Croydon · London
Shirley Wall Beds
For homes in Shirley, we make wall beds from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood. The finish is spray painted or hand painted, in a colour agreed with you.
- Somewhere comfortable for guests to sleep
- A home office that also sleeps guests
- Hiding the bed when it’s not in use
Wall beds in Shirley
Looking after your furniture
Most of what helps is simple. Here’s what we suggest:
- Follow the mechanism maker’s mattress guidance
- Allow space for pillows and duvets
- Treat new paintwork gently at first
- Check your lease if you live in a flat
Whether bedding can stay on the bed when it folds up depends on the mechanism. Bulky duvets and pillows may need storing nearby.
Check how the cabinet will get into the room. Furniture made in a workshop comes in sections sized for stairs, landings and lifts, so it helps to know about tight turns.
Wall beds for homes in Shirley
In a studio flat, a wall bed can make the main room feel much larger. During the day, the room is somewhere to sit, work and eat, and at night it becomes a bedroom. We can build shelves, cupboards or a desk around the bed cabinet, so the whole wall works hard. If you’re living with storage built around a fold-down bed and a guest room that sits empty most of the time, that’s what wall beds are for, made from moisture-resistant MDF and strong birch plywood, with a painted finish.
Bedrooms in interwar houses often have a picture rail but a plainer ceiling than a Victorian room, so fitted furniture can often run neatly to the ceiling. Around Shirley, where interwar homes, semis and detached houses are a big part of the housing, the top cupboards can hold suitcases and spare bedding. The skirting is scribed around rather than removed.
The written quote puts the design visit in writing: the layout, what goes inside, the materials used and the finish. If something isn’t quite right, tell us before anything is made.
- Location
- Shirley (CR0, SE25, CR9)
- Borough
- Croydon
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- Design visit, then a written quote
- Made
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Made from
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- Fitting days
- Weekdays; Saturdays on request
- Get in touch
- The contact form
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
More for homes in Shirley
Wall beds in Shirley: local notes
In the streets around Shirley, the largest groups of homes date from between 1919 and 1939 (about 49%) and between 1973 and 1999 (about 17%), on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. That matters for wall beds, as the build era decides whether a wall is solid brick, lath and plaster, block or plasterboard. About 60% of households in the area around Shirley live in detached or semi-detached houses, the 2021 Census shows. In a semi or detached house, a driveway, where there is one, can make unloading easier. TfL’s Ultra Low Emission Zone covers every part of London, Croydon included. Vans bringing furniture to Shirley fall under it, just as they do across the rest of London. We plan parking and access with you during the design visit.
Close to Ashburton Park? A bedroom facing the green is best kept light, with the furniture on the side walls. If your home is one of the older houses near St George The Martyr Church, solid external walls can be cold, so ventilation behind wall beds is part of the design. Addington Palace, about 1.7 miles south, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. For a period home anywhere nearby, a bedroom chimney breast and its alcoves often shape where wall beds go.
Shirley is about 3 miles north-west of Thornton Heath, within the London Borough of Croydon. Wherever you are in Shirley, it works the same way: we visit and measure, send a quote in writing, make the furniture in our workshop and fit it. We list Shirley among 32 places we cover in Croydon.
We cover every part of the CR0, SE25 and CR9 postcode area for wall beds. We cover homes on streets such as Poppy Lane, Homer Road and Craven Road, along with the roads around them, for wall beds and any of our other fitted furniture. The A232 run close to Shirley, so if your home is on a main road, mention it when you get in touch. Close by, we also work in Monks Orchard (1 mile north), Shirley Oaks (1 mile west), Addiscombe (1 mile west), Ashburton (1 mile north-west) and Woodside (1 mile north-west). Other parts of Croydon we cover include Thornton Heath (3 miles north-west), Croydon (2 miles south-west), Coulsdon (6 miles south-west), Purley (4 miles south-west), Broad Green (2 miles west) and Upper Norwood (3 miles north-west).
Near you in Shirley
Our area takes in the homes around Orchard Way Primary School and The Cricketers pub. Shirley’s nearest station is Elmers End station, roughly 1.2 miles north of the centre. A little further out are National Psychosis Unit (1 mile east) and St George's Walk (2 miles west).
DIY, flat-pack or bespoke
Off-the-shelf cupboards come in fixed sizes, so there’s often a strip of wasted space at the side or above. Fitted furniture is made to the room’s measurements, so it can run to the ceiling and fill the width.
Shop-bought shelves can sag over a long span. Span, depth and the weight on it decide whether a shelf sags, so a long run needs a thicker shelf, a stiffening lip or a support. We design shelves with that in mind.
Flats, conversions and lettings
If your building is on a red route or a busy main road, unloading takes some planning. Red routes are run by TfL and have strict stopping rules, so it is worth raising during the design visit.
We also make and fit furniture for landlords furnishing a let, as it makes good use of an awkward room. It is made from the same moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood as any of our work.
What it’s made from
Bed mechanism housing
The housing has to be strong and square, so we build it with care. It is fixed into a wall or floor that can take the load.
Hand-painted finish
Some people like the softer look of a hand-painted finish in a period room.
Common questions about wall beds
I live near Elmers End station. Is that in your area?
Yes. We cover all of Croydon and the rest of London. To get started, you can get in touch through our contact form with a few details about the room.
Do you make wall beds for homes in Shirley?
Yes, we work across Croydon, Shirley included, and across the rest of London. You can get in touch through our contact form to arrange a design visit.
Do I get to choose the colour?
You choose it. The paint colour is agreed with you.
Is an outside wall a problem for fitted furniture?
It needs a little planning: leaving ventilation behind and inside helps stop condensation. Damp treatment is not something we do, so any damp needs sorting first.
What finishes do you offer?
There are two ways to finish it: spray painted or hand painted. A spray finish is smooth and even, while a hand-painted one is easy to touch up later.
Do I need planning permission for fitted furniture?
Typically not. Inside a house, fitted furniture doesn’t normally need planning permission. If the building is listed, works affecting its character may need listed building consent.
From workshop to your room
Getting everything level comes first. Where the floor slopes, we bring the furniture up to level on adjustable feet or a plinth. Only then is it fixed to the wall, with fixings chosen to suit brick, lath and plaster or plasterboard. Loft stairs in an interwar house can be tight, with a low ceiling at the top, so any section going up there is sized for them. Elsewhere in the house, the route is usually more generous. The pieces are joined and fixed once in place.
- You contact us about a wall bed for a spare room or studio.
- We visit to measure the room and the way in, from the front door to the room itself.
- Your written quote sets out the design, materials and finish.
- In our workshop we build the bed cabinet in sections from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood.
- The cabinet is joined in the room, fixed securely and set level, with a spray-painted or hand-painted finish.
How to prepare
- Mention any parking restrictions on your street
- If you live in a block, book the lift and tell the building manager
- Get any new sockets or wiring done by your electrician before fitting day
Ask for a quote
If you know what you want, say so; if you do not, that’s fine, and we can work it out together. The design is talked through at the visit, once we’ve measured, and the written quote that follows sets it out. To start, get in touch through our contact form.