Example photo by Franco Debartolo on Unsplash, not our project
Southwark · London
Dulwich Window Seats
We make window seats in moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood for homes in Dulwich. The finish is spray painted or hand painted, in a colour agreed with you.
- Toys spread across a bedroom floor
- Nowhere to keep blankets, toys or books
- A radiator under the window getting in the way
Window seats in Dulwich
What window seats cannot fix
We do not treat damp or carry out building work, so these points are worth knowing:
- Any wiring, which needs an electrician
- Any change to radiator pipes, which needs a plumber
- Fabric covers and cushions
If in doubt, you can message us from the contact page and describe the room. How it works.
Materials and parts
- Radiator grilles
- Lift-up lids or drawers
- Spray-painted finish
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Birch plywood
- Hand-painted finish
About our window seats in Dulwich
Bay windows are common in period homes, and they make a natural place for a seat. A bay is rarely a simple shape, with angled sides and walls that aren’t quite straight. We measure every face and scribe the seat to follow them, so it sits neatly in the bay without gaps. It’s the kind of space where a ready-made bench never quite fits. If you’re living with a recess under the window doing nothing and no space for toys and games, that is what window seats are for, made from moisture-resistant MDF and strong birch plywood, with a painted finish.
A large share of the homes around Dulwich were built before 1919, and houses of that age are full of awkward spaces: under the stairs, in the bay, along the hall and under the eaves of a converted loft. Fitted storage is designed to make those spaces useful, made to follow walls that are seldom true.
The quote comes in writing, so you can read it at your own pace and share it with anyone else involved. It covers the design, materials and finish agreed at the visit.
- Location
- Dulwich (SE22, SE21, SE23)
- Area
- Southwark
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Where it’s made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Made from
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Fitting days
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by arrangement
- Contact
- The contact form
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
Common questions about window seats
Does a conservation area in or near Dulwich affect fitted furniture?
Normally not: conservation area rules mainly cover the outside of buildings, and fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. Listed buildings are different, as works inside that affect their character can require listed building consent from the council. If you are unsure, the council can confirm.
Is Dulwich in the area you cover for window seats?
Yes, Dulwich is within the area we cover, which takes in all of Southwark and the rest of London. We start with a design visit to measure the room and talk through what you need, and then we send a quote.
Which materials go into your window seats?
We use moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood. Birch plywood gives strength to the frame and seat, while the fronts and grilles are MDF, which paints well. The finish is spray-painted or hand-painted.
Do I need to be at home on fitting day?
Someone needs to let us in. It’s good to have someone there at the end to look over the work with us.
Can you build a window seat over a radiator?
Yes. Many windows have a radiator beneath, and we design the seat around it. The front includes a grille so the radiator keeps working. Anything stored over the radiator will stay warm, so we plan the storage with that in mind.
Do you move sockets or add lighting?
No. Sockets, switches and lighting are for your electrician, and some electrical work in homes is covered by Part P of the Building Regulations. We’ll design around them.
What else we make in Dulwich
Before and after fitting day
A few practical points help before and after fitting day. Here are some things worth bearing in mind:
- Check the shutters so the seat can leave room for them
- Note the position of any radiator and its pipes
- Decide on cushion thickness before the design visit
- Think about what you’ll store under the seat
In winter, windows can run with condensation, so keep the area behind the seat dry. Opening the window for a while helps. Should you have a question about the seat, fill in our short enquiry form and we’ll help.
Wipe away condensation from the window before it runs onto the seat. Keep the window ventilated in cold weather. Dry any water on the paint promptly.
Window seats for homes in Dulwich
The biggest shares of homes in the neighbourhood around Dulwich were built before 1919 (about 73%) and between 1945 and 1972 (about 15%), 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. Within a mile of the centre of Dulwich, 3 conservation areas are recorded by Historic England. England has around 10,000 in all, and their controls are largely about how buildings look from outside, so fitted furniture inside a house does not normally need planning permission. Around Dulwich, about 73% of homes date from before 1919, well above the figure for Southwark as a whole, about 26%, according to Valuation Office Agency council tax figures (2025). So older-house details are more likely to come into the design of window seats.
