Bespoke Furniture Design
We draw it.
A maker builds it.
Bespoke joinery exists because the room will not cooperate: a chimney breast in the wrong place, a niche two centimetres off square, a ceiling that slopes, a wall that is not the wall you thought it was. Fitted pieces solve that where nothing off the shelf can, and they only work if somebody has drawn them accurately first.
That drawing is what we sell here. You buy a furniture design, we produce the technical drawings and the specification, and a fabricator builds from them. Two separate costs, and it is worth being blunt about it: the price on this page is the design. What the piece costs to make is quoted by the maker, based on your drawings, your materials and your country.
Height and walls,
not ambition
The two levels are separated by the physical job rather than the quality of the outcome. Taller pieces and pieces that turn a corner carry more risk, need more setting out, and take longer to draw. Each purchase covers one piece of furniture.
| Level 1 | Level 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Height | Level 1: Up to 1 metre | Level 2: Over 1 metre, or up to 1 metre if it turns a corner |
| Walls | Level 1: A single wall | Level 2: Up to two adjoining walls |
| Typical pieces | Level 1: Shoe cabinet, low media unit, window seat, sideboard, bench with storage | Level 2: Fitted wardrobe, tall storage, floor to ceiling media wall, larder, alcove units |
| Fits around | Level 1: Niches, pillars, pipe boxing and other structural constraints | Level 2: Niches, pillars, pipe boxing and other structural constraints |
| Fully bespoke to your taste | Level 1: Yes | Level 2: Yes |
| Covers | Level 1: One piece of furniture | Level 2: One piece of furniture |
Everything a maker
needs to quote from
- Technical drawings of the piece, dimensioned to your space
- A materials and finish schedule setting out what it is built and faced in
- A 3D visual, available as an add-on where you want to see it before committing
The drawings are the deliverable and they are yours. Take them to the fabricator we introduce you to, or to one of your own, or to three of them for comparison quotes. Nothing in the package obliges you to build with anyone in particular. If you would like the 3D visual added, it is arranged through our rendering service and quoted separately.
Introductions anywhere
in Europe
Once the design is finished we put you in touch with a fabricator who can make it, wherever in Europe the home is. They work in wood and in steel, they quote you directly, and the contract for the making is between you and them. We are not marking up their work and we are not standing between you and the person building your wardrobe, which means you can ask them anything and get an unfiltered answer.
No wall in an old building
is straight
Measure an alcove at the skirting, at waist height and at the ceiling, and in a period apartment you will often get three different numbers. Walls lean, plaster builds up in corners, floors run away from you by a centimetre or more across three metres. It is why a wardrobe ordered to a single width measurement arrives with a tapering gap down one side, and why fitted joinery is drawn with scribe margins built in: a deliberate strip of extra material at each end, cut to the actual wall on site.
It is also the honest argument for a technical design. The drawing is not decoration. It is the thing that tells the maker which dimension is critical, where the tolerance lives and which face has to be perfect.
Sometimes the answer
is a flat-pack
Bespoke is not automatically better, it is better in specific circumstances: an awkward space, an unusual height, a run that has to look built in, or a piece that genuinely does not exist to buy. Where a standard unit fits the space and does the job, buying the standard unit is the right call, and we will tell you so rather than sell you a drawing you did not need.
If you are unsure which situation you are in, that is a good question for a design consultancy hour, and a cheaper way to find out than commissioning the design first.
What people ask before booking
Does the price include making the furniture?
No. The price covers the design: the technical drawings and the materials and finish schedule. Fabrication is quoted separately by the maker, and varies considerably with the material, the finish, the complexity and the country. Solid oak and spray-lacquered MDF are not remotely the same number.
Which level do I need?
Measure the piece you have in mind. Under a metre tall against a single wall is Level 1. Over a metre, or anything that turns a corner onto a second wall, is Level 2. If you are on the line, ask us before buying rather than after.
Can one purchase cover several pieces?
No, each covers one piece. A bedroom needing a fitted wardrobe and a separate window seat is two designs. Get in touch if you have several pieces in mind and we will look at the set together rather than have you buy blind.
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 sourcing a good fabricator in an unfamiliar country is genuinely difficult, not because the design depends on it.
Can I get a 3D visual of the piece?
Yes, as an add-on. Ask for it when you book and it is quoted alongside the design. It is most worth having on large pieces where you are committing to a finish, and least worth having on a simple cabinet.
Do you design kitchens?
Not kitchen cabinetry, no. Kitchen manufacturers design to their own carcass systems, so a kitchen company will do that part. Individual pieces around a kitchen, such as a larder, a bench or a run of shelving, are exactly what this service is for.
Does this work if you are not designing my whole room?
Yes. Plenty of people come for a single piece and nothing else. If you are also doing the room, it usually makes sense to run the two together so the joinery is drawn into the scheme rather than added to it, and our room packages cover that.
What about the rest of the furniture in the room?
Bespoke pieces are for what cannot be bought. Everything that can be bought is better sourced than commissioned, and our procurement service handles the ordering and delivery of that side, with our trade discounts passed on.
Our level 1 package is suitable for
Low pieces of furniture to fit perfectly in a space that has structural constraints such as niches, pillars etc in it’s proximity or low pieces of furniture completely bespoke to match 100% client’s requirements and taste.
Our level 2 packages is suitable for
Tall pieces of furniture (over 1m in height) or a low piece of furniture ( up to 1m in height) developing on up to two adjoining walls to fit perfectly a space that has structural constraints such as niches, pillars etc in its proximity or tall pieces of furniture completely bespoke to match 100% client’s requirements and taste.
