Designing your Custom made Furniture

So you’ve realised you can’t find the furniture you want on the High Street and you are ready to invest in some quality custom made furniture. Now what? How do you turn what you are looking for  into a beautiful bespoke design? While Inglish Design of Harrogate, are experts at interpreting your ideas, the more you can tell us, the easier the design process will be. So here are our tips to developing a great bespoke furniture design.

The interior space.

As it is bespoke furniture it can be custom made to measure by our cabinetmakers. So think about the room where the furniture will go. Should the furniture be made to measure the space available or be free standing furniture. Is the furniture a permanent fixture or is it furniture which at some point you may wish to move. Renovations, extensions, even moving house can change the space you have to work with in your home. Consider how flexible and adaptable your furniture may need to be if you move or adapt your home. Does the furniture need to be designed to fit an existing space or do you want it to be freestanding furniture so that you have flexibility to move things around. Is the furniture a permanent storage based solution or is it a centre piece providing a focal point to the room. Are you using the furniture to meet a requirement such as a fitted bookcase to store books, or a cupboard to store toys. Consider the proportions of the room, how big should this piece of furniture be, make sure it does not overwhelm the space or make accessing or moving around the space difficult.

How will it fit in with the rest of your interior?

A piece of bespoke or custom made furniture is a special purchase. People often have so many ideas and expectations for a piece of furniture in terms of function that they forget its aesthetics,  so end up with a piece that looks out of place with the rest of their interior. Equally, there is no point creating a co-ordinating piece of furniture if it does not provide you with other benefits in terms of storage and purpose. You will have your bespoke piece of furniture for a long time.  Often creating something that feels timeless rather than something that follows the latest design fads will ensure you don’t fall out of love with your custom made furniture. Opting for a style which is general and not to specific will also mean that should you move house you can take the furniture with you and hopefully it will suit your new home as well.

What type of furniture designs and designers do you like?

While you might not be able to find exactly what you want ‘off the shelf’ there may be particular aspects that you like that can inspire your own bespoke creation. Keep pictures of things you like and write down what you like about them to explain exactly what you want from your own furniture design. Don’t base everything on high street furniture you may have seen, remember bespoke furniture gives you the ability to custom design the furniture both inside and out. So for example you may have seen a sideboard which has the right look externally but only provides storage on a single shelf internally – the furniture does not have to be like this. We can make drawers, divisions, and custom made storage. So think about how you can use the furniture rather than simply how it looks !

Consider your lifestyle.

Lifestyle is a word commonly used in the world of interiors at the moment, and while it may not seem like an obvious thing to consider when looking at furniture which is bespoke, but successful kitchen and furniture design should take into account basic aspects of your life as well as the interior. Children grow up, leave home and even come back. They may even one day have their own children in tow. Your family will continue to change. Furniture doesn’t always have this luxury. Consider the functionality required from your furniture – and what functionality you may require in the future. Will storage be a priority? Do you expect space to ever be an issue? Will it need to withstand the boisterous of young children? Think about the type of property you live in, if the furniture is fitted think of it in such a way that it will add value to your home. For example playroom furniture  can be designed so that fitted cupboards are added into alcoves, this is a great way to maximize storage. Living room furniture should perhaps perhaps build the television into furniture and provide storage for DVDs and cinema equipment. Bespoke fitted furniture will definitely add value to your home, so although you may not take it with you when you move house it will certainly help you sell your home. Awkward spaces such as attic spaces and hallways can have furniture made to measure by Inglish Design utilizing every inch of space while not making the interior look crowded. Many homes today lack storage so bespoke furniture can be a real bonus in alleviating this problem.

Remember: the possibilities are endless.

When you are used to buying furniture ‘off the shelf’ it can be easy to forget the power and potential of good interior design and craftsmanship. At Inglish Design of Harrogate, we utilise excellent craftsmanship, and design expertise to make almost any design dream a reality. Don’t feel limited by the standard pieces you are used to seeing, they should be used only as a starting point, inspiration to make you consider what you really want from your furniture.

So if you have a requirement for a bespoke furniture design or for furniture which needs to be custom made to suit your needs or your home interior, contact Inglish Design. We have a showroom which displays all sorts of handmade kitchens and furniture,  and we offer a FREE DESIGN SERVICE for all of our furniture and kitchens  in the Harrogate area.