Do you have a saw?
Because that really is the critical thing you are gonna need here.

Also, measure twice, cut once. And if you are measuring the size of the inside of an alcove bear in mind that the walls are probably not straight, so measure at several different places, and make sure you're measuring a level distance.

Finally, the best way to measure an alcove is to get two pieces of wood, long enough so that there is some overlap if you put one against one wall and the other against the other. Then you push them firmly against the oppostie walls and mark a line across both pieces. Then you can take them out of the alcove and put them back together where the line cross and you knwo the distance from one side of the alcove to teh other.

It's more accurate than a tape measures.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 13:30, 2 replies, latest was 12 years ago)

Nope but my dad has a standing band saw at home so we'll do all the cutting there and move the cut wood to my flat.
All measuring already done so it shouldn't be a problem. But if there is I'll bodge through.
(PsychoChomp, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 13:37, Reply)

This isn't going to work.

(Bazongaloid, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 13:46, Reply)

Course it is, I'll do it because I'm A MAN

(PsychoChomp, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 13:50, Reply)

Your girlfriend is going to come in when you think you've finished and say someting like "Oh, wasn't it meant to go here"
and you're going to resent her for ages.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 13:51, Reply)

I've just made two sets of built-in shelves
and a built-in cupboard in a Georgian flat.

I don't think I used a tape measure once for exactly your reason in point two. One of the gaps varied by 5 cm from the bottom shelf to the top. And the wall junction angle for one set of shelves varied between 140 and 148 degrees over 2 metres of height.

1900's builders. God fucking love them.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 13:48, Reply)

Our house was built in about 1830.
It's solid as a rock. But it's a bit damp and nothing is straight.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 13:50, Reply)

Mine was built in 2009ish and it's perfect.

(PsychoChomp, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 13:52, Reply)

Except that the rooms are small, and it will fall apart in about 30 years.

(Bazongaloid, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 13:55, Reply)

Oh, yeah, I'm not complaining really
except when you try and put up shelves. Especially in a room that has 8 walls.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 13:53, Reply)