James Whitcombe
Why alcoves are worth the faff
Every period terrace in the country seems to have them: a shallow, awkward recess either side of a chimney breast, or a gap beside a window that no piece of furniture was ever designed to fit. They are the spots where a lamp ends up on the floor and a stack of paperbacks quietly multiplies. With a weekend's work, though, they can become the most useful — and the most handsome — storage in the house. The trick is to stop thinking about fitting a shelf into the space and start thinking about building the shelf for the space.
Measure the space like you mean it
Alcoves are almost never square. Plaster bulges, old brickwork wanders, and a recess that looks 900mm wide at the front can easily be 880mm at the back. Measure the width at the top, the middle and the bottom of the recess, and the depth at each corner, writing down the smallest figure in every direction. That is the number you build to.
Next, mark your shelf heights on the wall with a pencil and a spirit level, or a laser level if you have one. Stand back and check them against the room: shelf lines usually look best aligned with the top of a window reveal, a picture rail or the head of a door frame. Finally, look for what is hiding in the wall:
- Sockets and switches — note their positions and keep shelves clear of them.
- Radiator pipes, gas pipes and aerial cables, which often run up an alcove corner.
- Air vents at the base of a chimney breast, which must be left open so the flue can breathe.
Boards and brackets that earn their keep
For most alcoves, 18mm MDF is the sensible choice. It is stable, dead flat, takes paint beautifully and comes in widths that need little cutting. Pine is lighter and cheaper but has a habit of twisting; if you use it, buy from a dry indoor rack and let it acclimatise in the room for a few days. Either way, have the board cut slightly oversize and tidy the ends yourself.
Span matters. As a rule of thumb, an 18mm board is happy up to around 800mm unsupported. If your alcove is wider than that, step up to 25mm, add a central support, or plan to keep heavier items near the ends.
Twin-slot adjustable tracks are the quiet hero of this sort of job. Two vertical tracks per side, plus brackets that click in at 32mm intervals, let you raise and lower shelves as your needs change — tall cookbooks one year, a houseplant the next. Fix the tracks into brick or blockwork rather than plasterboard wherever you can.
Fitting the tracks and shelves
Mark the track positions, then drill with a masonry bit and use brown wall plugs for solid brick. If you hit plasterboard alone, switch to hollow-wall anchors rated for the load. Check each track is plumb with a spirit level as you go: a few millimetres of lean becomes very visible once the shelves are loaded.
Cut boards a few millimetres short of the wall at the back to allow for irregular plaster, then either fill the gap with a painted batten or accept the soft shadow it casts. Notch boards around skirting, pipe boxing and uneven cornicing with a jigsaw, scribing the shape first using a pencil and a scrap of card as a template. Paint the shelves before fitting, then touch up around the screw heads afterwards.
Dealing with the awkward bits
The chimney breast itself is usually best left blank, or given a single picture or mirror. Do not drill into a flue without checking what is behind it, and never block a vent. Where an alcove is too shallow for books, use it for picture-led items: a framed print leaning against the wall, a small lamp, a basket for keys and gloves. Deep narrow alcoves take a run of slim shelves right up to picture-rail height, which draws the eye upward and makes low ceilings feel taller.
Styling shelves so they do not shout
The difference between a shelf that looks considered and one that looks like a jumble is mostly spacing. Leave roughly a third of each shelf empty. Group objects in odd numbers and vary the heights within each group. Books can be stacked horizontally in twos and threes to break up a long run of spines.
Keep the palette tight — two or three colours plus natural materials is plenty. Add baskets or lidded boxes on the bottom shelf to hide the things nobody should see, and finish with a small warm-toned lamp on one shelf. A single soft light source at eye level does more for an alcove than any amount of rearranging.
