Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Barnet · London
Alcove units in The Hyde, Barnet
We make alcove units for homes in The Hyde, 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.
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
- Everyday clutter left on show
- Somewhere to keep books and records
Alcove units in The Hyde
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
- Where a van can park, such as a permit bay or a bay suspension
- How many doors and drawers there are
- The overall size of the piece
In London, parking can affect the price. Much of London is covered by controlled parking zones, so we may need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a suspended bay near your home. Tell us about parking during the design visit, so it can be planned.
What to send when you contact us
When you contact us, these help most:
- How you want to use the space
- What kind of home it is, and which floor the room is on
- Rough measurements, even if they’re only to the nearest few centimetres
- Pictures of the whole wall or room, including the floor and ceiling
The design visit is where every quote starts. We measure the room properly, check how the walls and floors run and discuss the design with you. Afterwards, we send a written quote. To book one, drop us a line using the contact form.
Alcove units in The Hyde: what you get
In a tall room, a full-height alcove cupboard holds a great deal. In bedrooms, this often becomes a compact wardrobe or a place for bedding, and in a dining room a home for china and glass. We ask what you want to store before we plan the inside, and set out the shelves and rails around it. People typically come to us about standard units leaving gaps at the sides and toys and paperwork with no proper home; the furniture is made from moisture-resistant MDF and strong birch plywood, with a painted finish.
A house from between the wars usually has lower ceilings than a Victorian one, and the proportions of alcove units are set to match. Where your home is one of the interwar houses or semis that are a big part of the housing around The Hyde, there may be little or no cornice, which lets the furniture run straight up to the ceiling. Any skirting is cut around neatly.
A quote in writing is the clearest record of what we have agreed. It sets out the alcove unit designed for your room, what it is made from and how it is finished, and the workshop works from it.
- Place
- The Hyde (NW9, NW4)
- Area
- Barnet
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Making
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Made from
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Working days
- Monday to Friday; Saturdays by arrangement
- Contact
- Send us a message
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
Questions we’re often asked
Can you make alcove units for a home in The Hyde?
Yes, The Hyde is within the area we cover, which takes in all of Barnet and the rest of London. The first step is a design visit, where we measure and talk through the design, and then we send a quote.
Do you cover homes near Hendon station?
Yes, homes across Barnet and the rest of London are within the area we cover. You can use our contact form to arrange a design visit, and let us know about parking and access at the same time.
What happens during the design visit?
We measure the room, check how level the walls and floors are and talk through the design with you. We’ll also ask about access and parking, and afterwards we send a written quote.
Can you add sockets inside the units?
Your electrician handles sockets and wiring. Ideally it’s done before fitting so the sockets line up with the design. The units are made with cut-outs and cable gaps to suit.
Can the fitting be on a Saturday?
Yes, by arrangement. Let us know when you get in touch if a Saturday suits you best.
Can you build alcove units for alcoves that are not square?
Yes. We measure each alcove carefully at the measuring visit, make the units in our workshop and trim the edges on site to meet the wall, which closes the gaps you’d see with standard furniture.
Living-room storage in The Hyde
The biggest shares of homes in the area around The Hyde were built between 1919 and 1939 (about 48%) and since 2000 (about 26%), based on the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax data. For carpentry, the era of a house is a useful clue to how square its rooms are and what its walls are made of. A conservation area lies within about a quarter of a mile of the centre of The Hyde, going by Historic England’s data. Fitted furniture inside a house does not normally need planning permission in a conservation area, as the controls are mostly concerned with the outside of buildings. If you’re unsure, check with the council before work starts. Strict stopping rules apply on red routes, which TfL runs. If your home is on or just off a main road, it is useful to mention it. That way we can plan where to load and unload.
If your home is as old as some of the listed buildings nearby, such as Church of the Holy Innocents, original features like shutters, panelling and fireplaces are worth designing around. For a listed home, fixing into original features can require listed building consent. Close to West Hendon Playing Fields? Shelving that stops short of the window keeps the view of the green.
The Hyde is about 3 miles north-east of Finchley, part of the London Borough of Barnet. Whether your home in The Hyde is a terraced house, a flat or a newer build, the furniture is designed around the room as we find it. We list The Hyde among 41 places we cover in Barnet.
We make alcove units across the NW9 and NW4 postcode area. You will find streets here such as Alpini Road, Catkin Road and Garrick Road, and homes on each of them are within our area for alcove units. The A5 run close to The Hyde, so if your home is on a main road, mention it when you get in touch. If you are just outside The Hyde, we also cover West Hendon (1 mile north), Colindale (1 mile north), The Burroughs (1 mile north-east), Hendon (1 mile east) and Staples Corner (1 mile south-east). Elsewhere in Barnet, we also cover Finchley (3 miles north-east), Barnet (5 miles north-east), Burnt Oak (2 miles north), East Finchley (3 miles east), Whetstone (4 miles north-east) and Edgware (3 miles north).
Around The Hyde
The streets we cover here include those near Woodfield School, Brampton College and Moon Under Water pub and the streets around them. The Hyde has its own railway station: Hendon station. A little further out are Brent Cross Shopping Centre (1.1 miles east) and St Andrew's Hospital (1.5 miles south-east). Not far away are Masons Field.
Flat-pack or bespoke?
A confident DIYer can manage simple shelves or a standard wardrobe in a square room. It gets harder with sloping ceilings, out-of-level floors and lath-and-plaster walls, because scribing and the right fixings start to matter.
Bespoke work comes into its own in rooms that aren’t square. In period homes, walls lean, floors slope and the alcoves on each side are often different widths, and standard units leave gaps.
Flats, leases and landlords
Mansion blocks and purpose-built blocks often have house rules about lifts, entry systems and when trades can come in. Tell us about them at the design visit, and we’ll plan the fitting around them.
In conversions and newer blocks, many internal walls are timber or metal stud with plasterboard. Fixings are chosen to suit whatever the wall is made of, after checking the walls during the design visit.
What prompts alcove units in The Hyde
Moving into a period house often prompts it. People who have just moved in want storage that suits the age of the house, and the alcoves are an obvious place to start. It’s also a good moment, before the room fills up.
Here’s what alcove units can help with:
- Somewhere to keep books and records
- Bowed walls and sloping floors
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
- Cupboards in keeping with an older house
If your home is one of the older houses near St Matthias the Apostle church, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at.
Before you choose who makes it
- Can you see real work of theirs?
- How the furniture will be finished, and where
- How parking will work on your street
- How they’ll get the furniture into the room
From workshop to your room
Before anything is fixed, we set the furniture level. Floors are often out of level, so adjustable feet or a plinth take up the difference, which keeps the lines straight. After that, it’s fixed to the wall using fixings that suit the wall, whether that’s solid brick, lath and plaster or plasterboard. If you have a driveway, it can make unloading simpler, so it is worth mentioning at the design visit. Otherwise, details of permits or nearby bays help. Floors and doorways are protected while the pieces come in.
- You get in touch to say you’d like alcove units.
- A design visit follows, where we measure up and agree the layout with you. If one alcove needs a desk or a TV space, this is when we plan it.
- We put the design, materials and finish into a written quote.
- The units are made in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood.
- We bring them to your home and fit them in place.
Getting ready for fitting day
- Let us know about parking near your home
- Clear the walls of pictures and shelves
- Have your electrician move any sockets or switches beforehand
Arranging a design visit
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 have measured, and the written quote then sets it out. To start, fill in our short enquiry form.