Alcove Units

Alcove units are usually associated with family sitting rooms, they are stylish and they can hold an impressive amount of storage.

Any recessed corner or space can be referred to as an alcove. These can be located anywhere in your home, but they are often part of the living room and, in some older houses, one or more of the bedrooms. The space between them can house the fireplace or a TV, gaming console and entertainment system.

The beauty of custom made furniture is that you will be confident in knowing that the furniture fits into the space exactly as it should.

Get in touch with us today, get a callout and let us build your dream alcove units!

What makes custom made alcove units great?

• The units are built specifically for you, and installed to fit perfectly in the available space.
• The shelving goes with the design of your room, adding a touch of style and practicality.
• You get flexibility and attention to detail that you can’t find in off-the-shelf furniture.
• Working with an Interior Designer opens up new options to creating something that's right for your home.

The biggest reason to opt for custom made units is because alcoves come in varying sizes. This means that mass produced furniture will rarely fit the available space.

There's always a choice when it comes to alcove units. With an array of different styles, our workshop team can create something truly unique for you. Our goal is to make them stylish, practical and timeless so that you won’t have to think about changing anything for years to come.

Alcove Units Ireland

Alcove units come in an infinite variety of sizes and styles. Designs are often broken down into one of these categories: Traditional, Modern or ‘A Bit of Both’.

All these styles are highly popular in Irish homes regardless of how new or aged they are, and even more traditionally-inspired designs bring an element of newness to the room and make your home feel truly yours!

If you are interested in alcove units made here in Ireland, we will:

• Showcase the different styles of alcove shelving and provide reference starting prices
• Offer you inspiration and practical ideas no matter how big or small your space is
• Look into built in units in different rooms of your house, not only the sitting room
• Help you integrate a TV and entertainment unit in your room design
• We are based in Dublin, so if you found this page we are most likely local to you

Our specialist cabinet makers build alcove shelving from start to finish in our Dublin-based workshop. Depending on your personal preferences, we can make units that fall into any category – from ornate traditional shelving to beautiful minimalist alcove units.

You can see them below, in the order of their popularity. Most of our recent clients have been opting for modern designs, or designs that showcase ‘a bit of both’.

Modern Alcove Units

The modern style moves away from the ‘lived in’ feeling that the traditional style implies. The main focus is to keep things simple, hide anything unnecessary and create storage.

If you like minimalism, plain presses and Scandinavian design influences, our modern style alcove units would be perfect for you.

Less is more, and a modern look can be achieved through clean, crisp lines and a smooth spray painted finish. The bookcases or alcove units in this instance won't protrude from the walls, keeping everything tight and minimal.

In terms of colour, white is ever-popular, and so are soft greys, navy, and forest green. Choose a handleless cutout instead of knobs or — the most popular choice — opt for completely plain doors with a push-to-open system.

This modern look is ideal for newer homes, but will also work great if you are renovating a house that has a few more years and a bit of character to it.

Traditional Alcove Units

The traditional style embodies symmetry, charm and comfort. When thinking about this style imagine moulded details, conservative colour schemes and a more elegant feel.

Traditional alcove units often have shaker doors with plant-on moulding, brushed steel or brass knobs, fluted pillars and often boast moulded cornices. It’s a graceful and refined style that brings everything in a room together, making it look classy.

In terms of colour, aim for light to medium greys, as well as muted tones of blue, green or rust. White is also a popular colour for alcove units of all kinds.

Traditional style alcove units come in pairs around a statement piece, which can be a fireplace, a piece of artwork or a large wall mounted TV.

A Bit of Both

If you enjoy both traditional and modern styles, you can combine elements of the two and achieve a design that’s both cosy and contemporary.

Shaker style doors go well with any style and colour, and they are often a key element of the transitional style — which is essentially a blend of the new and the old.

Interior design is a personal thing, and you need to base your choices on the way you feel about them. You can do anything you want with the choice of shelving, design of the doors for the bottom presses, whether or not you want LED strips or downlights in them, mirrors and so much more!

If you want to keep things simple you can choose shaker doors with knobs and keep everything else plain and practical. This tends to look amazing as you can see in the examples below.

Custom Made Alcove Units

Good designers know how to create balance through the use of shapes, colours and textures.

