Furniture
Furniture
Genuinely bespoke Scottish furniture, designed and made specifically for you and your home.
The process of commissioning bespoke furniture is a special collaboration between client, designer and maker which results in a truly unique piece. It can seem quite daunting at first — the clients are investing their time, money and hopes in a piece of furniture that has never been made before. The designer has to respond to that trust and to be sensitive and perceptive to the client’s needs, aspirations and tastes as well as considering the final location of the furniture. The maker has to realise the design and with long years of experience, understanding of timber and patient workmanship, bring the design to life.
And every customer is quite different. Some are looking for very cool and sophisticated furniture while others want durable practicality. Some may want a very organic design — full of natural curves and wild grained timber — while others need a design that compliments the traditional integrity of a period home. We really take the time to listen carefully so we can arrive at a design that looks fabulous, performs perfectly and brings delight to our clients.
Beautiful Bespoke Furniture — How Much Does It Cost?
Most people expect that bespoke furniture will cost more than mass produced furniture – the real question is how much more? Twice as much? Three times as much? The answer of course is... it depends...
The short answer – Several times the cost of mass produced furniture. Here are some (very rough) estimates.
Beds £4,000 to £9,000
Dressers £8,000 to £12,000
Dining Tables £4,000 to £9,000
Coffee Tables £3,000 to £5,000
Designing and making bespoke furniture is unavoidably more expensive than mass production. Each piece that we make is designed and made for one client only.
We make our furniture very well and there’s a cost to that. We use high quality materials, we joint everything together properly, we use fabulous local hardwoods and we spend a lot of time getting the finish just right. To build bespoke furniture to a high standard takes many hours of concentrated work.
We also spend a lot of time over the design – and not just at the drawing board. We will prepare full size templates and often make full size 3D models to ensure the design works well before we start cutting into our stocks of precious timber.
The cost of our furniture reflects more than just the time and the materials required to produce it. It takes many years of patient work to gain the skills and experience required to work with a demanding timber like native Elm. We have a huge stock of fabulous timber and selecting just the right piece of timber for each component does take time but results in furniture where the colours and grain patterns flow harmoniously.
When we prepare a quotation for a piece of our furniture we need to take a complex mix of different elements into account – design requirements, selection of materials, construction techniques, hardware, cabinetmaker’s time, type of finish, delivery and installation.
Of all these elements, it is the maker’s time that is the most significant so the original design usually has more influence on the cost than the size of the piece or the type of timber selected.
The quantity required also influences the cost. It’s more economical to produce several similar pieces than to make them one at a time.
So when a client first asks us how much a particular piece of furniture will cost the initial answer usually is... it depends...
However, following a discussion on the different design possibilities, timber choices etc. we can provide an initial sketch with a range of possible costs. After further discussions we will finalise the design and provide a fixed price quotation.
To see an example of a recent quotation for a bespoke display cabinet, please click here -
Because of the individual nature of the process, it’s not appropriate to compare the costs of bespoke furniture with the costs of mass produced furniture purchased from an on line store. We are offering a completely different product and a completely different experience.
So we’re not in competition with the High Street at all - commissioning a custom made piece of furniture should be seen as collaboration between the maker and the client. It should also be a bit of an adventure which results in a very special piece of furniture – a unique investment, made especially for you.
A Recent Furniture Project
To illustrate our process and the kinds of bespoke furniture we design and create for our clients, we have included sample quotation and drawing below for this project we completed recently.
Click the buttons below to view the sample documents (some minor details redacted) and Contact Us for more information on bespoke furniture design and build.
Furniture Showroom Visit
The first step for most customers is a visit our showroom at our Cairntradlin Workshop. Here we have examples of some of the different styles and materials that we work with as well as a database of images of previous furniture projects. Visitors to our showrooms are usually shown around the workshops and we try to communicate who we are and what we do.
Some clients have quite a fixed idea of what they are looking for while others are looking for our guidance. In either case, it is our job to interpret your requirements and to create something uniquely personal to you.
And every customer is quite different. Some are looking for very cool and sophisticated furniture while others want durable practicality. Some may want a very organic design – full of natural curves and wild grained timber while others need a design that compliments the traditional integrity of a period home. Our job at this stage is to listen carefully so we can arrive at a design that works well for the individual client.
We will spend some time looking at the different timbers available. As well as considering the different species we will also look at different grades of timber. We will often use quite wild grained wood in our furniture but some designs work best with plain grained timber.
We will also look at the different finishes available. A spray applied, satin sheen lacquer is very durable and practical but sometimes a hand rubbed oil finish feels more appropriate. We can also make furniture with a beautiful hand painted finish.
At this point, we will normally discuss the timescale and the budget for the furniture and give an indication of our likely charges.
Scale Drawings & Quotation
We will produce scale drawings of proposed designs — usually featuring a small range of possible options and individual costs for each.
These drawings are a great step forward in the process, but they don't mean that the design or costs are 'set in stone' — quite the opposite. This stage is often a starting point for further discussion and refinement.
At this stage, we can provide the client with an initial quotation for the whole scope of work, to help give a broad idea of the price range.
Plywood Templates, Design Refinement
If the customer decides to proceed, we normally prepare full size plywood templates of the proposed design, bring these to the customer's home and place them in situ. This really helps our clients to see the actual scale and proportion of the furniture. Templates also help us to make fundamental design / scale adjustments before we begin the actual furniture construction.
Now that we're at an advanced design stage, we'll usually be able to provide a fixed price quotation — of which we'll require a deposit of around 20%. For some larger projects, we'll often also require a midway payment during the construction process.
Furniture Construction in Workshop
Furniture Construction in Workshop
Building the furniture can often take between two and six weeks of workshop time. We build everything here at our Cairntradlin Workshop and our clients are always welcome to visit and view progress at any stage.
We often encourage customers to visit prior during the timber selection stage to help with choosing the degree of character in the wood.
Upon completion of the bespoke furniture, our cabinetmakers will deliver and install your furniture. The final payment will be required post-installation.
Fingask Tables - Version 2
Whisky Tasting Table
Floating Oak Cabinet
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Wood furniture pieces designed for customers, to date
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Years of furniture design experience
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Varieties of wood to choose from
FAQs
The size and complexity of furniture projects will dictate the length of the process, but allowing 3 months at least is a wise estimate.
For reference, a 'typical' project timeline would be:
Week 1 — Showroom visit, discussions, agreed direction
Weeks 2-3 — Scale drawings, initial quotation, customer consideration
Weeks 3-4 — Plywood template construction, in situ visit, design refinements, fixed quotation
Weeks 5-10 — Job added to workshop queue, furniture constructed in workshop, client approves prior to finish
Week 11 — Completion of furniture and installation
We can and do source many different beautiful timbers from across the world but we prefer to use what grows right on our doorstep –Oak, Ash, Sycamore and Elm from the farms and estates of Aberdeenshire.
While we will certainly show new customers various examples of prior work to help provide ideas or illustrate our own suggestions, we make everything on a fully bespoke basis.
Every part of every furniture piece (except minor mechanical aspects like drawer runners) are made from scratch, not chosen from templates or bought in.
We design, produce and construct every piece of furniture here in our workshop at Cairntradlin, Aberdeenshire. We never outsource work or import template parts.
Get in Touch
Got some ideas and want to discuss them further?
Visit our Contact Us page to enquire and we can start the conversation.