Bespoke mirrored walls, sliding-door wardrobes and fitted mirror panels by Reeve & Co – designed as furniture rather than as a practical afterthought. Clear, bronze, smoked and antiqued mirror glass, framed in painted timber, oak or stainless steel, installed across London, the Home Counties and the wider UK.

Mirror joinery that belongs to the room

A fitted mirrored wall, when designed and installed well, is one of the most powerful tools in an interior. It expands the perceived space, redistributes natural light, and – if the framing and proportions are resolved carefully – reads as an architectural feature rather than a practical addition. When it is done poorly, the joins are visible, the framing is inadequate, the mirror sits in front of the skirting rather than integrating with it, and the room looks smaller and more cluttered than it did before.

Reeve & Co approaches mirror joinery with the same discipline applied to every other fitted furniture commission: the installation is drawn before it is made, the framing is designed to integrate with the room’s architecture, and the mirror specification – glass type, frame material, panel sizing, edge treatment and fixing method – is resolved at the drawing stage. Recent mirrored wall and sliding-door commissions have included a floor-to-ceiling mirrored wardrobe wall at Albert Hall Mansions, mirrored sliding-door wardrobes in a Belgravia apartment, a mirrored reception wall in a St John’s Wood townhouse and a fitted mirror panel scheme in Eaton Place.

Mirrored joinery types and applications

Mirror glass options

The choice of mirror glass makes a significant difference to the character of a room. Clear mirror is the standard: crisp, accurate and spatially generous. Bronze mirror has a warm amber cast that reads as part of the room’s colour palette rather than as a neutral surface – it is particularly effective in sitting rooms, dining rooms and hallways. Smoked or grey mirror is darker and more dramatic, suited to contemporary rooms with strong contrasts. Antiqued mirror has a mottled, aged appearance that is appropriate for period rooms and maximalist interiors where a new mirror would look incongruous.

We specify and source mirror glass from specialist glazing suppliers to suit each commission. All panels are cut, polished and drilled to our own specifications before framing in the workshop.

Where mirrored joinery creates the most value

Mirrored sliding-door wardrobes are most commonly commissioned for London flat bedrooms, where the combination of functional wardrobe storage and spatial enlargement through reflection is extremely effective. A sliding-door wardrobe with full-height mirror panels in a room of modest size can make the space feel genuinely larger and better lit – not as an optical trick but as a real improvement to how the room reads and how comfortable it is to live in.

Full-wall mirror panels in a hallway or reception room are one of the oldest spatial interventions in English interior design, and still one of the most effective. A narrow entrance hall with a full-height mirror panel on one wall becomes a hall of double the perceived width. A dining room with mirror in a panelling grid bounces candlelight and creates a sense of occasion that is difficult to achieve by other means. These are not decorating fashion; they are spatial tools with a long and proven history.

For country houses and substantial private homes, a dedicated dressing room with mirror panels on selected walls – not all of them, which tends to feel disorienting – allows natural light to be redistributed around a room that may not have a generous window. The mirror is positioned to face the primary light source, carrying daylight into the darker parts of the dressing room without introducing a second window.

Framing and track systems

Recent mirrored wall and door projects

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Mirrored joinery as part of a wider wardrobe or furniture commission

Mirrored sliding-door wardrobes are most often commissioned as part of a wider wardrobe or bedroom joinery scheme. In these cases, the mirror doors are designed in conjunction with the wardrobe carcases, interior fittings, dressing table or island, and any other fitted furniture in the room – so that the framing finish, reveal widths and hardware all read as a single, composed interior rather than separate elements sourced from different suppliers.

For London apartments where wardrobe space is constrained and the bedroom is modest in size, the sliding mirror door is one of the most effective design decisions available. It eliminates the floor area lost to door swing, maximises the reflective quality of the mirror, and keeps the visual weight of the wardrobe as low as possible. The track and floor guide can be detailed to be almost invisible in the finished room.

We also make mirrored panels for use in gym rooms and home studios, where the functional requirements are somewhat different: larger format panels, robust framing, polished-edge rather than bevelled profiles, and a fixing method that can withstand the vibration and impact of active use. These are designed and installed to the same standard as our residential work, with the same care given to wall preparation, panel alignment and join treatment.

Return to the fitted furniture overview or explore related services: fitted wardrobes, alcove joinery and timber wall panelling.