If your children go to St Anthony's Catholic Primary School or a school nearby, window seats can be planned around what a family needs to keep, from coats and bags to sports kit. The wider area includes historic houses like Kingswood House, about 1.1 miles south. For a period home anywhere nearby, window seats can be scribed to follow a bay that is rarely square.
Dulwich is about 1 mile north of East Dulwich, in the London Borough of Southwark. We cover Dulwich as part of our work across Southwark. In Southwark, Dulwich is one of the places we cover, and the borough has 21 places on our list.
In SE22, SE21 and SE23, the process is the same as anywhere else in London. Whether you live on a street such as Court Lane, Druce Road and Boxall Road or on one nearby, we can visit to measure up for window seats. Dulwich is near the A2216; on busy main roads, unloading window seats takes a little planning. We also cover the places around Dulwich: Dulwich Village (1 mile north-west), West Dulwich (1 mile south), Herne Hill (1 mile north-west), Sydenham Hill (1 mile south-east) and Forest Hill (1 mile east). We also make window seats in nearby places like Bermondsey (4 miles north), Elephant and Castle (4 miles north), Bankside (4 miles north), Southwark (4 miles north), St George's Fields (4 miles north) and Newington Butts (3 miles north).
Landmarks near Dulwich
In Dulwich, that includes homes near Alleyn's School, The Crown and Greyhound pub and The Charter School. For rail, the closest station is West Dulwich station, roughly 0.7 miles south-west of the centre. A little further out are Dulwich Community Hospital (0.9 miles north) and Horniman Museum and Gardens (0.8 miles south-east). For a walk, there is Centre for Wildlife Gardening and Knight's Hill.
Fitting day, step by step
However carefully a piece is made in the workshop, it still has to meet the room, and that happens on fitting day. Few walls in older London homes are truly flat or square, so we scribe the edges by hand to follow the wall. How long the fitting itself takes depends on whether the seat has drawers, a lift-up lid or a radiator grille, and your quote sets out the fitting days. Older London houses often have narrow hallways and tight turns on the stairs, so window seats are made in sections sized to get through. Floors, stairs and doorways are covered before anything is carried through, and the sections are joined and scribed in the room.
- You get in touch and describe the window.
- At the design visit we measure each side of the bay, because walls in older houses are rarely square.
- A quote in writing follows, setting out the design, materials and finish.
- The seat is built in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, following the angles we measured.
- We fit the seat in your home, trimming the edges to meet the walls and cill.
Before we arrive
- Point out meters, boilers and fuse boards near the furniture
- Keep pets in another room while we work
- Let us know about parking near your home
How to get a quote
To make a start, drop us a line using the contact form and tell us a little about the room and what you want the furniture to do. We then arrange a design visit to measure and discuss the design, and a quote in writing follows.
Related advice
What affects the price in Dulwich
What it costs comes down to the materials and the time involved. The main factors are:
- Where a van can park, like a permit bay or a bay suspension
- The internal fittings
- The number of doors and drawers
- Walls and floors that are out of level or out of square
Prices are quoted for your room, once we’ve measured and talked through the design. A larger piece means more material and more time, so size is the starting point. After that, the number of doors and drawers, the internal fittings and the finish all play a part.
What we need to know
When you contact us, these help most:
- Whether it is a house or a flat, and if there are stairs or a lift
- Any ideas or images you have saved
- Anything fixed to the wall that the furniture needs to work around
- Photos of the whole wall or room, including the floor and ceiling
If you know what you want, say so; if not, we can work it out together at the visit. At the design visit, we measure up and talk the design through with you, and the written quote then sets it out. To start, get in touch through our contact form.
Why people ask for window seats in Dulwich
A radiator under the window often makes the space hard to use. A seat with a grille in the front keeps the radiator working and the window usable. It is a neat answer to a common problem.
A few of the things people ask us to solve are these:
- A radiator under the window getting in the way
- A period room that needs furniture to suit it
- A ready-made bench that doesn’t fit the bay
- Wanting a quiet place to read
If your home is as old as some of the listed buildings nearby, like Bell House, original features like shutters, panelling and fireplaces are worth designing around. For a listed home, fixing into original features may need listed building consent.
Before you hire any carpenter
- Will the doors close with even gaps?
- How they’ll get the furniture into the room
- Real projects you can actually look at
- Whether the quote says what the furniture is made from