Bromley · London
Wall Beds in Shortlands
Wall beds for your home in Shortlands: fold-down wall beds built into fitted cabinets. We visit to measure and talk through the design, make the furniture in our workshop and fit it.
- A flexible room for a growing family
- A studio that works by day and night
- Shelves or a desk around the bed
Wall beds designed for your room
Wall beds for homes in Shortlands
Our wall beds are made for homes in Shortlands and all over London. First comes a design visit, where we measure and look at the wall, followed by a quote. We make everything in our workshop and fit it in your home. How long fitting takes depends on the bed, the cabinets and the wall it fixes to, and we confirm the fitting days in your quote. Most enquiries start with a guest bed that disappears in the day and more floor space in a studio flat, and the answer is made at our workshop from MDF made to resist moisture and birch plywood, then spray-painted or hand-painted.
In a 1930s semi, the main bedroom often sits over the front room and its bay, so fitted storage usually goes on the walls either side while the bay stays open. Interwar houses, semis and detached homes make up a big part of the housing around Shortlands, so that shape of room is worth knowing. Every wall is measured, as a room that looks square rarely is.
Materials are named in the quote: moisture-resistant MDF, birch plywood or both, depending on the design. It also says how the furniture will be finished: spray painted or hand painted.
- Where
- Shortlands (BR2, BR1, BR3)
- Borough
- Bromley
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- Design visit, then a written quote
- Making
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Boards and paint
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- When we fit
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Get in touch
- Send us a message
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
Bespoke wall beds or ready-made?
Ready-made wall bed units are available and typically cost less, and in a straightforward room they may be enough. They come in set sizes and finishes, so they may not suit uneven walls, low ceilings or alcoves. Ours is made to the room you have. In an extended or opened-up house, old and new walls often meet slightly out of line, and straight-sided ready-made units make that obvious. Fitted pieces are scribed to both.
Your quote is written for your room once we’ve visited and measured. The price depends mainly on the size of the piece, how many doors and drawers it has and what goes inside.
Why us?
- Built in our workshop and fitted in your home
- Spray painted or hand painted, in the colour you choose
- Work across the whole of London
- Moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood
What wall beds cannot fix
Our work is the furniture itself: designing it, making it in our workshop and fitting it. In practice, that means:
- Decorating around the cabinet
- Getting consent under your lease
- New sockets, lighting or wiring (your electrician)
If in doubt, you can send us a few details through our contact form and describe the room. How a job runs, step by step.
What it’s made from
- Hand-painted finish
- Shelves or a desk alongside
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Fold-down bed mechanism
- Spray-painted finish
- Birch plywood
When is bespoke worth it?
Off-the-shelf furniture can be a sensible choice. In a room with square walls and standard sizes, it can work well.
It’s worth being honest about cost: off-the-shelf furniture normally costs less up front. Bespoke earns its place where the room is awkward, space is tight or you want the furniture to look part of the house.
Wall beds in Shortlands: local notes
The biggest shares of homes in the streets around Shortlands were built between 1919 and 1939 (about 29%) and between 1945 and 1972 (about 26%), on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. 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 Shortlands is within about a quarter of a mile of the Durham Avenue Conservation Area. The controls in a conservation area are mostly about the outside of buildings, so furniture fitted inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. If you are unsure, check with the council before work starts. A quarter or more of the homes in the neighbourhood around Shortlands (about 26%) were built between 1945 and 1972, based on the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax data. Bedrooms from that era tend to be regular, so fitted furniture can run wall to wall, fixed to suit the wall.
If your home is as old as some of the listed buildings nearby, like Corner House, original features like shutters, panelling and fireplaces are worth designing around. If your own home is listed, check with the council before fixing into original features. Bromley Palace, about 0.8 miles north-east, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. For a period home anywhere nearby, solid external walls can be cold, so ventilation behind wall beds is part of the design. If your home is one of the older houses near St Mark's Church, tall ceilings give wall beds room to reach the cornice.
