Example photo by Franco Debartolo on Unsplash, not our project
Ealing · London
Window Seats in Hanwell
Walls in older London homes are rarely straight, so we scribe the furniture to follow them. We make window seats for homes in Hanwell, each designed at a visit to your home.
- No comfortable place to sit in the light
- Nowhere to keep blankets, toys or books
- A recess under the window doing nothing
Ask about window seats in Hanwell
Caring for painted furniture
Looking after painted furniture is simple with a little care. A few things help it stay looking good:
- Think about matching the woodwork or the walls
- Think about whether you’d like shelves either side
- Mention any parking rules on your street
- Plan the cushion early so the seat suits it
Once the seat is fitted, it is ready to use. New paintwork takes time to cure fully, so go easy on it to begin with. Keep heavy objects and sharp edges off the fresh paint.
Open and close lids with care, rather than letting them drop. That protects the hinges and the paint. Avoid overloading drawers so they keep running smoothly.
Window seats in Hanwell: what you get
Cushions are not something we supply, so we agree the seat size with you and you can have one made to fit. That leaves the choice of fabric and style to you. We plan the depth and height so the seat is comfortable with a cushion on it. We make window seats from birch ply and moisture-resistant MDF, painted by hand or sprayed, and people most often get in touch about wanting a seat without blocking the radiator and a nursery or bedroom short of storage.
Hallways in period terraces are often long and narrow, with the stairs rising along one wall. Around Hanwell, a large share of homes date from before 1919, so depth matters as much as width wherever storage goes. Shallow units keep the way through clear.
After the design visit, we send you a written quote. It describes the design we discussed, the materials and the finish.
- Place
- Hanwell (W7, W13, UB2)
- Area
- Ealing
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- Design visit, then a written quote
- Making
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Materials and finish
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Working days
- Monday to Friday; Saturdays by arrangement
- Contact
- Send us a message
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Window seats in Hanwell: local notes
In the neighbourhood around Hanwell, the largest groups of homes date from before 1919 (about 53%) and the years since 2000 (about 21%), 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. 8 conservation areas have at least part of their area within a mile of the centre of Hanwell. Historic England says England has around 10,000, and the controls mainly cover the outside of buildings, so fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. The share of homes built before 1919 around Hanwell, about 53%, is well above the figure for Ealing as a whole, about 28%, based on the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax data. That makes period details like uneven walls, alcoves and picture rails more likely to shape the design.
Close to Drayton Green? Living near green space often means muddy boots, bikes and outdoor kit, and window seats can give those things a place. If your home is one of the older houses near Church of St Mellitus, a bay or a sash window is a natural place for a window seat.
Hanwell is part of the London Borough of Ealing, about 1 mile east of Ealing. We cover Hanwell as part of our work across Ealing, and the process is the same everywhere we work. We cover places right across Ealing.
We work across the W7, W13 and UB2 postcode area for window seats. You will find streets here like Park Road, Green Lane and Felix Road, and homes on each of them are within our area for window seats. Hanwell is near the A4001; on busy main roads, unloading window seats takes a little planning. Other places close to Hanwell include West Ealing (1 mile west), Ealing (1 mile east), Dormers Wells (1 mile north-west), South Ealing (1 mile south-east) and Pitshanger (2 miles north-east). Other parts of Ealing we cover include Acton (3 miles east), Greenford (2 miles north), Northolt (3 miles north-west), Acton Green (3 miles east), Bedford Park (3 miles east) and Acton Vale (4 miles east).
Landmarks near Hanwell
The streets we cover here include those near Drayton Manor High School, Cuckoo Schools and Kings Arms and the streets around them. There’s a railway station in Hanwell itself: Hanwell station. Nearby you’ll also find Ealing Hospital (a few minutes’ walk west). Not far away are Long Wood and Middle Lake.
