Should you get custom or ready-made furniture?

Seeing displays of beautiful furniture might entice you to just grab one for yourself to decorate your living room. Indeed, when it comes to ready-made furniture, you get exactly what you paid for and you have the liberty to inspect the product before giving it a new home. On the other hand, you could also let your creative mind wander and customize your own set of furniture that is suited to your space and style. This might create some sort of dilemma for you, so, to ease the decision-making process, here are some factors you should consider before deciding on customized or ready-made furniture!

1. Lead time

In most cases, customized pieces will require longer lead times. This is because you have to research into the materials you want, the dimensions that are suitable for your home, the pattern or specific shade, etc. This is not to say that ready-made furniture is simply a walk through the store. Although, that is perfectly fine as well. If you want a really thorough search, you may have to visit different stores to compare prices and nuances in design, or even scour the internet for similar items overseas. Nonetheless, customized pieces do take more time because of the levels of complexity involved in the entire process.

2. Specificity of your design

Nowadays, furniture comes in all sorts of designs and styles. Furniture stores often cycle through the trends so if you like something that is currently in trend, ready-made furniture is definitely the more convenient choice. However, if you have a completely novel idea that maybe combines science-fiction with Victorian details, that might be a little hard to find so you may want to opt for a customized piece.

3. Quality

In stores, what you see is pretty much what you get. And if it isn’t, you can always ask for a refund that is usually free-of-charge. If you’re worried about the quality, you can always ask staff about the water or heat resistance of the materials to determine its durability. Alternatively, you could simply look up reviews of the furniture online to get a good gauge of its value. However, customized furniture have no historic catalogue and hence, you may not get exactly what you asked for, or, the lifespan may be shorter (or longer) than expected. In any case, ensuring you get talented craftsmen can help to prevent this issue. 

4. Space

Do take a proper look at the space in your home! The biggest downside to ready-made furniture is that you can’t change its size. Make sure you measure the spaces in your home, as well as the furniture you intend to buy, to ensure that they complement well. This saves you a lot of time and prevents disappointment!

5. Sustainability

A concern over mass production and ready-made furniture is the sustainability. If this is a major consideration of yours, customized furniture gives you greater control over the use of sustainable and eco-friendly materials for your furniture. However, there are stores and brands that have sprung up in recent years promoting sustainable furniture such as: WTP Furniture, Creuse, Soul and Tables, and, Mountain Living which are worth taking a look!