The very first thing to do is to decide what colour scheme you want to achieve. Based on the items you own, look at what colours are predominant. Try to maintain one or two colours for consistency in style.

If storage space is your main concern feel free to ask us about your options for Under Stairs Storage, keeping your alcove units minimal and moving your storage in an otherwise unused area of the house.

As far as shelf decorations go, you have many options and it’s best to combine them:

• Place books on your shelves
  They look best if you position the books both horizontally and vertically on different shelves. Spread the colours evenly across them and avoid putting all the darks or whites in one place. Keep in mind that you are aiming at balance.
• Artwork and framed photos
  Use artwork to add various heights and colours on the shelves. Use the statement of colour and the type of art as a way to showcase your home’s personality.
• Vases, candles, diffusers and other pretty items
  Use the rest of your pretty, sentimental and functional items to dress up the rest of the space on the shelves while keeping in mind the colour scheme. It’s better to avoid having too many — it’s okay to have some empty areas here and there.
• Small potted plants on your shelving
  There are many different plants you can get in the major Irish home and garden stores. They can thrive in low light and require minimal care.

Alcove Units with TV

Since built In TV units are ever-popular, placing your TV on the wall between the alcoves (at a safe height above the fireplace, if you have one) can look incredible.

Your fireplace surround can be painted in an accent colour, or you can match the colour of the units on either side of it.

Storage cabinets at the foot base of an alcove unit can hide the TV sockets, your Xbox and even your Wi-Fi router. It can hold any other additions that you wish to hide from sight to make the place look clean and tidy.

Open storage can be in the form of traditional or floating shelving, and for an extra dash of style you can have staggered shelves in your alcoves.

As mentioned before, you can display items such as picture frames, books and other elements of interior decor. This helps to draw the entire attention away from the TV when it’s off, blending it into the room.

Having a built in entertainment unit is an amazing solution for storage and whilst still practical it’s very stylish. As the years go by you can customise your unit changing handles and shelf positions. The main thing is that you will finally find an ideal place for all your possessions and accessories.

Get in touch today for a quote and to schedule a callout, and we will take care of absolutely everything.

Alcove Shelving

An alcove unit with both presses and shelves is a very popular choice. The reason for that is because it combines open storage (for books, vases and decorations) with hidden storage inside the bottom presses.

Open storage requires styling skills to display the decor, which can become a focus point once lit by LED strips or downlights. Closed storage will store away all the necessities that you want to hide.

This is the easiest way to achieve visual satisfaction and practicality. Look around this page for inspiration and, if you can’t get enough of it, check out the Alcove Cupboards Board by Anita O'Shea on Pinterest.

Alcove Floating Shelves

Floating shelves in alcove units look light and airy. They can be placed on any type of wall and can hold a considerable amount of weight when installed by our experienced fitters.

They come in various thicknesses, but they tend to look better when they are 22mm, 25mm or 36mm thick. They can be made from spray painted MDF, stained plywood or a wood veneer depending on the look that you want.

Pinterest is a great source of inspiration once again for this type of alcove units with shelves, and you check out the Floating Shelves Board by A Beautiful World to see many interesting designs.

Simply send us a photo of what you like and we can adjust it for your alcove sizes.

Contrasting Back Panels

The background of your alcove units can either make them stand out or blend in with your room design. It can either match the colour of the units with the wall or you can finish it in a completely different colour to give it more depth and character.

If you own a period home and really like a very traditional, nearly Victorian look, you can opt for shelving with a wallpapered background.

Finally, to create an illusion of more space a reflective surface will be the best solution. Some of our clients choose to go with a full mirror back, but keep in mind that you will need to keep this spotless especially if your units have built-in lighting.

Alcove Shelving Colours

Do you need some colour inspiration? Our team is always ready to help you pick something that’s right for you, and you can see many of our samples during the callout.

We can use any colour from any manufacturer available in Ireland, so you can choose anything from Farrow & Ball, Colourtrend, Little Greene or Dulux.

For a hassle-free experience we often recommend Farrow & Ball, as they have a purposefully limited range but every colour is hand-picked by their designers and almost all of them are amazing for custom made furniture.

We hope you found the inspiration you need in terms of design and storage options for your brilliant alcove units, but our lead designer Vanessa is always happy to assist you in achieving a look that’s right for you.

Get in touch today for a quote and to schedule a callout, and we will take care of absolutely everything.