Image 1 of 1
The drawing,
not the piece.
This is a design service. You buy the technical drawings and the specification, and a fabricator builds from them. It is worth being blunt about that, because the price here is the design and the cost of making the piece is quoted separately by the maker, based on your drawings, your materials and your country.
Solid oak and spray-lacquered MDF are not remotely the same number, which is why we do not pretend to quote it. What we can do is introduce a fabricator who will, anywhere in Europe, and the drawings are yours to take to three of them if you would rather compare.
What you receive
- Technical drawings of the piece, dimensioned to your space
- A materials and finish schedule setting out what it is built and faced in
- Enough detail for a maker to quote and build without guessing
- An introduction to a fabricator, if you want one
- Drawings that are yours, with no obligation to build with anybody in particular
What is not included
- Fabrication, which the maker quotes separately
- Installation, which the maker arranges
- A 3D visual, available as an add-on through our rendering service
- Structural work, or anything load bearing
- Kitchen cabinetry, which your kitchen company designs to its own system
Each design covers one piece of furniture. A bedroom needing a fitted wardrobe and a separate window seat is two designs, and the wardrobe would be Level 2 in any case. If you have several pieces in mind, get in touch and we will look at the set together rather than have you buy blind.
Everything low
meets the skirting.
It is the detail nobody anticipates and it decides how a low fitted piece looks. Skirting boards run around the base of almost every room, typically fifteen to twenty millimetres proud of the wall. Push a cabinet back against that wall and it does not touch the wall at all. It touches the skirting, and it stands off by the thickness of the board, with a shadow gap along the top that reads as a mistake.
There are three ways out and they are not equally good. Cut the skirting away where the piece sits, which is neat and permanent and a problem if the piece ever moves. Scribe the back of the carcass to sit over it, which is more work for the maker and the answer most joiners prefer. Or add a plinth that lifts the piece above the skirting entirely, which changes the proportions and has to be a decision rather than an accident.
Which one is right depends on the room, the skirting profile and whether the piece is meant to look built in or freestanding. It is precisely the kind of thing a technical drawing settles in advance and a maker otherwise resolves on the day, alone, in your house.
Accurate measurements of the space the piece sits in, including the skirting height and depth, and photographs from more than one angle. If there are pipes, a radiator, an electrical socket or a window reveal anywhere near it, we need those measured too. The design is built on what you send, and we cannot check a dimension we have not taken.
Height and walls,
not ambition.
Level 1 is for pieces up to one metre tall, against a single wall. Shoe cabinets, low media units, window seats, sideboards, benches with storage. The piece can be fitted around niches, pillars and pipe boxing, or entirely bespoke to your taste, and neither changes the level.
Over a metre, or a low piece that turns a corner onto a second wall, is Level 2. Taller pieces and corner runs carry more risk, need more setting out and take longer to draw, which is the whole reason there are two levels. If you are on the line, ask before buying rather than after.
Asked about Level 1 specifically.
Does the price include making the piece?
No. This is the design: the technical drawings and the materials and finish schedule. Fabrication is quoted by the maker and varies considerably with the material, the finish, the complexity and the country.
How does the payment plan work?
Fifty per cent on booking and fifty per cent one week later. It applies to purchases made through the website rather than to work we invoice directly, and the balance falls due while the design is still being drawn rather than on delivery.
Do I have to use your fabricator?
Not at all. The drawings are yours and any competent maker can quote from them. We introduce someone because finding a good fabricator in an unfamiliar country is genuinely difficult, not because the design depends on it.
How do I know whether I need Level 1 or Level 2?
Measure the piece you have in mind. Under a metre tall against a single wall is Level 1. Over a metre, or anything turning a corner, is Level 2. If it is borderline, ask us first and we will tell you which rather than let you buy the wrong one.
Can I see it before it is built?
Yes, as an add-on. A 3D visual is arranged through our rendering service and quoted separately. It is most worth having where you are committing to an expensive finish, and least worth it on a simple cabinet.
Do I need to be doing a room design as well?
No. Plenty of people come for one piece and nothing else. If you are designing the room too, running them together usually works better, because the joinery is drawn into the scheme rather than added to it, and our room packages cover that.
Will it definitely fit?
It is drawn to the measurements you send, with tolerances built in where the wall is unlikely to be true. What we cannot do is verify a dimension we have not taken ourselves, which is why the measuring step matters more here than almost anywhere else.
Not sure whether your piece is Level 1 or Level 2, or whether something off the shelf would do? Get in touch and we will tell you honestly, including when the answer is that you do not need a bespoke piece at all.
