We all want everything whenever we can get it, and of course, we want it for the best price possible. Granted there are pundits out there who are altruistic and claim to want merely the simple things in life, but when it comes to choice, we all love choice.
Choice can be a blessing and a curse when it comes to interior design and I am speaking specifically about custom furniture and millwork. It’s kind of like salivating over a new car brochure with all those tasty options available with those not so tasty premiums. Auto manufacturers have our number, as most of us are afraid of missing the boat; needing supple leather seats or the “Bluetooth-GPS-drives itself” technology designed to make the driving experience the best it can be!
The same principle applies to things in our homes that we believe we’ll either use extensively, or simply covet. Granted, great furniture pieces can indeed make or break a room, but are you really going to pull apart that triple-leaf dining table as often as you think? Whenever I am asked to design a custom piece of furniture, I cringe a little, knowing that expectations and costs can be difficult to manage. A one-off piece of furniture usually involves designing from scratch, requiring detailed drawings, custom stain samples or a site visit, an additional cost of the designer’s time. All this effort is certainly feasible for most designers, but time is money and the premium for a custom piece can be substantial.
When it comes to custom design, a premium over what can be purchased off the shelf is necessary and like the final quote of that slick German sedan, the sticker shock shouldn’t really be that much of a shock.
