Skip to content
Commissioning furniture means paying a significant sum for something that does not exist yet, on the strength of a conversation. These are the questions worth asking, and what the answers tell you. Some of them we would rather you asked us.
Do you make it, or do you have it made?
The first and most useful question. A great many companies selling bespoke furniture are designing it and placing it with a subcontractor, sometimes abroad. That is not dishonest, but it changes everything about lead times, revisions and what happens when something is wrong.
Ask where the workshop is, and ask whether you can visit it. A maker will say yes without hesitating.
Will you draw it before I commit?
Nobody can price bespoke furniture properly without drawing it, and nobody should ask you to commit without showing you what they have understood. If the answer to this is vague, the quotation is a guess.
We draw every commission twice — once in CAD, which is what you see and approve, and again at full size as a rod on the bench, which is what the piece is actually made from. The second drawing is the one that catches the mistakes.
Who does the finishing?
More pieces are ruined at the finishing stage than at any other, and finishing is the first thing a busy workshop sends out. A maker with its own polishers can match a colour, correct one that is wrong, and repair the piece in ten years. One that subcontracts is dependent on somebody else being still in business.
Can you match something I already own?
The honest answer is a qualified yes, and the qualification tells you a lot. Matching means selecting timber for grain and colour, copying mouldings properly rather than approximately, and building a finish by eye against the original. Anyone who says yes without asking to see the piece has not understood the question.
What is the lead time, and what happens if it slips?
Twelve weeks is a normal figure for a made-to-order piece; sixteen when a workshop is busy is honest rather than alarming. A quoted four weeks should make you suspicious, and so should a maker who will not confirm a date in writing.
Ask what happens if it slips. The answer you want is that they will tell you early.
Questions that sound good but are not
- “How many years have you been established?” Useful, but a young workshop with good people beats an old name that has been sold twice.
- “Do you use traditional joints?” Almost everyone will say yes. Ask instead to see a drawer out of a finished piece.
- “Is it solid wood?” Better to ask where it is not — a good maker uses sheet materials in a cabinet back or a long shelf on purpose, and will tell you why.
What to look at rather than ask
Pull a drawer right out and look at the back of it, and at the runner. Look at an inside corner, where nobody photographs. Look at how two pieces of the same timber sit together in daylight. Look at the underside of a table top.
None of this requires expertise. Careful work looks careful in the places nobody was going to see.
On price
The cheapest quotation is usually cheapest for a reason, and the dearest is not automatically the best. What you are looking for is a figure that comes with a drawing, a specification and a date. A number on its own tells you nothing.
There is a fuller piece on what bespoke furniture costs, with real starting figures, if you want to calibrate before you speak to anyone.
Before you decide
Ask for samples. Any maker working in solid timber should be able to send you the actual material and the actual finish, and most will refund it against an order. If they cannot, ask why.
Ours are £10 each, £30 for all four timbers and £50 for the full colour range, all refunded — order them here. And if you want to see the workshop at Mickfield, ring 01449 710500 and come and look.