Under-stair rebuild
An under-stair space opened up and reframed, then finished with a reclaimed panelled pine door and tongue-and-groove to match the original hallway.
Services
Alcove Shelving, Made to Measure
Alcove shelving is the job that most rewards being made rather than bought. No two alcoves in a house are the same width, almost none are square, and a shelf cut to a standard size will show a gap at one end the moment you put it up.
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Why fitted wins here
Cut to the alcove, not to a standard size
Buy alcove shelves ready-made and you are buying a rectangle. Chimney breast alcoves are not rectangles. They taper, the back wall bows, the plaster is thicker at one end than the other, and in an older Wiltshire house the whole opening can be 15mm out from top to bottom. A stock shelf goes in with a gap at one end and a bead of filler at the other.
Every shelf we fit gets scribed: the back edge is cut to follow the actual wall, and each end is cut to its own measurement rather than to the width of the shelf below it. It takes longer and it is the whole difference. Done properly the shelf looks like the wall grew it, and there is no line of caulk to crack in a year.
Then it is levelled off a laser rather than off the skirting, because the skirting is rarely level either. Shelves that step down by two millimetres across a room are the tell that somebody worked off the floor.
Specification
Materials, fixings and finish
Painted work
18mm or 25mm MDF. It is stable, machines cleanly and takes a flat finish, and unlike a solid board it will not cup across a wide shelf as the room's humidity moves through the year. Edges are filled and sanded so the finished shelf reads as solid.
Timber
Solid oak, ash or walnut where the grain is meant to show. Prime-grade boards selected and jointed for width, then oiled or hard-wax finished rather than varnished — a varnish looks plastic on a shelf you will be putting books on.
Spans and sagging
The commonest failure in alcove shelving is deflection: a metre of books slowly bows the middle of the shelf. Anything over about 900mm gets a hardwood lipping on the front edge, which stiffens it far more than the extra thickness suggests. Deeper shelves get a batten on the back wall as well as the ends.
Floating shelves
Fixed on concealed steel pins resin-anchored into the wall, with no visible bracket. Stronger than most people expect, but they need something solid behind them — on a stud wall the pins have to land in the studs, which sometimes decides the spacing.
Cupboards below
The most-asked-for version: closed storage at the bottom, open shelving above, with the break usually picking up the height of the chimney breast or an existing picture rail. Doors on soft-close hinges, scribed to the wall like everything else.
Lighting and cables
LED strip under a shelf, and cable routes dropped in behind before anything is painted, so nothing trails. New spurs are certified by a registered electrician under Part P.
Recent work
Fitted joinery, scribed to the room
The same job in different clothes: cut to an opening the house already had.
Bathroom panelling
Tongue-and-groove panelling fitted around a basin and boxed cistern, scribed to walls that were nowhere near square.
Related
Alcoves do more than shelves
An alcove will take shelving, a cupboard, a wardrobe or half a media wall, and the joinery is the same joinery each time. If you are doing one alcove it is almost always worth deciding what the other one is for at the same time — matching them later costs more than doing them together.
Questions
Alcove shelving — common questions
How much does alcove shelving cost?
A pair of painted MDF alcove shelving runs, four or five shelves each side, typically comes in between £600 and £1,100 fitted, depending on the height of the room and whether there are cupboards below. Solid oak is roughly half again. You get a firm price after a look at the room.
Can you build cupboards under the shelves?
Yes, and it is the most common version of this job — closed storage at the bottom for the things you would rather not look at, open shelving above. The line between them usually picks up the height of the chimney breast or the picture rail.
What do you make the shelves from?
Painted work is MDF, because it is stable, takes a spray or brush finish flat, and will not cup across a wide shelf the way a solid board can. Where the timber is meant to show it is solid oak, ash or walnut. Long spans get a hardwood lip on the front edge, which stops the deflection you get when a shelf full of books slowly sags.
Do you fit floating shelves?
Yes. They are fixed on concealed steel pins let into the wall rather than on visible brackets. They look better and they are stronger than most people expect, but they need something solid to go into — on a stud wall the fixings have to hit the studs, which sometimes decides the spacing.
Get a price for your alcoves
Send a photograph and the width, height and depth of the opening and Alex will come back to you. Free written estimate, no obligation.