Why is custom-made alcove furniture the best choice VS flat-pack?

Most homes have alcoves either side of a chimney breast or an awkward sized opening or space that would be perfect for storage. However, If you’re not careful, you can end up with a space that’s cluttered and disorganised.

It’s actually a great opportunity to create a feature in your living room and wow guests when they visit.

That’s where bespoke alcove furniture comes in.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss the benefits of choosing fitted alcove furniture over flat pack furniture. We’ll also provide some tips on how to make the most of your awkward spaces.

To begin let’s look at reasons why you may have thought about buying cupboards or shelving for the space that’s shop bought or flatpack.

Firstly, it’s tempting to make a trip to Ikea or browse the internet to find a bookcase or drawer unit for the room that is a close enough match to existing furniture or will be similar enough for now.

After spending your weekend assembling the furniture and being left at the end with extra screws and bolts (we have all been there!) you inevitably find that you are left with gaps either side of your opening or the furniture sticks out past the alcoves into the room.

While flat packs can be a quick storage fix, they are definitely frustrating to assemble and not always the most sturdy.

Similarly with furniture bought from a retailer there is certainly a better selection and more options to choose from, but you still find yourself in the all too familiar situation where you eventually find a unit that would look great in the room only to discover it is 2cm too big for the opening or it leaves a large gap and lots of wasted space below the ceiling!

Which brings us to the 3 main reasons why custom-made or fitted furniture is often the best option for the alcoves in your home.

Benefit 1 – Made for your home and completely customisable.

Alcoves, nooks & cubbyholes by nature are often un-even, out of square and odd sizes. The options you find online are often certain sizes and depth, with a set number of layouts and styles.

Particularly in older Victorian or Georgian homes these characteristics make them charming but high ceilings, old floorboards and sloping walls mean it’s even more crucial to find correctly fitting furniture.

Bespoke alcove cupboards are designed for you and to your specification so you could start by using inspiration you find on Pinterest or on Instagram and then formulating your own unique furniture based around this.

Once you have an idea of what you would like, we arrange a design visit to show you samples of different materials and colours.

We can then produce CAD designs and renders for you so you can try out different colour and material combinations and see how the finished piece will look in the room before we start making it for you. You are involved at every stage of the design process, so the finished product is exactly as you wished.  

Fully customisable also means you can have any colour you like! You may have sofas or carpets that you would like the new furniture to complement or maybe you would like to create a bold statement with your colour choice.

We personally love shades of blues and greens paired with brass & gold hardware.

Alternatively, you can go for a crisp white or cream for a Scandinavian finish, to maximise natural light in the room and achieve a minimalist look.  Whatever your preferences are, bespoke furniture gives you the flexibility to perfectly tie in with your existing furniture and décor.

As with colours, lighting choices are another part of the alcove furniture design you can customise. Lights make a fabulous impression and have the power to completely change the mood of the room with a touch of a switch.

You can have strips running along the shelves, lights across the top of the furniture or lighting so you can see inside cupboards as the doors open.

The options again are almost endless!

LED strips are a popular option as with the new technology available they produce a beautiful seamless glow across the light without spotting from the individual bulbs.

These come in various lighting temperatures starting at a cool, daylight which is great for more modern, contemporary designs all the way to a warm glow which is the perfect choice for picture lights on more traditional or shaker style cabinets & bookcases. 

Picture lights are also suitable for a more traditional or art deco piece of furniture. These are usually brass or gold lamps that are attached to the top of a bookcase and will aim their light down over the furniture.

When you decide to have bespoke furniture made there is no trawling the web looking for something that will work or double-checking measurements as we can design and build anything for your home and in any colour or material you would like, giving you complete freedom and peace of mind.

Benefit 2 – Neat & organised.

No matter how good your intentions are, its almost impossible not to have some areas of the house that attract clutter!

You can make sure that when designing the furniture for your room you specify exactly what you would love to store in each compartment, shelf or drawer. This means you have plenty of space for what you need, and everything has a place.

Displaying books or ornaments on open shelving while hiding away smaller items & games in low level cabinets or drawers is a great option for a living room.

Certain rooms in your home may have cables for a TV or the Wifi that need hiding but at the same time they need to be easily accessible.

This is where Media walls and TV walls come in. A media wall will seamlessly integrate the TV into the design with the added bonus of all the cables being hidden from view. This means you have space for the TV that blends in well with the room while hiding all the unsightly cables and boxes.

Somewhere in the home that is always hard to keep organised is under the stairs. Shoes and bags usually get thrown into a pile and no matter how many times you try to sort it out, when there is no place for them to go it makes this a challenge.

Fitted understairs storage & bespoke furniture is perfectly suited to under the stairs. Considering the angles and awkward shape, understairs storage can be made with large pull-out compartments for shoes, hanging space for coats or even a wine rack! It allows you to make the most of the space under the stairs and whilst also ensuring it looks inviting & neatly organised.

When it comes to having an organised home and maximising the space you have, custom-made alcove furniture is the perfect place to start.  

Benefit 3 – Better quality materials & hardware.

We all have something in our home or kitchen that doesn’t quite work right. Either a door won’t close properly, or drawers won’t open correctly and have worn away over time.

Take shelves for example, how often do you find that they have sagged on bookcases & cupboards which you have bought?  

When having fitted furniture made for your home the shelves will be strong enough so they can take the weight of the books on them without sagging!

The hardware and materials used by us at Aspects Bespoke is high quality & chosen specifically for each purpose. For example, we use a specialist high-density timber board, purpose made for joinery on our furniture.

This means the furniture is solid, nothing will warp or bow over time and makes sure a flawless painted spray finish is achieved.

To pair with that, most of the cabinets and internals are made from a coloured decor board or solid wood veneer. These are durable and will stand the test of time. In addition, there is a wide range of colour and texture choices including fabric, leather or natural wood effect.

There is a never-ending choice of hinges, hardware & handles to choose from. Everything from handle-less, push to open doors to large heavy duty, soft-close pull outs.

We make sure to choose exactly the right product for each purpose which ensures everything we install works as it should for years to come.

In addition all the hinges & hardware we use come with a lifetime warranty so doors and drawers don’t fail.