From sketch to installation: how a custom piece actually gets made

Commissioning custom furniture feels opaque from the outside: you describe a piece, weeks pass, furniture arrives. Here is what actually happens in between, and where your decisions matter most.

1. The consultation

We start with how you live, not what you want to buy. Who uses the room, at what times, doing what? The best briefs come from complaints, like “nobody sits in that corner” or “the drawer always jams,” because complaints are precise.

2. Measuring the space

We measure walls, sills, skirtings, sockets, door swings and floor level (floors are rarely level). For fitted pieces this survey is the difference between built-in and merely placed.

3. Design direction

You get drawings (plan, elevation, and where useful a 3D view) plus honest talk about trade-offs. This is the cheapest moment to change your mind, and we encourage it.

4. Materials and finishes

Fabric, wood, veneer and hardware samples in your home’s own light, because showroom lighting lies. We finalise the palette only after you have lived with samples for a few days.

5. Crafting

Frames are joined, foams layered, veneers matched. For complex pieces we share progress photos at key stages. Clients particularly enjoy the skeleton stage of a sofa.

6. Quality check

Every piece is assembled and inspected in the workshop before delivery: doors aligned, drawers cycled, finish checked in raking light.

7. Delivery and installation

Our own team delivers, installs, levels and walks you through care. For fitted furniture, scribing to your walls happens here, the step that makes a piece look grown rather than bought.

The full step-by-step, with typical timelines, lives on our process page.