For many people the idea of bespoke work means it’s going to be prohibitively expensive, it’s true that to commission a craftsmen to make a single item is likely to cost more than a factory producing hundreds of the same product, this isn’t just because it will be made by hand, it’s also because by making just one a lot more care and attention can be applied to the piece. Contemporary furniture isn’t all about shape size and colour, good furniture will always be about construction quality and detail, you can see the furniture that’s going to end up in a skip long before, it’s in the details and what it’s made of, at the other end of the scale where you can see contemporary furniture that has been laboured over and produced with love it’s difficult to imagine it being dumped, or replaced with something newer, well designed and well made furniture will outlast the changes in fashion, the trend for Danish 60’s sideboards is a good example, good design from 40 plus years ago looking right at home in contemporary interiors, so much so that many production pieces are clearly inspired by the designs of the past.
Once you start to look at high quality furniture and avoid cheap composite materials like chipboard and mass manufacture surfaces like laminates and foil wraps the difference in cost between bespoke and production is very slight, in some cases as I’ve quoted before, “we are still not as expensive as B&B Italia” a high end designer furniture supplier. If you want good quality products then they come from companies that know how to make them, and be wary of quality ranges, where there’s a budget and a high end option, often the high end pieces are made exactly the same way with contemporary styling, this doesn’t represent modern furniture or modern furniture design only current trends and the idea that’s what’s new costs more. If you look at the prices some of the antiques command they have held or increased their original costs, justifiably so, they’re normally very well made, beautiful and represent the style of the time with the designer and makers own personal touch, it’s difficult to imagine these traits being applicable to some of the furniture available from the larger retailers today.
Today’s antiques were once contemporary, if they’re still around today and desirable it’s because they were well designed and well made, this is still true for contemporary furniture, but modern mass production technology doesn’t lend itself to individually tailored items, most pieces will be designed from a price backwards, that is to say what price would the majority of customers pay for a dining table, this is not an ideal starting point, assumptions about the customer and their home are the opposite starting point to our process, a bespoke piece from Couture hasn’t started until one of our designers has met you and seen where the piece is intended to go. The mass production design route includes easy installation, this will enivitably mean design compromises, because a piece from Couture is made and installed by the same craftsmen you can expect something perfectly fitted, no compromise. The best design is not always about using all the space and fitting the furniture, with freestanding pieces the principles of good design and fabrication are the same, for instance a dining table from us may well cost several thousand pounds but what you get is a piece of modern furniture that has been personally and perfectly made, something of interest and not just an item that is available for purchase to anyone, it will have something of you ingrained in it and will last a lifetime.