What happens on fitting day
Every fitting follows the same order: we protect the floors, bring the sections in, set them level, scribe them to the walls, fix them and finish them. At the end, we tidy up and go over the work with you. The time the fitting takes depends on the shape of the bay or recess and what goes under the seat, and the fitting days are agreed in your quote. On fitting day, edges are trimmed on site to follow the walls, so we ask for a clear space to work near the room. Dust is kept down and cleared up as we go. Where the finish is hand-painted, it can be done after the pieces are in.
- You get in touch and tell us about the window and the room, including any radiator under it.
- We come to measure and plan the seat, the storage and any radiator grille with you. We also talk about lift-up lids or drawers.
- A quote in writing follows, with the design, finish and fitting days set out.
- The seat is built in our workshop and painted to your chosen colour.
- We bring it to your home, fit it and leave it ready to use.
Preparing the room
- Clear the walls of pictures and shelves
- If you live in a block, book the lift and tell the building manager
- Leave a clear route from the front door to the room
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 go through the design with you. A quote in writing follows the visit for you to look over. To book one, use our contact form.
Related advice
Common questions about window seats
Do you make window seats for homes in Hanwell?
Yes. We cover all of Ealing and the rest of London, and Hanwell is part of that. We start with a design visit to measure the room and talk through what you need, followed by a quote.
Will parking be an issue for fitting furniture in Hanwell?
It depends on the street, as many London boroughs run controlled parking zones. Depending on the street, a visitor permit, a paid bay or a bay suspension through the council may be needed, and suspensions often need notice. It helps to tell us about parking at the design visit, and we’ll plan around it.
Do you move sockets or add lighting?
No. Any new wiring, sockets or lights need an electrician. We plan the furniture around where they’ll go.
Can I send photos ahead of the visit?
Yes. Pictures help us understand the room before the design visit. It helps to show radiators, sockets and anything else on the wall.
Do I get to choose the colour?
You choose it, and we agree it with you before the furniture is finished. Spray and hand-painted finishes both use the colour you’ve chosen.
How long does it take to fit a window seat?
The time the fitting takes depends on the shape of the bay or recess and what goes under the seat, and the fitting days are agreed in your quote. The seat is made in our workshop first, so the time in your home is spent fitting. We keep the room as tidy as we can while we work.
Also near Hanwell
What else we make in Hanwell
The problems window seats solve
The radiator beneath a window can make it tricky to put furniture there. A seat with a grille in the front keeps the radiator working and the window usable. It solves the problem of what to do with the space.
People normally get in touch with us about things like these:
- A period room that needs furniture to suit it
- Wanting a quiet place to read
- A bay with no furniture that fits
- Nowhere to keep blankets, toys or books
If your children go to St Joseph's Catholic Primary School or a school nearby, a place for each person’s coat and shoes stops the hallway filling up.
Before you hire any carpenter
- Whether they measure the room themselves
- Real projects you can actually look at
- Are the boards named, such as MDF or plywood?
- Who does any electrics, plumbing or gas work
When is bespoke worth it?
Bespoke work comes into its own in rooms that aren’t square. In period homes, walls lean, floors slope and the alcoves on each side are often different widths, which leaves standard units with gaps at the sides and top.
A confident DIYer can manage simple shelves or a standard wardrobe in a square room. Sloping ceilings, uneven floors and lath-and-plaster walls make it harder, because scribing and the right fixings start to matter.
Why bespoke in Hanwell?
Off-the-shelf benches are not designed to sit over a radiator. Put in front of one, they can trap the heat. We design a grille into the seat so the radiator keeps working. Off-the-shelf furniture is made for flat walls and level floors, which older houses rarely have, so you end up with gaps, wobbles and units that don’t meet the skirting. Fitted furniture is scribed to the wall instead.
There’s no price list, because every piece is designed for one room. Instead, we measure, talk through the design and then quote in writing, naming the materials and finish. To start, fill in our short enquiry form.
Why choose us
- Workshop-made and fitted by us
- Moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood
- Scribed to uneven walls
- Saturday visits and fitting by prior arrangement