Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Wandsworth · London
Summerstown Alcove Units
We make alcove units for homes in Summerstown, designed around the room you have. We design your alcove unit at a visit to your home, make it in our workshop and fit it.
- Alcoves that are wasted space
- Cupboards in keeping with an older house
- A place for a small desk
Alcove units for your home in Summerstown
Questions we’re often asked
Will parking be an issue for fitting furniture in Summerstown?
It can be, as controlled parking zones cover much of inner London. A van may need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a parking bay suspension, which the council arranges, often with notice. It is useful to let us know about parking during the design visit.
My home in Summerstown is a flat. How do you get the furniture in?
We measure the route in along with the room itself: the stairs, landings, lift and doors. Alcove units are made at our workshop in sections sized to fit that route, then assembled in your flat. If your building has rules on lift booking or working hours, or your lease needs consent for alterations, it is worth checking those early.
How much will my alcove unit cost?
Every job is priced for its room: the size, what goes inside, the finish and how square the room is all count. The written quote follows the design visit.
Do pictures help?
Yes. Pictures help us understand the room before the design visit, along with rough sizes. Show anything the furniture has to work around, like radiators or sockets.
What if the wall is cold or damp?
It can be done with some care: leaving ventilation behind and inside helps stop condensation. We don’t treat damp, so any damp should be sorted before fitting day.
Do I need to be at home on fitting day?
We need someone to let us in. It is good to have someone there at the end to look over the work with us.
About our alcove units in Summerstown
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. A plinth can be set to line up with the skirting for a tidy line around the room. We agree these details at the measuring visit, before anything is made. We make alcove units from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted, and the things people most often want solved are empty alcoves either side of the chimney breast and bowed walls and sloping floors.
Victorian and Edwardian houses were built with solid brick outside walls, while the walls inside can be brick or lath and plaster. With so many homes around Summerstown built before 1919, the wall type is checked before any fixing for alcove units is chosen. Lath and plaster needs a lighter touch and the right fixings.
After the design visit, we send you a written quote. It sets out the design we have talked through, the materials and the finish, so it is clear what’s included.
- Place
- Summerstown (SW17, SW18, SW19)
- Borough
- Wandsworth
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Made
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Materials and finish
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- When we fit
- Monday to Friday; Saturdays by arrangement
- Contact
- Our contact form
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
When is bespoke worth it?
A confident DIYer can manage simple shelves or a standard wardrobe in a square room. Sloping ceilings, uneven floors and lath-and-plaster walls make it harder.
What you pay for with bespoke is mainly the fit: edges scribed to the wall, a level base on a sloping floor and a neat line where the furniture meets the ceiling. In an older room, standard units rarely manage that.
What affects the cost of alcove units
A few things affect what fitted furniture costs:
- Walls and floors that are out of level or out of square
- The overall size of the piece
- The number of doors and drawers
- Whether you choose a spray or hand-painted finish
There’s no price list, because each job is designed for a single room. Instead, we measure, talk through the design and then quote in writing. To start, drop us a line using the contact form.
Getting in touch
Before the design visit, it helps us to know about:
- Examples of the look you are after
- Whether it’s a house or a flat, and if there are stairs or a lift
- Anything in the way, like radiators, sockets, switches, a boiler or meters
- What you’d like to store or use the space for
It is useful to see the room before we come. A few pictures showing the walls, the corners and where the ceiling meets them tell us a lot about the space, along with rough measurements. To share them, get in touch through our contact form, and we will arrange a design visit.
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:
- Taking out a chimney breast or opening up a fireplace
- Electrical work, like new sockets or switches, which is for your electrician
- Redecorating, which is for your decorator
Not sure whether your space suits alcove units? You can get in touch through our contact form and we’ll tell you before you arrange a visit. Our process from visit to fitting.
What goes into it
- Hand-painted finish
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Adjustable shelves
- Scribed side panels
- Panelled or flat doors
- Birch plywood
- Spray-painted finish
How fitting day works
You are welcome to ask questions while we work. The design, materials and finish were settled before anything was made, so fitting day is about putting it in place carefully. 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. In houses converted into flats, the route in may include a shared hall and stairs, so it helps to let neighbours know about fitting day. The sections are sized for the narrowest point on the route. Saturday fitting is possible by prior arrangement.
- To begin, tell us about the room on our contact form; a brief note on the room and the alcoves is enough.
- At the design visit we measure the alcoves and also the way in: the front door, the hall and any stair turns.
- Your written quote sets out the design, materials and finish.
- The units are made in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, in sections sized to come through your door.
- On fitting day the sections come in, are joined in place and scribed to the walls.
Getting ready for fitting day
- Keep pets out of the room and the hallway
- Move anything in the hall or on the stairs out of the way
- Let us know if your street is in a controlled parking zone
Getting a quote
To get a quote for alcove units in Summerstown, drop us a line using the contact form. Let us know the room and the rough idea. We’ll arrange a design visit, then send a quote in writing.
Advice
Flats, conversions and leaseholders
For flats on red routes or busy main roads, getting the furniture from the van to the door needs planning. Red routes are run by TfL and have strict stopping rules, so it’s worth raising at the design visit.
If you live in a flat, getting the furniture in is planned from the start. We measure the stairs, landings, lift and doorways as well as the room, so each section is sized to get through.
Built-in living-room furniture in Summerstown
The biggest shares of homes in the area around Summerstown were built before 1919 (about 53%) and since 2000 (about 22%), going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. For carpentry, the era of a house is a useful clue to how square its rooms are and what its walls are made of. The centre of Summerstown is within about a quarter of a mile of the Magdalen Park Conservation Area. Being in a conservation area mainly affects changes to the outside of a building, and fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. If you want to be certain, ask the council’s planning team. More than half of the homes in the neighbourhood around Summerstown (about 53%) were built before 1919, according to Valuation Office Agency council tax figures (2025). Most London houses of that age have chimney breasts with an alcove either side in the main rooms, the classic place for alcove units, scribed to walls that are rarely straight.
If your home is as old as some of the listed buildings nearby, such as Leather Bottle Public House, original features like shutters, panelling and fireplaces are worth designing around. For a listed home, fixing into original features may need listed building consent. If you live in a flat close to Earlsfield 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 your home is one of the older houses near St Mary's Church, walls that bow and floors that slope are why alcove units are scribed to fit rather than pushed into place.
Summerstown is in the London Borough of Wandsworth, about 2 miles north of Clapham Junction. Whether your home in Summerstown is a terraced house, a flat or a newer build, we measure the room as it is and design around it. Summerstown is one of the places in Wandsworth where we make alcove units.
In SW17, SW18 and SW19, the process is the same as anywhere else in London. You will find streets here like Weir Road, Acuba Road and Mount Road, and homes on each of them are within our area for alcove units. Main roads around Summerstown include the A218. Other places close to Summerstown include Earlsfield (1 mile north), Southfields (1 mile north), Tooting Bec (1 mile south-east), Tooting (1 mile south-east) and South Wimbledon (1 mile south-west). We also make alcove units in nearby places like Clapham Junction (2 miles north), Battersea (2 miles north), Putney (2 miles north-west), Balham (2 miles north-east), Furzedown (2 miles south-east) and Streatham Park (2 miles east).
Local landmarks in Summerstown
We fit furniture in homes around Hillcroft School, Leather Bottle pub and Smallwood Primary School and Language Unit. For rail, the closest station is Earlsfield station, about 0.5 miles north. A little further out are St George's Hospital (0.7 miles south-east) and Southside Wandsworth (1.4 miles north). Open spaces near Summerstown include Henman Hill and Wandle Meadow Nature Park.