Commissioning custom furniture: a homeowner's guide
How furniture makers price their work, what to agree before the first cut, and how to commission a piece you'll keep for decades.
Commissioning furniture is a different transaction from buying it. You're not choosing from what exists — you're agreeing on something that doesn't exist yet, with a maker who'll spend days or weeks of bench time building it. That's exciting, and it's also exactly why the details need nailing down before any timber is cut.
Done right, a commissioned piece fits your space perfectly, outlasts anything flat-packed, and can be refinished decades later. Done loosely, it's a deposit paid against a vague sketch and a delivery date that keeps moving.
What a furniture maker actually does
A custom furniture maker designs and builds one-off pieces — dining tables, bedside tables, entertainment units, sideboards, bookcases — to your dimensions, timber choice and finish. The process usually runs: a conversation about what you want, drawings or sketches with dimensions, a firm quote once the design is agreed, then the build and a hand-applied finish.
The trade sits next to a few adjacent ones. Cabinet makers specialise in built-in joinery like kitchens and wardrobes; a furniture maker builds freestanding pieces. If your piece is fixed to a wall or built into an alcove, you may be in cabinet maker territory. And for repairing or recovering an existing piece, an upholsterer or restorer is the better call.
What custom work tends to cost
Pricing is per piece and reflects design time, materials and hand work — not just the timber. A small, simple piece in solid timber typically sits in the hundreds to low thousands, a made-to-measure hardwood dining table in the low-to-mid thousands, and large statement pieces with drawers, doors and detailed joinery climb well beyond that.
Timber is the biggest material lever: Australian hardwoods like blackbutt, jarrah and messmate cost more than pine or veneered board, and recycled timber carries a premium for the sorting and de-nailing behind it. Curves, drawers and complex joinery add bench time; hand-rubbed and two-pack finishes add more. All indicative — a firm price comes after dimensions, species and finish are agreed.
Choosing your maker
No licence applies to furniture making, so the portfolio is your evidence. Ask to see past work in the same timber and finish you're considering — photos are fine, touching a finished piece is better. A maker's existing range is also a value option: adapting a design they've built before costs less than a fully bespoke commission with drawings and revisions.
The commercial side should be plain before you commit: a written quote with dimensions and materials specified, a realistic timeline, and deposit terms. A deposit of 30 to 50 percent is normal for custom work because the maker is buying materials for a piece only you want — but it should sit against a written agreement, not a text message and a handshake.
Mistakes to avoid
Custom furniture disputes are almost never about craftsmanship — they're about mismatched expectations that were never written down. Every bullet below is a conversation that costs nothing before the build and a lot after it.
- Paying a deposit against a verbal description instead of a drawing with dimensions
- Not measuring doorways, hallways and stairs the finished piece must travel through
- Choosing timber from a photo — species and finish look different in real light
- Leaving delivery and installation unpriced, especially for large or built-in pieces
- Comparing a maker's quote against flat-pack prices as if they're the same product
- Skipping the conversation about timeline slippage and what happens if the date moves
Indicative range only, not a quote — see the full guide for worked scenarios and what moves the price.
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