Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Barnet · London
Alcove units in West Hendon, Barnet
Alcove units in West Hendon: cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast. Each piece is designed at a visit to your home, made at our workshop and fitted by us.
- Somewhere to keep books and records
- Standard units leaving gaps at the sides
- Room to work in an alcove
Alcove units for your home in West Hendon
Pricing alcove units in West Hendon
Prices vary from room to room, for these reasons:
- Awkward walls, sloping ceilings and uneven floors
- How easy it is to get the furniture into the room
- Where a van can park, such as a permit bay or a bay suspension
- How many doors and drawers there are
There’s no price list, because each job is designed for a single room. We measure up, discuss the design and send a quote in writing, with the materials and finish set out. To arrange a design visit, fill in our short enquiry form.
What we need to know
Before the design visit, it helps us to know about:
- Rough sizes, even if they’re only to the nearest few centimetres
- Radiators, sockets, pipes or meters on or near the wall
- Pictures of styles you like, if you have any
- The postcode, so we can plan the visit
Rough measurements are fine at the start. Everything is measured properly when we visit, along with the walls, floor and ceiling. To get started, tell us about the room on our contact form and tell us about the room. You receive a quote in writing after the visit.
Alcove units in West Hendon: what you get
We work across London, including West Hendon. It starts with a design visit, where we measure the alcoves and discuss the design. Then you receive a quote, and once you’re happy the units are made in our workshop and fitted in your home. Typical reasons to get in touch are old alcove cupboards that have seen better days and room to work in an alcove, and the answer is made in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted.
Newer homes often come with a TV point and sockets on one wall but nothing built around them. Many homes around West Hendon are from those years, so alcove units are normally designed around what’s already there. If you want an extra socket, that is for your electrician.
You get the quote in writing, so there’s time to read it properly and talk it over at home. It covers the design, materials and finish agreed at the visit.
- Location
- West Hendon (NW9, NW4)
- Area
- Barnet
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- First step
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Making
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Materials and finish
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Working days
- Weekdays; Saturdays on request
- Contact
- Our contact form
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
Nearby places to West Hendon
What else we make in West Hendon
Alcove units for homes in West Hendon
In the streets around West Hendon, the largest groups of homes date from between 1919 and 1939 (about 38%) and the years since 2000 (about 35%), according to Valuation Office Agency council tax figures (2025). Knowing roughly when a home was built helps, because walls and fixings change from one era to the next. A conservation area lies within about a quarter of a mile of the centre of West Hendon, according to Historic England’s records. Conservation area rules mainly cover the outside of buildings, so fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. Your council can advise if you are unsure. More than a third of the homes in the neighbourhood around West Hendon (about 38%) date from between 1919 and 1939, in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. Houses from the 1920s and 1930s often have a bay window and a chimney breast in the front room, and alcove units are planned around both.
If you live near West Hendon Playing Fields, alcove units can be arranged to keep the window and the light clear. Living in a block of flats near Hendon station? Then each piece is planned so it can be carried up and joined together in the room. For families living near The Hyde School, alcove units can be planned with low cupboards for toys and higher shelves for everything else.
West Hendon is part of the London Borough of Barnet, about 3 miles north-east of Finchley. Design visits and fitting in West Hendon can be on a Saturday, by prior arrangement. In Barnet, West Hendon is one of the places we cover.
Postcode districts we cover here for alcove units: NW9 and NW4. If your home is on a street like Alpini Road, Catkin Road and Garrick Road, or close by, we can visit to measure up for alcove units. West Hendon sits close to the A5. If your home is on one of them, tell us at the measuring visit, as some main roads have strict stopping rules. Neighbouring places we cover for alcove units include The Hyde (1 mile south), Colindale (1 mile north), The Burroughs (1 mile north-east), Hendon (1 mile east) and Staples Corner (1 mile south-east). Across the rest of Barnet, our area takes in 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).
