Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Barnet · London
Woodside Park Alcove Units
Alcove units in Woodside Park: cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast. We make each piece in our workshop and fit it in your home.
- Furniture that doesn’t fit the alcove
- Clutter with nowhere to go
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
Need alcove units in Woodside Park?
Questions from Woodside Park
I live near Oakleigh Park station. Is that in your area?
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.
My home in Woodside Park is a flat. How do you get the furniture in?
At the design visit, we measure the way in along with the room itself. The furniture is made in sections that fit the stairs and lift, and put together in the room. It’s useful to check any building rules and your lease before fitting day.
Do I need to be at home on fitting day?
Someone needs to be there to let us in. After that, you don’t need to stay in the room, though we like to go over the furniture with you at the end.
How do I get a quote for alcove units in Woodside Park?
The first step is to message us from the contact page with a few details about the room. After that, we arrange a design visit and follow it with a quote in writing.
Who moves the sockets behind the alcove 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 you fit a desk into an alcove?
Yes. One alcove can take a desk with shelves above and a drawer or cupboard beneath. Height and depth are agreed with you, with a route left for cables.
Alcove units in Woodside Park
In a typical Victorian or Edwardian terrace, the chimney breast leaves an alcove on either side of it. Built-in alcove units put that space to work as cupboards and shelving that look as though they belong there. If your home in Woodside Park has alcoves like these, we design a unit for each one after we have measured them at a design visit. If you are living with toys and paperwork with no proper home and standard units leaving gaps at the sides, that is what alcove units are for, made from moisture-resistant MDF and strong birch plywood, with a painted finish.
Wherever your home in Woodside Park sits in London’s mix of housing, the furniture is designed around your room rather than a standard size. Older rooms bring uneven walls and picture rails, while newer ones bring plasterboard walls and boxed-in pipes. Each is measured, and the pieces are made to fit it.
A quote in writing is the clearest record of what we have agreed. It describes the alcove unit we’ve designed for the room, what it is made from and how it’s finished.
- Where
- Woodside Park (N12, N3, N20)
- Borough
- Barnet
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Where it’s made
- Made in our workshop and fitted on site
- Made from
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- Fitting days
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Contact
- Send us a message
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Bespoke alcove units or ready-made?
Off-the-shelf furniture comes in set heights, which normally leaves a gap above. A bespoke unit can run up to the ceiling or finish just under the picture rail, whichever looks right in your room. Ready-made furniture rarely suits a recess, a slope or an odd corner, and most homes have one somewhere. Built-in pieces are made to fit them.
Parking is part of the price picture in London. The boroughs run controlled parking zones across much of the city, 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.
Why choose us
- Every London borough and the City of London covered
- Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Spray painted or hand painted, in the colour you choose
- More than 300 projects completed
Take a look at bespoke vs off-the-shelf or what to look for in a quote.
What it is made from
Shelves
We set shelf spacing around what you own, from paperbacks to tall art books. Upper shelves can be shallower for a lighter look.
Birch plywood
We often use birch plywood for drawer boxes too because it stands up to daily use. It’s painted to match the rest of the unit, or the edge is left as a detail.
Woodside Park homes and alcove units
Homes built before 1919 make up about 29% of the housing in the area around Woodside Park, with about 29% built between 1919 and 1939, on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. We take that into account at the design visit, since older and newer walls take different fixings. Entries on the National Heritage List near the centre of Woodside Park include Lodge to Finchley Catholic High School (Grade II), under half a mile north, and Terrace Cottage Terrace House (Grade II), about 0.5 miles north. Listing covers the inside of a building as well as the outside, so works that affect a listed home’s character, like removing original joinery, can need listed building consent. It is worth speaking to the council’s conservation officer before the design is final. London’s red routes are run by TfL, and stopping on them is tightly controlled. If your street in Woodside Park joins a main road, it is worth telling us at the design visit. Then we can work out where to load and unload.
For families living near Northside Primary School, shelving with deep cupboards below keeps books, games and school things in one place. The wider area includes historic houses such as Heath Hall, about 3 miles south. If your own home is a period one, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at.
Woodside Park is about 1 mile south of Finchley, part of the London Borough of Barnet. Homes in Woodside Park are part of the area we cover for alcove units, as part of our work in every London borough. Woodside Park is one of the places in Barnet where we make alcove units, and the borough has 41 places on our list.
Every home in N12, N3 and N20 is covered for alcove units. If your home is on a street like High Road, Lodge Lane and Percy Road, or close by, we can visit to measure up for alcove units. Close by, we also work in North Finchley (1 mile east), Oakleigh Park (1 mile north-east), Whetstone (1 mile north-east), Church End (1 mile south) and Finchley (1 mile south). Elsewhere in Barnet, we also cover Barnet (2 miles north), Burnt Oak (3 miles west), East Finchley (2 miles south), Hendon (3 miles south-west), Edgware (4 miles west) and Southgate (2 miles east).
Around Woodside Park
In Woodside Park, that includes homes near Malt & Hops pub, St Michael's Catholic Grammar School and Woodhouse College, among other places. Woodside Park’s nearest station is Oakleigh Park station, about 1.6 miles north-east. Well-known places in the area include Grand Arcade (less than half a mile south-east) and Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum (within half a mile south). For a walk, there is Woodridge Nature Reserve and Darland's Lake.
Why people ask for alcove units in Woodside Park
Many people ask about alcove units because the alcoves are the most obvious wasted space they have. Off-the-shelf furniture rarely fits them, so there are gaps at the sides and the top. Built-in units use the whole recess from wall to wall.
Here’s what alcove units can help with:
- Space for a growing book collection
- Storage that suits a period room
- Furniture that does not fit the alcove
- Bowed walls and sloping floors
For a flat near Oakleigh Park station, the route in is measured along with the room itself, and the sections are sized to fit it.
Before you hire any carpenter
- Do they scribe the furniture to the walls?
- Is it spray painted or hand painted?
- A quote in writing that sets out the job
- Will they visit to measure before quoting?
Places near Woodside Park
Other services in Woodside Park
How fitting day works
You will not need to do much on the day. We need someone to let us in at the start, and the room should already be cleared, as agreed during the design visit. From there, we protect the floors, bring the furniture in and get on with the fitting. The time the fitting takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and we confirm the fitting days in your quote. For a flat, building rules and lift booking are worth checking early; if you live in a house, let us know about steps, paths and parking. We plan the details of the day at the design visit. Saturdays can be arranged.
- 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.
- A quote in writing follows, with the finish set out.
- We build the units in our workshop, using moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood. A spray-painted finish is applied there too, if that’s what you chose.
- The units are fitted in your home, ready to fill. Any scribing to the walls is done on the day.
How to prepare
- Move furniture and belongings away from the wall
- Clear the hallway and stairs so the sections can come through
- Point out meters, boilers and fuse boards near the furniture
Ask for a quote
A quote begins with a few details from you: the room, rough sizes and some photos if you have them. When you are ready, drop us a line using the contact form. We will then arrange a design visit and follow it with a written quote.
Related advice
Flat-pack or bespoke?
Bespoke work comes into its own in rooms that are not square. Older London rooms tend to have leaning walls, sloping floors and alcoves of different widths, and standard units leave gaps.
Flat-pack and off-the-shelf furniture has its place. In a room with square walls and standard sizes, it can work well, and it is quick to buy.