Mirrored walls and doors FAQs

Bespoke alcove and fireplace joinery by Reeve & Co – fitted bookcases, cupboards, display shelving and combined bookcase-cupboard units built precisely into chimney breast alcoves for London townhouses, Victorian terraces and country houses. Period detailing or contemporary clean profiles, painted or in natural hardwood, made in our Suffolk workshop.

The alcove bookcase: a classic commission, done properly

The fitted bookcase or alcove cupboard flanking a chimney breast is one of the most common fitted-furniture commissions in British domestic architecture – and one of the most often done poorly. Cheap timber, incorrect proportions, applied mouldings that sit proud of the cornice rather than returning to it, shelves that sag, and drawer boxes that refuse to run smoothly are all common signs that the joinery was not treated as a serious piece of furniture. Reeve & Co takes the alcove commission as seriously as any other: the proportions are drawn from the room’s own architectural language, the construction is solid, and the detailing at the cornice, dado and floor junction is resolved before a single panel is cut.

Our alcove and fireplace joinery has been installed in Victorian and Edwardian terraces in Kensington, Chelsea and Belgravia, in Georgian townhouses in the Home Counties, in a Belgravia apartment flanking a period marble chimneypiece, and in contemporary open-plan living rooms where the chimney breast provides the only natural opportunity for fitted storage. The approach differs in each case; the standard of making does not.

Alcove joinery types and configurations

Getting the proportions right

Alcove proportions are not arbitrary. The width of the bookcase frame, the depth of the shelves, the height at which the cupboard doors give way to open shelving, the reveal between the bookcase face and the chimney breast projection, and the profile of the cornice are all governed by the architecture of the room. In a Victorian terrace, the cornice profile, skirting height, ceiling height and window proportions provide a grid from which the bookcase proportions should follow.

We draw each alcove commission in elevation before manufacture begins, showing the frame widths, shelf positions, door sizes and moulding profiles in relation to the room’s existing features. This is where the proportion is fixed – not on site during installation, where it is too late to correct a decision that looks wrong.

What to consider before commissioning alcove joinery

The most useful question to answer before commissioning alcove bookcases is whether the primary purpose is display, storage, or a combination of both. A room that is primarily a sitting room, with books arranged for visual effect and occasional reference, calls for a different interior to a room that is also a working library, with books in heavy rotation, archive boxes at the base and a need for good shelf lighting. The design starts with the use, not with an aesthetic preference.

Shelf depth deserves specific consideration. Standard paperbacks and hardbacks are adequately housed on a 220mm shelf. Oversized art books, encyclopaedias and archive boxes require 300mm or more. A single shelf depth across all the shelves in a bookcase is sometimes right, but a deeper lower shelf with a shallower upper shelf, or a combination of fixed and adjustable shelf positions, often serves the actual collection better. We ask clients to measure a representative sample of their books before we draw the shelf layout.

The cupboard base below the shelves is frequently underused in alcove bookcases. It is often treated as a catch-all for things that do not have another home. With some thought at the design stage, the base unit can house a sound system and cables, a wine and drinks collection with a fitted wine rack, a home office’s filing and archive, or simply deep general storage with pull-out shelving that makes access easy. None of these require major additional cost; they require a brief and a decision before the drawings are completed.

Materials and finishes

Recent alcove and fireplace joinery projects

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Commissioning alcove joinery alongside other fitted furniture

An alcove bookcase commission is often the first piece of fitted joinery a client commissions from Reeve & Co. It is a contained brief with a clear functional outcome, and it tends to demonstrate quickly whether the workshop’s approach and standards are the right fit for a client. A significant proportion of our longer relationships with private clients and their architects begin with a single pair of alcove bookcases and extend from there into wardrobes, a fitted study, a kitchen, or timber panelling across several rooms.

For clients who are planning a wider programme of fitted joinery – perhaps a complete renovation of a London townhouse or a country-house refurbishment – it is usually more efficient to discuss the whole programme at the outset, even if the work is phased over time. The drawing and design work for several rooms can be co-ordinated as a single scheme, so the detailing and proportions read consistently across the house. This also allows us to plan the workshop programme more accurately and give realistic timescales for each phase.

Return to the fitted furniture overview or explore related services: timber wall panelling, TV and media joinery and fitted wardrobes.

Alcove joinery FAQs

Bespoke timber wall panelling designed and made by Reeve & Co – from traditional moulded panel rooms and French-polished oak studies to contemporary flat-panel and batten schemes for modern interiors. Every panelling commission is drawn in-house, made in our Suffolk workshop and installed with the care due to a room that needs to feel both settled and architecturally credible.

