Alcove and Nook Planning Checklist

Measure the width of the alcove near the floor, at waist height and near the ceiling, and write down all three even when they differ.

Recording the differences rather than averaging them is what tells a joiner how much scribing the piece will need.

Hold a straight edge against the back wall and note where it does not touch, since alcove backs are frequently bowed or uneven.

An uneven back wall decides whether shelves can sit tight against it or need a scribed panel behind them.

Check whether the floor within the alcove slopes or drops, and whether the pair of alcoves in one room differ from each other.

Matching alcoves are rarely identical, and assuming they are is how one fitted unit ends up sitting proud of the other.

Look along the sides of the alcove to see whether they are straight or splayed, and whether anything such as a pipe casing projects into it.

A projection at one side changes the usable width for the entire height of the unit.

Photograph the alcove with a rule or a familiar object in the frame, so the images carry a sense of scale for whoever sees them later.

Photographs with nothing to judge size against tell a maker very little, and this small habit fixes that.

Walk the home and list every recess that currently holds nothing, including landings, bay windows and the space beside a doorway.

Making the list at once shows which recess would actually be useful rather than merely available.

If a window seat is being considered, note what sits beneath the window now, including any radiator, vent or pipework.

What is beneath the window usually decides whether a seat is straightforward or a much larger piece of work.

Whether heating or ventilation beneath a window can be moved or enclosed is for the relevant qualified trade to determine.

Consider whether a window seat would genuinely be sat in, and note who would use it and for what.

Window seats are often built for an idea of a room rather than for a habit anyone actually has.

Consider whether a landing or stair recess sits on a route people walk, since anything fitted there is passed rather than approached.

A recess on a circulation route can hold shallow storage but rarely anything that opens outward.

Watch how each nook is lit through the day, and whether using it would depend on light that something else currently provides.

A reading nook that turns out to be dark by afternoon becomes a place things are put down instead.

Note whether the fireplace or flue is in use, has been blocked, or has simply been covered over, and record what you actually know.

Owners often inherit a chimney whose condition nobody has ever explained, and that gap matters before anything is fixed to it.

The condition and use of a chimney or flue must be established by a qualified professional rather than assumed.

Find any vent or grille in the chimney breast or the alcove, and ask a qualified professional what it serves before covering it.

Vents in a chimney breast are usually there for a reason that is not obvious from the room.

Ventilation openings must not be covered or blocked without advice from a qualified professional.

Note any staining, salting or damp patch in the alcove or on the breast, and photograph it rather than deciding what caused it.

Marks in an alcove are useful evidence for a professional and a poor basis for an owner conclusion.

The cause of staining or damp near a chimney must be established by a qualified professional who can inspect it.

If a stove or fire is used, ask what has to be kept clear around it and how that affects anything fitted in the adjacent alcove.

Fitted joinery close to a working fire is a question for professionals, not a matter of visual preference.

Distances and materials near any appliance that burns fuel must be determined by a qualified professional and the relevant local requirements.

Ask a qualified professional what may be fixed into the chimney breast and the alcove walls before assuming shelves can simply be hung.

Wall construction varies enormously around a chimney, and the answer changes what kind of joinery is sensible.

Wall construction around a chimney varies, and only a qualified professional should judge what it will hold and how to fix to it.

Take the things you intend to keep in the alcove and set them out where you can see them, then decide honestly whether they should be visible.

Open shelving works when the contents are worth looking at and fails quietly when they are not.

Consider who would dust open shelves and how often, particularly if the room has a working fire or opens to a street.

Open shelving in a room with a fire needs attention that people rarely anticipate when choosing it.

Consider closed storage at low level with open shelving above, and note where the change would fall in relation to eye level.

The height of that change is what makes a mixed arrangement look considered rather than accidental.

Note what any doors on the alcove would sweep when open, and whether furniture already stands within that arc.

