Bespoke Furniture

Our bespoke furniture service

Just for you

Commissioning a bespoke handmade piece of furniture is a hugely rewarding process, resulting in a uniquely tailored piece of furniture for your home or design project. Custom-made furniture is made to your specific aesthetic, material and size requirements, with little to no compromise. Struggling to make a roomful of visually disparate elements work? The right bespoke piece can bring it all together.

A personalised process

Our collaboration begins with a detailed brief, which feeds into Edward’s initial design and sketches. Once we start the manufacturing process, we’ll keep you updated throughout. You can even visit the workshop to check on the project yourself! Finally, we’ll arrange delivery, typically by Edward or the lead cabinet maker on the project themselves.

A sculptural walnut bespoke coffee table in a room with a glass top and vase of yellow roses
A detail of a bespoke chest of drawers in a room

What is bespoke furniture?

Rather than buying an existing product, bespoke furniture means you commission us to develop a new design that meets your exact requirements. We collaborate with you to create a piece of furniture that reflects your character, lifestyle and aesthetic. We are biased, but we believe having the right furniture significantly impacts, and improves, the way you live.

Read our step-by-step commissioning process below.

How long does it take to create a piece of bespoke furniture?

Design

It is crucial to allow sufficient time for this essential stage. We typically allow 2-6 weeks for the design stage, but this can be longer depending on the project’s complexity and time spent aligning both parties’ diaries.

Manufacture

This is largely dependent on the type and complexity of project and can vary from 2 weeks up to 16 weeks or more. We often include specialist materials in our projects, which adds further time for managing the build in conjunction with our sub-contractor’s schedule. We will always give you a detailed timetable and schedule for your specific project once we have enough information.

A bespoke chair and side table in a room with a vase and flowers

Commission: Step-by-step

  • Brief

Edward has prepared a series of questions to help glean as much information as possible about your hopes and expectations for the commissioned piece of furniture. We don’t expect you to have all the answers; Edward is available to discuss the elements you’re unsure of.

Please fill in your email address to download Edward’s questions:

Please note your email will NOT be used for marketing purposes. Privacy Policy.

Hands sketching on paper
An example of a design sheet of a dining table laid out on a desk
  • Design

Once the brief is established, Edward starts designing, putting his sketches and inspiration onto a design sheet. We charge a non-refundable £750 design deposit at this stage for development time and to secure workshop production time. The deposit is deducted from your first instalment.

Edward will share the design sheet with you via email, accompanied by a cost estimate, so you can digest the design and costs before discussing it in further detail in person or over the phone. We continue to work on the design until you are 100% happy with it and will provide a fixed quotation for your approval.

  • Budget

Before proceeding with manufacturing, we issue an invoice for the first instalment. The final instalment is always due on delivery of the finished piece.

  • Manufacture

Once you’re happy to proceed, we start the manufacturing process. We encourage you to visit the workshop at any stage of your project to see your piece being made and experience first-hand our methodologies and craftsmanship. Please contact us to make an appointment.

A handheld router being used in the workshop
Close up of hands inserting silver maker's mark into furniture
  • Finishing Touches

As the project nears completion, we will get in touch to ask where you would like Edward’s silver maker’s mark inlaid into the piece of furniture. If your piece has an oil finish, we would love for you to come to the workshop and apply one of the finishing coats of oil. Along with being one of the most pleasurable parts of cabinet making, it will give you the confidence and knowledge you need to look after your furniture for years to come. Of course, if time or distance is an issue, we fully understand.

  • Delivery & Installation

Once we are completely happy with the finish and every part of the project meets our own exacting standards, we will arrange delivery with you. Typically, Edward or the lead cabinet maker on the project will deliver your furniture in person. On small to medium installations, the makers who built the furniture in the workshop typically carry out the fitting service. We subcontract larger installations to a dedicated fitting team who we know and trust to carry out the work to the same high standards we expect of ourselves.

Craftsman's hand oiling a small bespoke side table
  • Aftercare

Edward is always available to discuss your aftercare needs. We provide an aftercare oiling service where we come to your property to lightly sand and re-oil the piece of furniture. You can book this online. Alternatively, you can purchase an aftercare kit, which has everything you need to do the job yourself. Give Edward a call if you’d like to talk through the process first. If your piece is lacquered and the finish has been damaged, we will either call on a local restorer and provide them with all the information they need to carry out the repair or we will strip and re-lacquer the piece in our workshop.

Commission: Step-by-step guide

Edward has prepared a series of questions to help glean as much information as possible about your hopes and expectations for the commissioned piece of furniture. We don’t expect you to have all the answers; Edward is available to discuss the elements you’re unsure of.

Please fill in your email address to download Edward’s questions:

Please note your email will NOT be used for marketing purposes. Privacy Policy.

Hands sketching on paper

Once the brief is established, Edward starts designing, putting his sketches and inspiration onto a design sheet. We charge a non-refundable £750 design deposit at this stage for development time and to secure workshop production time. The deposit is deducted from your first instalment.

