Furniture is a huge part of our lives. So it’s really no surprise that purchasing new pieces is a first thought when the time comes to fill or update our home. After all, furniture supports our daily rituals and routines, making it something we literally interact with on a daily basis. For some, it can stop there at solely being utilitarian — function over form. Purchase any old lamp from the big box store and it will give you light. Isn’t that enough?

However, interior designers and discerning home owners know that to create environments that support our needs for security, serenity, beauty, and comfort at the deepest levels, it takes something more than just mere utility.

And so, we turn to selecting items that define and beautify our surroundings with harmony, as well as offering functional utility.

This post aims to provide clarity by focusing on defining what custom furniture is and its benefits — benefits designers like myself find incredible value in. It’s that mindset that drives me to help our clients attain a home that’s not just beautiful and uniquely-tailored, but functional as well.

What is Custom Furniture?

Furniture falls any and everywhere along an incredibly broad spectrum. At one end, you have ready-made pieces pushed off the assembly-line and produced for the masses. At the other, 100% totally unique, one-of-a-kind, bespoke masterpieces. And somewhere along the middle, a wide range of semi-custom to custom luxury items.

“I also use this as an opportunity to remind clients that a successfully-designed home or room has many layers. Each of these layers need to work together in harmony. Furniture is just one of those layers that support an overall cohesive finished space. ”

— Amanda Croft, R.I.D. N.C.I.D.Q.

If you haven’t been through a full room design or whole home furniture project, you may not know what to consider when it comes to custom furniture.

You may have questions like:

What types of furniture can be customized?
How “custom” is custom?
Is custom furniture a good fit for my project?
Does everything in my project need to be custom?
How do I buy custom furniture for my home?

Throughout the design process, I help to educate my clients on each of the aspects of luxury fine furniture. Designing a full room furniture project or a whole home furniture project can be more than you might expect in terms of process. There is certainly more to consider than just aesthetics. It also takes an understanding of when and where to incorporate quality pieces in order to achieve a cohesive and overall well-balanced design.

What types of furniture can be customized?

I tend to think of these four main categories of custom goods when I begin working with new clients on a furniture project.

Custom Upholstery
Sofas, Sectionals, Lounge Chairs, Arm Chairs, Dining Chairs, Ottomans, Benches, Bed frames & headboards
Custom Case Goods
bookcases, dressers, night stands, armoires, cabinets, desks, credenzas
Custom Occasional
cocktail tables, sofa tables, end tables, accent tables
Custom Soft Goods
And, while not necessarily furniture, I find this fourth category one that needs attention being that these items support, or complement, the overall furniture and finished room design. This includes rugs, bedding, pillows, window treatments, and cushions (for built-ins like window seats, reading nooks, mudroom benches, bolsters, outdoor furniture, and pet beds)

How Custom is “Custom Furniture”?

This is a pretty broad question with an answer that depends on numerous factors including the client, the project investment & timeline, the designer’s preferred vendors, and the specific piece itself.

To give you an example, I recently prepared a furniture design presentation for a client’s living room. Each one of the multiple pieces of custom furniture had between 7-10 customization choices.

You can imagine that it gets complicated to keep track of all of those important details, especially across a large furniture design project. While that may be, it’s my professional duty and pleasure to remain diligent in taking every small detail into consideration regarding the design of your home.

Various back and seat test cushions from one of our custom furniture vendors, used to help find just the right sit for your sofa or chair.

To give you a sense of how deep the customization possibilities are, here are just some of the ways we can customize furniture for our clients:

Size Options (length, width, depth, height) or Made-to-Measure
Configuration (for example various sofa and sectional layouts)
Manual or power motion options
Seat and back cushion types and arrangements
Arm and leg styles
Pull style, finish and placement
Fabric Selections - Most vendors I work with offer hundreds of graded-in fabric and leather options as part of their standard offerings, instead of just a few solid colors.
Fabric location (multiple fabrics per piece, pattern centering and matching)
Trims (they come in every style, shape, size and color)
Metal, acrylic and glass finishes
Standard and premium wood finish choices

For some pieces, they are customized down to the smallest details such as custom drawer interiors; size, type and color of visible stitching; and nailhead size, finish, pattern and placement.

And if that’s not enough…

Italian Leather Sofa with Power Motion foot and head rests, custom stitching detail can use matching or contrasting thread in a variety of sizes.

