We have furniture made in London, drawn by our own interior designers and built by Cochrane Bespoke, our joinery partner. Pieces are sized to the room they are going into, and matched to what is already in the scheme.
Having furniture made is worth it when you have a specific requirement and cannot find it ready made. It is also how a house ends up looking like one scheme rather than five shopping trips. The same fabric can run through the curtains, the cushions, an ottoman and a pair of armchairs, which is difficult to arrange off the shelf.
Furniture that fits the layout
Ready made furniture comes in set sizes and you make do. A made piece is drawn to the room: the designer and the client work out what actually fits the plan, the circulation and the sightlines. A narrow room gets a small scale piece that works in it. A large room gets something with enough presence to hold a corner.
Function decided by you
The fabric, the number of drawers, the style of the cabinet doors, a hidden niche for something specific. All of it is decided before anything is cut, in accordance with how the room is actually used.
Where the piece is going matters too. A desk for a home office and a console for a hallway are built differently even when they look similar, because one takes weight all day and the other takes a set of keys.
Every element chosen
Shape, style, colour, timber, upholstery fabric and even the type of stitching are agreed between the client and the team before manufacture. That is what bespoke means, and it is the reason the finished piece looks like it was always meant to be there.
One of one
Because the piece is made to a drawing for one room, there is not another one. Sometimes the differences from a catalogue piece are small. The small differences are the point.
If you would like something made, tell us about the room, or call the studio on 020 7731 6841.
Published 24 April 2020. Written by the NU Projects studio, edited since for house style and accuracy.