Landmarks near West Hendon
Around West Hendon, we cover homes near Woodfield School, Brampton College and Moon Under Water pub, among other places. West Hendon has its own railway station: Hendon station. Other landmarks nearby include Brent Cross Shopping Centre (1.1 miles east) and Church Farmhouse Museum (1 mile north-east). Green spaces nearby include Masons Field.
How it’s made
Shelves
Shelves can be fixed in place or set on adjustable supports. Fixed shelves help brace the unit, while adjustable ones let you change heights later.
Spray-painted finish
A spray-painted finish is applied in our workshop, giving a smooth, even, factory-like surface. It works on simple doors and on more traditional ones.
Questions we’re often asked
Do you cover homes near Hendon station?
Yes. We cover all of Barnet and the rest of London. To get started, you can get in touch through our contact form with some details about the room.
Is parking a problem for fitting in West Hendon?
It depends on the street, as many London boroughs run controlled parking zones. A van may need a visitor permit, a pay-and-display bay or a suspended bay, which the council arranges, often with notice. Let us know what parking is near you during the design visit.
What affects the price of alcove units?
Size, doors and drawers, what goes inside and the finish all affect it, along with access and parking. We send a quote in writing after the design visit.
Can I send photos before the visit?
Yes, they help. A few pictures of the room, from floor to ceiling, tell us a lot. To send them, send us a few details through our contact form.
Do I need permission in a conservation area?
Not normally. Conservation area controls are largely about how buildings look from outside, and furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need it. In a listed building, check with the council’s conservation officer before any work.
What happens to the chimney vent when alcove units go in?
Any vent in the chimney breast is kept clear when we design the units. Even a blocked chimney needs some ventilation to help keep damp away and we design around it.
From workshop to your room
However carefully a piece is made in the workshop, it still has to meet the room, and fitting day is where that happens. Few walls in older London homes are truly flat or square, so each edge that meets a wall is scribed to follow it, 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 your quote sets out the fitting days. On the day, floors are covered first and the sections brought in. Each piece is levelled and fixed to suit plasterboard or block. Any hand painting can be finished on site.
- You contact us with a short note about the room and the units you have in mind, and a rough sketch helps if you have one.
- We visit to measure the alcoves and talk through the design.
- Your quote follows, with the design, materials and finish set out.
- Each unit is built in our workshop to the measurements we took.
- We fit them in your home, scribing them to the walls, so they sit tight to the chimney breast.
How to prepare
- Move furniture and belongings away from the wall
- Take down pictures, mirrors and shelves from the wall
- Clear the hallway and stairs so the sections can come through
Starting with a design visit
The design visit is where every quote starts. We measure the room properly, check how the walls and floors run and talk through the design with you. Afterwards, we send a quote in writing. To book one, use our contact form.
Advice
Caring for painted furniture
New paint needs time to cure fully, so treat it gently at first. After that, a few simple habits help:
- Note any vent or air brick on the chimney breast
- Plan any new sockets with your electrician before fitting
- Deal with any damp on the chimney breast first
- Move things out of the alcoves so we can measure properly
Make a note of the paint colour used. Hand-painted finishes are the easiest to touch up in place, and it helps to keep a little of the paint.
Spread heavy loads and keep the heaviest things on lower shelves. Most sagging comes from shelves carrying more than they were planned for.
Why bespoke in West Hendon?
In fairness, standalone furniture comes with you when you move. Built-in units become part of the room and remain when you move on. It depends on how long you expect to stay. Standalone furniture fixed to plasterboard needs the right fixings, and often doesn’t get them. Built-in pieces are designed with the right fixings from the start.
What goes inside matters as much as the outside: drawers take more making than shelves, and each rail, divider or pull-out adds to the work. At the design visit, we work out what you need inside, then set it out in the quote.
Why us?
- Built in our workshop and fitted in your home
- Made for your room, not a standard size
- Edges scribed to follow your walls
- A design visit, then a quote in writing
Read our comparison of bespoke and off-the-shelf or what a quote should include.