In this guide
- Why Are Chimney Breast Alcoves Never the Same Size?
- What Proportions Look Right?
- The Detail That Makes It Look Built In
- How Deep Should Alcove Shelving Be?
- What Should Go in the Cupboards?
- Should Alcove Units Match on Both Sides?
- What If the Chimney Breast Has Been Removed?
- Common Questions About Alcove Cabinetry
- Getting Started
The two recesses either side of a chimney breast are the most commonly wasted space in a British living room. They are already the right depth for storage and they are almost always filled with something that does not fit properly.
Why Are Chimney Breast Alcoves Never the Same Size?
Because the chimney breast is rarely centred on the wall and the walls themselves are rarely straight. In our experience the two alcoves differ by anything from a few millimetres to several centimetres.
This is why a matched pair of shop bought units always gives itself away. One side fits and the other has a gap, or both get packed out with strips of trim. It is also why we measure each recess separately, at three heights, because older walls lean as well as varying in width.
Plaster depth adds to it. A wall skimmed at different times, or one with a patch of newer plaster, can vary by 10mm or more across a single alcove.
What Proportions Look Right?
Cupboards below and open shelving above, with the break at roughly the height of the chimney breast mantel or a little below.
This is the arrangement that reads as architecture rather than furniture, and it works because it echoes the proportions already in the room. Full height closed cupboards in both alcoves can feel heavy and make a small room feel smaller. Full height open shelving on both sides gives you nowhere to hide anything.
A useful rule of thumb is to keep the closed section to around two fifths of the total height, which usually lands somewhere between 800mm and 1,000mm from the floor.
The Detail That Makes It Look Built In
Return the skirting board across the base of the units, and continue any picture rail or cornice line across the top. Furniture that interrupts those lines looks placed in the room. Furniture that continues them looks like it was always there. It is a small amount of extra work and it is the single biggest difference between fitted and fitted-looking.
How Deep Should Alcove Shelving Be?
Most alcoves are between 250mm and 400mm deep, and it is usually best to use the full depth rather than reduce it.
The exception is books. A shelf deeper than about 300mm lets paperbacks sit in two rows, and the back row becomes invisible and unread. If the alcove is deep and the contents are books, a shallower shelf with the extra depth given to the cupboard below is the better use of it.
Shelf spans matter too. Any shelf longer than about 900mm will visibly sag under books unless it is thicker or supported in the middle, which is one of the more common faults we are asked to correct.
What Should Go in the Cupboards?
The things that make a living room look untidy: games, cables, controllers, paperwork, children toys.
Living room storage is different from bedroom storage because it is mostly about concealment rather than capacity. A relatively shallow cupboard that hides clutter behind a door does more for how the room feels than a deeper one that holds more but stays open.
If the alcove sits next to a television, running a cable route through the back of the cupboard at design stage means the media equipment can live inside it rather than on display. That pairs naturally with a media wall across the chimney breast itself.
Should Alcove Units Match on Both Sides?
They should match visually, but they are almost never identical in construction.
Because the recesses differ, the carcasses differ. What makes them read as a pair is that the shelf heights line through, the door lines align, and the finish is identical. Get those three right and nobody notices that one unit is 30mm wider than the other.
The exception worth considering is asymmetry on purpose. If one alcove holds a television and the other does not, designing them differently but in the same language often works better than forcing a false symmetry.
What If the Chimney Breast Has Been Removed?
Then you usually have a stepped wall rather than a flat one, and it needs measuring rather than assuming.
Removing a chimney breast downstairs while leaving it upstairs is common, and it leaves a wall that is flat at low level and steps out higher up where the stack is still supported. That is entirely workable, but the design has to account for it, which is a good reason not to order anything before someone has looked at the wall.
Common Questions About Alcove Cabinetry
Can you build around a radiator in the alcove?
Yes. Either the unit is designed around it with a ventilated cover, or the radiator is relocated first. Boxing a radiator in without ventilation makes the room noticeably colder, so it has to be done properly.
Can alcove units include lighting?
Yes, and recessed LED strip under each shelf is the usual approach. It lifts the alcoves in the evening and is inexpensive to include while the furniture is being made.
Do you have to have doors?
No. Open shelving throughout suits some rooms, particularly where the contents are books and objects rather than clutter. The mixed approach simply suits more households.
Will it work in a modern house without a chimney breast?
Yes. Modern rooms often have a shallow recess or a plain wall that takes a full run of shelving and cupboards. Our living room furniture page has examples of both.
Getting Started
If you are considering alcove units, it is worth measuring both recesses at floor level and at shoulder height before you assume they are a pair. The difference usually surprises people.
See our living rooms, shelving and cabinetry page, our media walls if the chimney breast is taking a television, or book a free design visit and we will measure the alcoves properly.