Wall panelling that is made, not assembled

Timber wall panelling is one of the oldest and most enduring forms of interior joinery. When it is done well – proportioned correctly for the room, made from properly dried hardwood, detailed at the cornice, dado and skirting, and finished by hand – it transforms a room’s character in a way that no other wall treatment can match. When it is done poorly, the same room feels cheap and temporary.

Reeve & Co makes wall panelling as proper joinery. Each scheme is drawn in elevation, with frame widths, panel proportions, moulding profiles and finish all resolved before any timber is cut. We do not use MDF sheeting dressed up with applied mouldings as a substitute for properly made solid-timber or veneered panels; the construction is determined by what the design requires and what will perform well in the long term.

Our panelling work covers London townhouses, Belgravia and Kensington apartments, country-house reception rooms, private studies, hallways, dining rooms and commercial interiors including private members’ clubs and hotel lobbies. We have also completed significant educational panelling commissions, including work at Ipswich School.

Panelling types and styles

French polishing and traditional finishes

Reeve & Co has its own French polisher, which places us in a small group of UK joinery workshops able to offer this finish in-house rather than subcontracting it. French polishing – the traditional shellac-based hand-built finish – is the correct finish for period oak, walnut and mahogany panelling, and for reproduction furniture where a deep, hand-applied lustre is required. We also apply oil, wax, lacquer and painted finishes in-house, so a panelling commission can include multiple panel species and finishes within a single room.

The distinction between a French-polished surface and a lacquered or oiled one is not merely aesthetic. French polish builds up in many thin coats, each applied by hand with a rubber, gradually deepening the grain and creating a surface that has real optical depth. It is repairable by hand on site if damaged. It responds to changes in humidity as the timber does. It is the right finish for panelling in a room that will be used formally and cared for properly. Lacquer is tougher, more resistant to water and less susceptible to bloom; it is the better choice for rooms that are in heavier use or where the surface needs to withstand the contact of daily life without regular maintenance.

Materials and finishes

Recent timber panelling projects

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What makes timber panelling last

Timber panelling fails when it is made without regard for the movement of wood. Solid timber expands and contracts with changes in humidity and temperature; a panel that is glued rigidly into its frame will split under seasonal movement. A panel properly housed in its frame with an appropriate clearance gap is free to move without deforming the face of the work. This is basic joinery knowledge, but it is often ignored in cheaper panelling installations where speed of production takes priority over long-term performance.

Reeve & Co makes panelling to perform over decades. We specify timber that has been properly dried and stored. We use appropriate substrate materials for painted work. We account for seasonal movement in the design of every panel and frame joint. We apply finishes that allow the timber to breathe where the species requires it, and hardwearing lacquer systems where the room demands it. The result is panelling that does not crack, does not delaminate, does not distort and does not need to be replaced within ten years of installation.

We have reinstated and extended existing panelling in listed buildings where the original eighteenth-century work was still sound, working to match profiles, timber species and finish so that the new work is indistinguishable from the old. This is exacting work and it is one of the most satisfying commissions our workshop takes on.

Where we work

Timber panelling commissions are accepted across London and the Home Counties, where the majority of our residential panelling work is concentrated, and in East Anglia and the wider UK for the right projects. We are experienced at working in occupied properties, listed buildings and heritage-sensitive interiors where the construction method and reversibility of the panelling are important considerations.

Panelling in the context of a wider project

Timber wall panelling rarely exists in isolation. In most residential commissions, a panelled room is also a room with fitted joinery: a panelled study will have a fitted desk and bookcases, a panelled hallway will have fitted cupboards and a boot room, a panelled dining room may incorporate a fitted drinks cabinet or display shelving. Reeve & Co designs and makes both the panelling and the associated joinery as a single scheme, so the reveals, moulding profiles, timber species and finish all read consistently across the whole interior.

This coordination matters. When panelling and fitted furniture are commissioned separately from different workshops, the junction between them is almost always visible: the cornice profiles do not quite match, the reveal widths are different, or the paint finish differs slightly. When they come from the same workshop, the room reads as a composed interior rather than a collection of individual elements.

Return to the fitted furniture overview or explore our related joinery services: home offices and studies, alcove and fireplace joinery and fitted wardrobes.

Timber panelling FAQs