A bespoke piece of furniture: how does it work?

Buying furniture in a shop, everyone knows how to do: you see the object, you know the price, you take it home. Bespoke turns all of that on its head: at the moment you commit, the piece only exists on paper. So my whole method serves one single purpose: that you know precisely what you will get, when, and for how much, before you pay anything at all.

Before the order: everything is free, nothing commits you

1. First contact. A call or an email. You describe the need, the room, what is missing in your day-to-day; a few photos taken on your phone are more than enough. I tell you straight away whether the project is within my skills and what order of magnitude of budget it sits in. At this stage, you decide nothing, and I sell nothing: I listen.

2. The visit and measuring up. I come to your home, free of charge. I measure everything: heights, plumb, angles. In an old house, no wall is straight, and that is precisely why standard furniture leaves gaps. Above all, we talk about real use: who stores what, at what height, what annoys you about the current furniture. This is often the stage where the project becomes better than the original idea.

3. The preliminary designPreliminary design: the intent drawing of the piece (layout, volumes, fronts) that the quote is based on, known as the avant-projet in French. The working drawings are made after the order. and the itemised quote. A few days after the visit, you receive a drawing and a quote broken down item by item: carcasses, fronts, hardware, finish, installation. Free, without obligation, valid as it stands. And since it is the question everyone wonders about without daring to ask: most of my pieces come in between €1,500 and €6,000 installed, and a complete kitchen built in the workshop starts at around €6,000 for a small single-wall kitchen. My detailed price ranges are in the price of a bespoke walk-in wardrobe and how much does a bespoke kitchen cost.

The gold-underlined words are explained on hover. All definitions are in the joinery glossary.

The order: drawings, samples, a deposit

4. Approval, based on something concrete. Before the build starts, you approve dimensioned drawings and real samples: you touch the timber species, you compare the finishes in the light of your own room, not on a screen. This is the moment to choose the species, the carcass material (I explain the options in solid wood, MDF or plywood), the shade, the handles, which way the doors open. Take all the time you need: this is the last stage where everything can still change at no cost. After that, the materials are bought.

Then the deposit, around 30%. It triggers the purchase of the wood and the fittings and reserves your slot in the workshop. At signing, I give you the installation date. Not 'sometime in October': a date. And it is kept. The balance waits until handover: you never pay the full amount up front. A project moves all the better when these decisions are made at that point rather than along the way; I talk about it in being a good client.

From the Gerde workshop to the handover at your home

5. The build, 4 to 8 weeks. The timescale depends on the piece: a run of straight carcasses does not take the same time as an alternating-tread staircase or a top in precious timber. During this time, you have nothing to do. If you like to follow along, I am happy to share progress photos, and the Gerde workshop can be visited: some clients meet their piece standing up, before finishing. The hardware that goes into your furniture, though, is not up for discussion: I explain why in hardware: what makes furniture last.

6. The installation, to the millimetre. One to two days for most pieces. I arrive with modules finished at the workshop; at your home, we adjust, fix and scribe flush against walls that are never straight, including in the corners reputed to be impossible, see fitting out under a sloping ceiling. If the project touches electricity or plumbing, wardrobe lighting or a kitchen sink, I coordinate the other trades: you keep a single point of contact. And I leave with my offcuts and my dust.

7. The handoverHandover: the moment when we check the finished work together, door by door, drawer by drawer. Known as the réception in French, it is what triggers the balance payment and starts the warranties running., together. We open every door, pull every drawer, adjust whatever needs adjusting. Tell me about the smallest detail that bothers you: this is the right moment, not in six months. Then you pay the balance. And if a door ends up rubbing as the seasons pass (wood is a living material), it is a ten-minute fix: call me.

A real example rather than a theory: the burr walnut changing table in my portfolio followed exactly this path. A call, a visit, an adjusted preliminary design (the height of the changing top, revised to spare the parents' backs), a burr sample approved in hand, a few weeks in the workshop, a morning of installation. The course is the same for a €1,500 bookcase and for a whole room of furniture.

My honest opinion: judge a workshop on two things you can verify before signing: the precision of the quote and the firmness of the date. The fine craftsmanship, the passion for wood, the love of the trade: everyone promises you those, and they cannot be verified. An item-by-item quote and a date in writing, in black and white, are rarer, and they can be checked from the very first meeting. The question 'when will it be installed?' is precisely the one that gets the vaguest answers in this trade; ask it before paying a deposit. With me, the answer is on the quote.