If you’ve started looking into bespoke alcove units for a London Victorian or Edwardian living room, you’ve probably already discovered that quotes vary wildly. We’ve seen pairs of alcove cabinets quoted from £900 to £6,500 by different suppliers in the same week, for the same room. That’s not random — the spread reflects real differences in what’s being built. This post breaks down where the money actually goes.
The five typical scope tiers
| Scope | Typical range | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Low alcove cupboards | £900–£1,400 | Two simple cupboards under shelf level (around 900mm high), basic painted MDF doors, no detailed mouldings |
| Low cupboards + open display shelves above | £1,200–£1,900 | The above plus 3-4 open painted shelves above each cupboard, scribed to existing skirting and architrave |
| Full-height alcove units (closed storage) | £1,800–£2,800 | Pair of floor-to-ceiling cupboards, painted shaker doors, all storage hidden |
| Full-height with glazed display tops | £2,400–£3,400 | Floor-to-ceiling units with closed storage below and glazed cabinet doors above for display |
| Full-height + media wall in the chimney breast | £3,400–£6,500 | The pair plus an integrated TV / media setup using the chimney breast itself |
These are our ranges in 2026 for London projects. Smaller workshops bid lower (sometimes much lower); larger operators (deVOL, Plain English, Naked Kitchens) bid higher. The numbers are reasonably stable across East London neighbourhoods — there’s no Wanstead premium versus Forest Gate.
What moves the price within a scope tier
Three factors:
Door style. Flat-slab MDF is the cheapest (£100 cheaper per pair vs shaker). Five-piece painted shaker is the middle and most common. In-frame shaker (where the door sits inside a face frame, with a small shadow gap around it) is the higher-end option and adds 15–25%. Tongue-and-groove sits between flat and shaker.
Materials inside. A standard alcove unit interior is painted MDF or melamine-faced MFC with adjustable shelves on metal shelf pins. The premium upgrades — solid oak or walnut adjustable shelves, lacquered interior carcass, glass shelves for display, integrated LED lighting — each add £150–£400 per pair.
Paint complexity. Standard Farrow & Ball / Little Greene colours in a two-coat sprayed finish are included. Bespoke colour-matching, three-coat finishes for darker shades, or distressed / antiqued finishes add £150–£300 to a pair.
Where you can save without compromising
A few cost-cutting moves that don’t materially affect the finished result:
- Use a standard F&B colour rather than a bespoke colour-match. Saves £100–£200.
- Open shelves above instead of glazed display cabinets. Saves £400–£600 (no doors, no glass, no hardware) and arguably looks better in most period rooms.
- Painted MDF tops rather than hardwood. Saves £200–£300 per pair.
- Skip the integrated lighting on a single project. It’s a feature you can retro-fit if you decide you want it later; many clients don’t end up using LED display lighting daily.
Where saving costs more in the long run
Three places where the cheaper option is genuinely worse value:
- Cheap hinges. Off-brand soft-close hinges typically last 3-5 years before losing their close action. Blum hinges are lifetime-warranty. The premium is small (~£60–£80 per pair).
- No mouldings to match the existing room. Skipping the scribe-and-match step (£100–£200) is what makes a cheaper alcove unit look added-on rather than original. It’s the single biggest visual tell.
- Standard shelf pins. Premium adjustable shelf pins (Häfele or Blum) don’t sag under heavy book loads; cheaper ones (the 5mm white-plastic ones from generic suppliers) bow over time.
When off-the-shelf alcove furniture is genuinely cheaper
If your chimney-breast alcoves are:
- Square (the two side walls are perpendicular to the back wall),
- Approximately the same width as a standard alcove unit (700–900mm), and
- The chimney breast itself is plumb,
then a flat-pack alcove unit from one of the standard ranges plus a panel scribed down each side will give you something workable for £400–£700 per pair. We’ve recommended that route for clients who weren’t fussed about the finishing details.
If any of those three conditions don’t hold (and in 90% of Victorian terraces, at least one doesn’t), bespoke earns its premium quickly.
What to ask any quoting joiner
Three questions that separate solid quotes from inflated ones:
- What carcass material — MFC, MDF or hardwood? All three are legitimate; what matters is that they tell you which they’re using and why.
- What’s the door construction — five-piece or single-panel? Five-piece (frame-and-panel) is the proper shaker; single-panel with applied moulding is the cheaper imitation.
- What hinges and runners — brand name? Blum, Häfele or Hettich are all proper choices; unbranded “soft-close” hardware is a red flag.
If you’d like our take on a specific room, get in touch for a free site survey. We’ll measure, quote, and tell you honestly if your situation is one where IKEA Pax + a panel would be the better answer.