Shortlands is about 4 miles east of Orpington, in the London Borough of Bromley. Wherever you are in Shortlands, it works the same way: a design visit, a written quote, furniture made at our workshop and fitting in your home. Our work takes in places right across Bromley, large and small.
Here we cover the BR2, BR1 and BR3 postcode area for wall beds. Streets in the area include Hayes Lane, Stone Road and Hayes Road, and we cover homes on all of them for wall beds. Neighbouring places we cover for wall beds include Eden Park (1 mile south-west), Hayes (2 miles south), Bromley Common (2 miles south-east), West Wickham (2 miles south-west) and Southborough (2 miles east). Across the rest of Bromley, our area takes in Orpington (4 miles east), Beckenham (2 miles north-west), St Mary Cray (5 miles east), Chislehurst (3 miles north-east), Penge (3 miles north-west) and Anerley (3 miles west).
Local landmarks in Shortlands
We fit furniture in homes around Holy Trinity College Bromley, Langley Park School for Girls and The Richmal Crompton pub. For rail, the closest station is Shortlands station, about 0.5 miles north of the centre. A little further out are Bromley Hospital (0.7 miles east) and Bethlem Museum of the Mind (1.6 miles south-east).
Looking after your furniture
Fitted furniture is part of the room, so it’s worth looking after. A few pointers help:
- Allow space for pillows and duvets
- Give the paint time to cure fully
- Keep the floor in front clear before lowering the bed
- Plan where chairs and desks will sit
Hand-painted finishes are easy to touch in if the cabinet gets a knock. A spray finish wipes clean and stays smooth and even.
Consider how often the bed will be used and by whom. It shapes the bed size and the type of mechanism, and whether a desk or shelves go around it.
Your questions about wall beds in Shortlands
Will a conservation area stop me having wall beds fitted in Shortlands?
Typically not: conservation area rules mainly cover the outside of buildings, and fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. If your home is listed, works inside that affect its character can require listed building consent, so check with the council first. If you are unsure, the council can confirm.
Is Shortlands in the area you cover for wall beds?
Yes, Shortlands is within the area we cover, which takes in all of Bromley and the rest of London. We start with a design visit to measure the room and talk through what you need, followed by a quote.
How much space does a wall bed need?
You need clear floor in front of the cabinet for the bed to fold down, as well as the depth of the cabinet itself. We check the space when we measure, so the design works.
Can you build shelves or a desk around a wall bed?
Yes. Shelves, cupboards or a desk can go around the bed cabinet, so the whole wall is useful. We plan it so the bed still has room to come down.
My walls are not straight. Is that a problem?
It’s something we deal with all the time. We trim the edges to follow the wall and level the base, so it sits tight to the room.
How long does fitting take?
How long fitting takes depends on the size of the bed and the cabinets around it, and your quote sets out the fitting days. We’ll talk it through during the design visit.
Nearby places to Shortlands
What else we make in Shortlands
Fitting day, step by step
Before anything is fixed, we set the furniture level. Where the floor slopes, we bring the furniture up to level on adjustable feet or a plinth. After that, it’s fixed to the wall using fixings that suit the wall, whether that is solid brick, lath and plaster or plasterboard. A front path or side gate can make the carry from the van simpler. We measure the path, any steps and the front door as part of the route. Floors are covered from the door to the room, and the sections are assembled in place.
- First, you let us know about the room and how you’d like it to work. A desk or shelving around the bed can be part of it.
- We visit, measure up and check the wall the bed will fix to.
- You get a quote in writing for the bed cabinet and any storage around it.
- The cabinets are made in our workshop.
- We fit everything in your home and check the bed lowers and lifts smoothly. The finish is sprayed in our workshop or painted by hand on site.
Before fitting day
- Let us know if your street is in a controlled parking zone
- Arrange any electrical changes with your electrician beforehand
- Clear the area where the furniture is going
Starting with a design visit
To make a start, tell us about the room on our contact form and let us know which room you have in mind and roughly what you’d like. From there, we arrange a design visit to measure up and talk through your ideas, and a quote in writing follows.