There is also something called “Customer’s Own Material or Leather” (C.O.M. or C.O.L. for short). This gives me the ability to source and specify fabrics or leathers beyond a vendor’s standard, graded-in options. Additionally, completely custom color-matched paint finishes are available through some vendors. So, if you want a green night stand perfectly matched to your beautiful custom bedding and stunning window treatments, we can do that!

There are also custom designed and custom fabricated one-of-a-kind, bespoke pieces. These are totally unique, functional works of art. These statement pieces are often commissioned through skilled fabricators, artists, or sculptors. For the purpose of this post, we are considering these as free standing pieces, which would be different from custom millwork built-ins such as banquettes, shelving, or cabinetry.

Is Custom Furniture a Good Fit for My Project?

What are your goals for the space?

In my recent post, 5 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Furniture Project, there are several questions to help determine goals for any furniture project. I use these questions as part of an in-depth information gathering phase for each of my client's furniture design projects. Each question helps me to determine what goals my clients have for furniture in their home.

I also use this as an opportunity to remind clients that a successfully-designed home or room has many layers. Each of these layers need to work together in harmony. Furniture is just one of those layers that support an overall cohesive finished space. Other elements, such as the interior architecture, space plan, traffic flow, interior finishes, natural and artificial lighting, fixtures, artwork, window treatments and home automation must all be taken into consideration as well.

Benefits of Custom Furniture

There are several benefits to having custom pieces curated for your home, which include:

A high level of customization
An opportunity to create truly unique interiors
Bench made, artisan quality pieces
Extensive Fabric, Leather & Trim Options
Ability to repurpose/refinish/reupholster/reinvent vintage, iconic, and heirloom pieces

Read my related blog: How Much Does Cheap Furniture Really Cost?

Challenges of Custom Furniture

Although the benefits far outweigh the challenges, they need to be mentioned nonetheless. Some basic challenges include:

Longer lead times (because it is being made just for you and carefully shipped across the country or the globe)
“To the Trade” vendors (available to the public only via interior designers from exclusive design showrooms, direct vendor relationships or Market, typically not found via online retailers).
Complex orders with many details (our designer superpower!)

Does Everything in My Project Need to be Custom?

Swivel Arm Chair with custom contrast welting trim.

No, not everything in a furniture design project has to be completely customized. I encourage clients to “buy well” on foundational pieces, which I typically consider to be the larger, more permanent pieces in a space. These are the elements of the room that need to stand the test of time. For example, the sofa or dining room set. Other items that are on-trend for the times can be specified from more ‘stock’ products. These are the pieces in your home that can be rotated out as your tastes evolve. The knowledge and resources to curate a stunning space with items from both stock and custom options is another advantage of working with a professional interior designer!

I share 4 Steps to Making a Furniture Purchase You Won’t Regret in another recent post.

How Do I Buy Custom Furniture for My Home?

There are many routes homeowners can take to furnish their homes.

Some people choose to track down piece by piece on their own, based on products immediately available to them from local or online retail sources. This can be a good fit if ready-made items are what you are looking for and you have a LOT of time to devote to the process. Homeowners going this route take on handling the sourcing, selections, ordering, tracking, shipping, scheduling and being present for deliveries, assembly, damages/returns/refunds and packaging removal themselves.

Others find this level of research, detail, decision-making and time investment overwhelming. They prefer to work with a professional interior designer who guide them through a structured design process ending in a fully finished, well designed space. This can be a good fit if you want to choose from a uniquely curated design plan which gives you the best of what is available to a professional design team who then executes the project for you, handling every detail from start to finish.

This is where I come in!

Working with an Studio Croft to Furnish Your Home

Furniture design is one of Studio Croft’s full-service design offerings. Furniture design services are often part of much larger interior projects for my clients, such as new builds or renovations. Planning and budgeting for furniture before construction is key to a successfully designed room or whole home project that actually gets across the finish line. This is why I encourage all of our clients to work with us concept-to-completion.

I would love to put my insight and skills to use in helping turn your home into a luxurious, personalized and fully-furnished space that can be enjoyed both now and in years to come.

Ready to get started incorporating specially-curated custom pieces into your home for a breathtaking design?

Book a Discovery Call and we’ll talk!

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