In a narrow room the alcove doors and the seating arrangement usually want the same piece of floor.

Decide whether both alcoves should be treated identically, and note what would happen if only one is done now.

Matching later is harder than it sounds because materials, finishes and the wall itself all move on.

Decide whether the joinery should sit back from the face of the chimney breast, sit flush with it, or come forward of it.

This decision often changes the character of the room more than the material or the colour chosen for it.

Measure the depth of the things actually being stored, since books, files and boxes differ enough to change the design.

Shelves deeper than their contents collect a second row of things nobody can see.

Look at what stands in front of the alcove at present, and consider whether it would still fit once the recess is filled.

A sofa or a bed that currently overlaps an alcove is the constraint most often forgotten in this decision.

Mark the proposed front face on the floor with tape and live with it for a while before committing to the depth.

Depth is felt rather than calculated, and tape on the floor is the only honest way to test it at home.

Consider whether anyone could reach the back of a deep low cupboard in this recess, and what would end up living there permanently.

Deep low storage becomes archive space by default unless it is designed to pull out.

Discuss with the joiner whether existing skirting within the alcove is taken out, scribed around, or left with the unit standing in front of it, and record what is agreed.

Each approach looks different and involves different work, and the decision is easier before anything is made.

Removing existing trim can disturb the wall surface beneath it, so the approach should be agreed with the joiner and decorator.

Note any picture rail or dado rail crossing the alcove and decide whether joinery stops below it, meets it or passes it.

A rail running into a fitted unit is one of the more visible details in a room and is frequently unresolved.

Follow any cornice or coving across the alcove, since it usually decides whether joinery can reach the ceiling at all.

Joinery meeting a cornice needs a deliberate detail, and the alternative is a gap that collects dust.

Note what the alcove walls are finished in and whether the surface would need attention once anything is removed from it.

Decoration inside an alcove is far easier before the joinery is fitted than afterwards.

Agree in writing who is responsible for making good, decorating and finishing where the joinery meets the room.

The boundary between joiner and decorator is where small fitted projects frequently leave a gap.

Mark every socket, switch, aerial or data point inside the alcove and note which would be covered by the proposed joinery.

A covered socket is an irritation for as long as the joinery exists, and it is easy to see now.

List what would be plugged in within the alcove, including anything that needs to be reached to be switched off.

This list tells the electrician what the joinery has to accommodate, which is not obvious from a drawing.

Ask the joiner and the electrician how cables would run behind or through the unit, and record what each says.

Cable routes decide where openings have to be made, and making them afterwards spoils a finished piece.

All electrical work, including any point within fitted joinery, is for a qualified electrician to assess and carry out.

Consider whether the shelving itself is to be lit and how any lighting would be switched and reached.

Lighting inside joinery has to be planned with the unit rather than added to it later.

Note anything that gets warm in use and ask what air movement it needs inside an enclosed unit.

Equipment enclosed without air is a common oversight in fitted alcove joinery.

Requirements for air around any appliance or equipment should be confirmed with its manufacturer and the relevant trade.

Ask whether the joinery would be made in a workshop and fitted, or built in the room, and what each would mean for dust and disruption.

The two approaches produce different finishes and different amounts of mess, and owners are rarely told to choose.

Walk the route from the street to the room and consider whether a completed unit could physically reach the alcove in one piece.

Access is why many alcove units are assembled in the room, and it is worth establishing before an approach is agreed.

Ask whether a template would be taken from the recess itself, and at what stage of the process that would happen.

A template records the true shape of an uneven recess in a way that any set of figures, including yours, cannot.

Ask whether the unit arrives finished or is decorated in place, and who would be doing that work.

Painting fitted joinery in a furnished room is a different proposition from finishing it before it arrives.

Write down the decisions you have reached about depth, fronts and junctions, and keep them with your photographs of the alcove.

These few decisions are what a joiner needs, and they drift if they are only ever discussed aloud.