Edward will share the design sheet with you via email, accompanied by a cost estimate, so you can digest the design and costs before discussing it in further detail in person or over the phone. We continue to work on the design until you are 100% happy with it and will provide a fixed quotation for your approval.

An example of a design sheet of a dining table laid out on a desk

Budget

Before proceeding with manufacturing, we issue an invoice for the first instalment. The final instalment is always due on delivery of the finished piece.

Manufacture

Once you’re happy to proceed, we start the manufacturing process. We encourage you to visit the workshop at any stage of your project to see your piece being made and experience first-hand our methodologies and craftsmanship. Please contact us to make an appointment.

A handheld router being used in the workshop

As the project nears completion, we will get in touch to ask where you would like Edward’s silver maker’s mark inlaid into the piece of furniture. If your piece has an oil finish, we would love for you to come to the workshop and apply one of the finishing coats of oil. Along with being one of the most pleasurable parts of cabinet making, it will give you the confidence and knowledge you need to look after your furniture for years to come. Of course, if time or distance is an issue, we fully understand.

Close up of hands inserting silver maker's mark into furniture

Once we are completely happy with the finish and every part of the project meets our own exacting standards, we will arrange delivery with you. Typically, Edward or the lead cabinet maker on the project will deliver your furniture in person. On small to medium installations, the makers who built the furniture in the workshop typically carry out the fitting service. We subcontract larger installations to a dedicated fitting team who we know and trust to carry out the work to the same high standards we expect of ourselves.

Edward is always available to discuss your aftercare needs. We provide an aftercare oiling service where we come to your property to lightly sand and re-oil the piece of furniture. You can book this online. Alternatively, you can purchase an aftercare kit, which has everything you need to do the job yourself. Give Edward a call if you’d like to talk through the process first. If your piece is lacquered and the finish has been damaged, we will either call on a local restore and provide them with all the information they need to carry out the repair or we will strip and re-lacquer the piece in our workshop.

Craftsman's hand oiling a small bespoke side table

We can design and make any piece of bespoke furniture. Here’s a selection of what we can offer…

Budgeting for bespoke furniture

We appreciate the budget is a sensitive aspect of commissioning bespoke furniture. Edward is experienced at working to his clients’ budgets. He will always offer a fixed quotation with the final design so you can proceed with confidence. Throughout the design process, he manages the complexity and specification of the project according to the budget, spending his time, and your money, on the elements that are most important to you.

Cost & value – The cost of our bespoke furniture can be broken down into three parts. Materials usually make up 20-30% of the total cost. The remaining budget covers cabinet-making hours in our workshop in Bosham, delivery and, where appropriate, installation.

The value of a commissioned piece of furniture, however, extends beyond materials and time. Here’s what else you can expect when you commission bespoke furniture from us:

• An personable service throughout and after the commission
• A limited-edition or one-off design
• A beautifully crafted piece of furniture tailored to your requirements
• The opportunity to meet and get to know your furniture designer and craftsman
• Expert advice during and after the project
• Access to a high-quality aftercare service for years to come
• A future collectable heirloom, marked with a prestigious silver maker’s mark

Premium – The cost of bespoke furniture varies depending on not only the type of product, size and materials used, but also the design complexity and hours required to make it. It is this time we dedicate to developing and prototyping that sets a custom piece apart from a readymade one of similar specification. As a result, commissioning a bespoke product will always cost more than buying ‘off the shelf’.

As standard, we take the view that a bespoke project may go onto form part of our limited-edition collection. This helps spread the cost of research and development time. If you wish your bespoke design to be truly unique, we offer an exclusive service for an extra cost.

Yes. Establishing a budget early on helps set realistic expectations for everyone involved about what can be achieved within the design. Based on past projects, we can provide budget guidance for your project.

Please note the price of a bespoke piece of furniture is fluid until we have a design sheet with which to accurately cost. The proposal will be accompanied by a fixed quotation so you are fully aware of the costs before proceeding with manufacturing.

Occasionally, designs are developed independently from a guided budget, and we focus on delivering on form and function parameters, only costing the design when finished. If you are happy with this organic, open-sided approach, then a budget doesn’t need to be set at the start.

Design Deposit: A non-refundable £750 deposit is required before we can start any design work.

Instalment Plan One – Orders up to £10,000 including VAT: two instalments of 50% (minus design deposit), before manufacturing and upon completion.

Instalment Plan Two – Orders over £10,000 including VAT: three instalments of 33% before manufacture (minus design deposit), 33% during production and 34% upon completion .

A full payment schedule will be outlined in our quotation.

Useful Guide Prices

  • Blanket Chests or Linen Chests: from £4,000
  • Chairs: from £2,000
  • Chaise Longue: from £10,000
  • Chests of Drawers: from £6,000
  • Coffee Tables: from £3,500
  • Desks: from £5,000
  • Dining Tables Non-extending: from £4,500
  • Dining Tables Extending: from £7,500
  • Media Cabinets: from £4,000
  • Side Tables: from £2,000
  • Sideboards: from £5,500
  • Stools: from £1,500

Crafting innovative furniture for inspiring people

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Bespoke Guild Mark logo
Society of Designer Craftsmen logo
Sussex Guild logo