for cables designed in. Walls in newer homes are often plasterboard on studs, which is fine for fitted furniture when the fixings are right.
If the job needs another trade, such as an electrician or a plumber, we’ll tell you. The quote itself covers our work, from the design to the materials and finish.
- Place
- Stratford (E15, E20, E3)
- Borough
- Newham
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Where it’s made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Boards and paint
- MDF and plywood, painted to order
- Working days
- Weekdays (Saturdays if arranged)
- Enquiries
- The contact form
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
Practical tips
Looking after painted furniture is simple. These habits help most:
- Bring the sizes of anything that has to fit in the cupboards
- Make the alcoves easy to reach for measuring
- Book your electrician first if sockets need moving
- Sort out damp patches before fitting
Make a note of the paint colour used so any touch-ups match. Small marks on a hand-painted finish are easy to touch up.
Every so often, check that hinges and handles haven’t worked loose and adjust a door before a small rub becomes a mark.
Questions from Stratford
Can you make alcove units for a home in Stratford?
Yes, Stratford is within the area we cover, which takes in all of Newham and the rest of London. We start with a design visit to measure the room and talk through what you need, followed by a quote.
Is parking a problem for fitting in Stratford?
It can be, depending on whether your street is in a controlled parking zone. A van may need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a parking bay suspension, which the council arranges, often with notice. It helps to let us know about parking during the design visit.
Is it possible to have a desk built into one alcove?
Yes. Many people use one alcove for a desk and the other for cupboards if you want the two sides to differ. The desk is planned around the way you work.
Can I send photos before the visit?
Yes. Pictures help us understand the room before the design visit, along with rough sizes. It is useful to show radiators, sockets and anything else on the wall.
How much will my alcove unit cost?
Each room is quoted on its own: the size, what goes inside, the finish and how square the room is all count. The written quote follows the design visit.
Does someone need to be home during the fitting?
We need access, so someone has to let us in. You don’t need to watch us work, but it helps to be around at the end.
Is bespoke worth it?
A bespoke unit takes longer to arrive than something from a shop: it needs a design visit, a quote and time in the workshop. What you get is a unit planned for your alcove, not the nearest catalogue size. Ready-made units fixed to stud walls are often held by fixings that don’t suit the board. Fitted furniture is planned with fixings into the studs or made for the board, and heavy pieces can stand on the floor.
Access to the room makes a difference too. Narrow halls, tight stairs or a small lift may mean the furniture is made in more sections, which the quote allows for. There’s no price list: each design is priced in writing after we’ve seen the space.
Why choose us
- Made in moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood
- Designed for the room you have
- Workshop-made and fitted by us
- Every quote follows a design visit
Take a look at how bespoke compares with ready-made or what a quote should include.
What it’s made from
Plinths and scribe strips
Scribe strips are the edges we trim on site to follow the wall. This closes the gap between a straight unit and a bowed alcove.
Shelves
Alcove shelves can be fixed or adjustable. Fixed shelves help brace the unit, while adjustable ones give you room to change things.
What happens on fitting day
Period rooms often have skirting boards, picture rails, cornices or coving for the furniture to meet. We cut and scribe the furniture around them on site, so it looks as though it was always there. How long fitting takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and your quote sets out the fitting days. Newer homes often have stud walls, so on fitting day heavy pieces go into the studs or stand on the floor. Floors are protected throughout, as many newer homes have finished floors that mark easily, and dust is kept to a minimum.
- You get in touch about alcove units and the room they’re for.
- At the design visit we measure up, agree the layout and talk about colour and 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. If you chose spray painting, that is done in the workshop too, for a smooth, even surface.
- The units are fitted and scribed to the alcoves.
- Paint needs time to cure, so go gently with the new units at first.
Before fitting day
- Move anything in the hall or on the stairs out of the way
- Move furniture and belongings away from the wall
- Tell us about any meters, fuse boards or boilers in the area
Ask for a quote
If you already have something in mind, tell us; if you don’t, that is fine, and we can work it out together. At the design visit, we measure up and talk the design through with you, and the written quote then sets it out. To start, tell us about the room on our contact form.
Related advice
Built-in living-room furniture in Stratford
Homes built since 2000 make up about 55% of the housing in the neighbourhood around Stratford, with about 19% built before 1919, in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. Knowing roughly when a home was built helps, because walls and fixings change from one era to the next. Within a mile of the centre of Stratford, 4 conservation areas are recorded by Historic England. Historic England says England has around 10,000, and the controls mainly cover the outside of buildings, so fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. About 55% of homes in the neighbourhood around Stratford were built since 2000, going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. In homes built since 2000, living rooms are often open-plan with stud walls, so the fixings go into the studs, or heavier pieces stand on the floor.
If you live near West Ham Park, alcove units can be planned to frame a window with a view rather than block it. If you live in a flat close to Stratford (London) station, the route in is measured as well as the room, and the sections are sized to fit it. If your home is as old as some of the listed buildings nearby, such as The Theatre Royal, original features like shutters, panelling and fireplaces are worth designing around. For a listed home, fixing into original features may need listed building consent.
Stratford is part of the London Borough of Newham, about 2 miles south-east of Plaistow. Wherever you are in Stratford, it works the same way: a design visit, a quote in writing, furniture made in our workshop and fitting in your home. In Newham, Stratford is one of the places we cover.
We make alcove units across the E15, E20 and E3 postcode area for alcove units. Streets in the area include Gay Road, Cam Road and Eve Road, and homes on each of them are within our area for alcove units. Neighbouring places we cover for alcove units include Maryland (1 mile east), East Village (1 mile north-west), Temple Mills (1 mile north-west), West Ham (1 mile south-east) and Hackney Wick (1 mile west). We also make alcove units in nearby places such as Plaistow (2 miles south-east), Canning Town (2 miles south-east), East Ham (3 miles east), Upton Park (2 miles east), Greengate (2 miles south-east) and Plashet (2 miles east). Stratford is one of the larger places we cover in Newham.
Around Stratford
The streets we cover here include those near The Two Puddings pub, Sarah Bonnell School and Carpenters Primary School and the streets around them. There’s a railway station in Stratford itself: Stratford (London) station. Nearby you will also find V&A East (0.5 miles west) and Stratford Centre (under half a mile south-east). For a walk, there is Old Ford Island.