The homeowners were redecorating and discovered an alcove behind a stud wall they had assumed was structural. They asked what we could do with it. The answer was: a working cupboard, made entirely of pine, with shelves cut to the things they actually wanted to put in there.
The challenge
An alcove like this is a one-shot opportunity. Off-the-shelf shelving never fits a non-standard recess properly, and the gaps at the sides end up being where stuff falls down the back. We took measurements of the specific objects the owners wanted on each shelf — bags of one kind, boxes of another, a couple of taller items at the bottom — and laid out the shelf positions around them rather than around a standard interval.
What we did
Frame fitted to the alcove walls, shelves cut from pine and rebated into the carcass at the heights the owner had chosen. A hanging rail across the lower half, with end blocks scribed to the wall. Pine left unfinished at the client’s request — they wanted to oil it later themselves.
The result
Storage that genuinely fits the owner’s stuff, not the shelf manufacturer’s idea of what storage should look like. The kind of small bespoke job that adds more value to daily life than the cost would suggest.
Materials
- Solid pine
- Custom shelves cut to fit specific items
- Hanging rail with end blocks
