How to Commission Furniture

Nothing here is a stock item, so every order begins with a conversation rather than a basket. This page sets out what happens between that first call and the moment a finished piece is standing in your room.

The process is the same whether you want a catalogue piece an inch narrower, a one-off drawn from scratch, or a whole dining room. Only the amount of drawing changes.

1. The first conversation

Ring 01449 710500 or send an enquiry. It helps if you can tell us four things: the piece, the timber, roughly the size, and when you would like it.

None of those need to be settled. Most people start with a photograph of something they like, a tape measure reading taken across an alcove, and a rough idea of colour. That is enough to work from.

If you already own a piece you are matching, say so at this point rather than later. Matching changes how we select timber and how we approach the finish, and it is much easier to plan for at the start. We can match furniture that is 100 years old to new reproduction purchases made the year before, and that is a large part of what we do.

We will tell you plainly if what you want is better served by a different form. A four-foot alcove with a radiator in it may want a potboard base rather than a cupboard. A table for eight most nights and fourteen at Christmas usually wants draw-leaves.

2. Timber and finish samples

Before anything is agreed, we post out timber and finish samples, free of charge. Ordering them commits you to nothing.

This matters more than people expect. Oak, cherry, mahogany and walnut photograph badly and look entirely different under a north light, a south light and a lamp at seven in the evening. Colour matching is judged against the real thing, in the real room, or it is not judged properly at all.

Put the samples against your floor, your walls and any piece you are matching, and leave them there for a few days. Look at them in the morning and at night. Then tell us which one.

Order free timber and finish samples, or ask for particular ones if you already know the direction. Character oak, pippy oak and timber selected for medullary ray can all be shown.

3. Drawings

A catalogue piece made to your size does not usually need a drawing. We work from the existing pattern, adjusted to your dimensions, and confirm the changes in writing.

A one-off commission does. Our designers draw the piece before anything is cut: elevations, sections and, where the detail warrants it, full-size setting-out of a moulding or a carved panel. You see the drawing and approve it before we start.

This is the stage to be difficult. A moulding is cheap to change on paper and expensive to change on the bench. If the cornice looks heavy to you, say so now.

Drawings also settle the practical questions that catch people out: how a leaf mechanism will run, whether a drawer will clear a skirting board, how a rack sits against a sloping ceiling, where the cable will come out of the back of a TV lift cabinet.

4. Quotation

We quote in writing against a specification: the piece, the timber, the finish, the dimensions, the ironmongery and anything unusual.

Catalogue pieces are priced in oak, cherry, mahogany and walnut. Character oak, pippy oak, timber selected for medullary ray, knot-free timber, colour matching and natural finishes are priced on application, because they take extra selection or extra polishing time.

Prices are quoted inclusive of VAT, and the quotation holds for 30 days from its date. If you want to compare two timbers or two finishes before deciding, ask and we will price both.

5. Deposit and terms

An order is confirmed by a signed acceptance of the specification and a deposit.

Deposit: 50 per cent of the quoted price, payable on order
Balance: due seven days before delivery
Payment methods: card, bank transfer, or against a Xero invoice
Prices: quoted inclusive of VAT

Because every piece is made to your specification, an order is not a stock reservation that can simply be released. Once a piece is in production it cannot be cancelled, and deposits are not refundable. Timber has been selected, cut and worked for your dimensions by then, and it cannot be sold to anyone else.

We would rather say that plainly than bury it. It is the standard position for goods made to order, and the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 exempt goods made to a consumer’s specification from the usual 14-day cancellation right. If something changes, tell us as early as you can and we will do what we sensibly can. Our full terms set out where you stand.

Once the deposit is received, the piece goes into the programme and we confirm the expected delivery window.

6. Making

Standard designs are typically ten to twelve weeks from order to delivery. A genuine one-off bespoke piece typically adds around four weeks to that.

These are typical lead times drawn from our own price list rather than a contractual promise. Timber selection, the length of the current programme and the complexity of a piece all move the date, and we would rather tell you that than quote a figure we cannot hold to. If you have a fixed date to hit, tell us at the enquiry stage and we will say honestly whether it is realistic.

What happens in that time is straightforward and slow. Timber is selected board by board for the piece it is going into, which is why a matched pair of doors takes longer than two unmatched ones. The carcase is made and dry-assembled. Doors and drawers are fitted individually to their own openings, which is why a Denbigh framework sits so precisely around them. Mouldings are run, carving is cut where the design calls for it, and turnings are made on the lathe.

Modern and sheet materials are used where they genuinely improve strength or hold a decorative element flat. We say so plainly, because it is a quality decision, not a compromise.

7. Finishing

Finishing happens in our own shop, which is the reason we can be held to a colour.

Polished, painted, limed, sand-blasted, rub-through paint and natural undistressed finishes are all done here, as is colour matching to a sample you send us. A colour match is built up and checked against your sample in daylight, not signed off under workshop lights.

Painted bases with pippy or standard oak tops, the signature Pendleton and Georgian treatment, are finished as two separate operations and brought together at the end.

8. Delivery and placement

We deliver, and we bring the piece into the room you want it in rather than leaving it in the hall.

Beds and large pieces are assembled on site. Packaging is taken away with us. Where access is tight, an access survey beforehand saves a wasted day for everyone. Full detail is on the delivery page.

Have the room clear and the position decided before we arrive. A refectory table is not a piece you shuffle about afterwards.

9. Afterwards

Solid timber furniture asks very little, but it does ask for the right things. Our care guide covers dusting, waxing, heat and moisture, humidity in a centrally heated house, and what timber does naturally as it ages.

If something is not right, ring the workshop that made it. One workshop designed, made, polished and delivered your piece, so there is one number and one point of responsibility.

The structure is guaranteed for as long as you own the piece: the frame, the carcase and the joints. Drawer and door fitting, ironmongery and finish are guaranteed for ten years from delivery. Our guarantee sets out the position in full.

Years later, we can still make the matching piece. The drawings stay with us.