Custom Furniture: The Comprehensive Guide

Custom furniture is the ultimate experience. In your home, or your commercial space—custom designed furniture is a tone-setter for how you and your guests will feel when interacting with the piece. At Southloft we have designed and built numerous one-of-a-kind piece of furniture for our clients. Equipped with that experience, we’re here to demystify this ambiguous topic. This is everything you should consider before you design your unique custom furniture.

Custom dining table for residential client featuring a unique pedestal base design.

Budget

Budget is always the first step when beginning custom furniture projects—and for good reason. Every following process will ultimately come back to what your budget is. This can change everything from final dimensions of your piece, the types of materials we use, and how much functionality and customization we can build into your final product.

Custom furniture has a reputation of being overly-expensive, but this isn’t always the case. Sometimes custom furniture just means a simple build that needs to fit the exact size of your space. It could also mean a straightforward design with a finish to match the rest of your furniture. On the flip-side, custom can be as elaborate as you dream it to be. It simply comes down to your budget, and your vision.

If your budget doesn’t allow for all the extras that go into some custom work don’t worry. We have ready-designed furniture solutions that reduce the starting cost, but are as quality as the most expensive piece. See our products here.

Geometric design storage unit for restaurant.

Inspiration

Typically inspiration is the process that comes easiest to our clients. You may see some bar stools at your local eatery that catches your eye or a dining table online that you know would look amazing in your home. Whatever the case is, having some inspiration upfront always will help us speed up the process going forward.

There isn’t a right or wrong way to provide us with inspiration. Anything from a select group of images, or an online reference will suffice.

Custom media console built for clients home. This piece utilizes walnut hardwood and metal finished in black.

Your space

One of the most critical things to consider is where your custom furniture is going to live. What are the dimensions that will make it feel just right? What temperature lighting do you have? There are many factors to consider when it comes to your space and how it will impact your new custom furniture.

Testing accurate samples in your space is important when considering how the final product will look. We provide customers with material and finish specific samples in order to ensure that you love what you’re getting when you build with SouthLoft.

Functionality

Custom conference table with power outlet functionality.

Functionality is always a consideration with our custom pieces, but not a requirement. Anything that can make this piece work harder for you and serve more purpose is always a bonus. Some examples of extra functionality could include storage, power strips, custom lighting and electrical, upholstery, functional materials (whiteboards built into the table).

Customizing your custom furniture

Dining table at Musume customized to include an epoxy filled inlay of a Japanese woman.

Making your custom piece yours is what it is all about. Some of the ways we can accommodate that are metallic inlays, split-top tables, custom finishes, mixed materials for aesthetic contrast, and artistic elements.

Upkeep & maintenance of your custom furniture

When it comes to the longevity you can be assured that a piece of custom furniture from SouthLoft is going to last the test of time. However, there are some considerations to be aware of before you decide on your final design and finish.

One consideration is how much daily use your piece will get. For daily use pieces like dining tables, a matte finish will hide any imperfections that might occur over time—whereas a gloss finish will highlight imperfections.

Another consideration is cleaning products used on your piece. Chemically abrasive products can ruin the finish of your piece. We recommend simple soap and water mixes to make sure the protective layer lasts the lifetime of your custom furniture.

In conclusion

Our design team consulting with a client on their custom furniture piece.

If you are ready to jump into the fun of designing your 1-of-1 piece we are too. Click here to contact us. Be as detailed as possible and we will contact you with next steps! We look forward to making your vision come to life!