We know that the decision to buy a custom wood table can be as intimidating as it is exciting. There are a lot of decisions to be made, and you may not be familiar with what the different options are, never mind which is the right one for your situation. Wood species, finish types, base styles, even just size – there’s a lot to think about. That’s why our design process is all about laying out options, considering pros and cons, and clearly communicating what’s, well, on the table.
We get inquiries from people at all stages of the process. Sometimes we’ll get a message with a photo of a table saying “I want this table, in this size, in this wood, with this finish.” That’s great, and it makes for a streamlined design process and a quick turnaround. We also get inquiries from people who know they want a table, and haven’t really made any more specific decisions than that. That’s fine too, because the whole nature of custom furniture is that our clients get to design their own pieces from the ground up, with our experience and expertise providing the guardrails.
The basic questions to be answered are relatively simple. What will the table look like? What size will it be? What sort of wood is it made from? What type of finish will we use? Straightforward enough, but each of these questions has numerous potential answers, and our clients may or may not be familiar with what those answers are. It’s our job to clearly describe the options, and to communicate the pros and cons of each.
We’re committed to client-led design, ultimately because the furniture is going to live in their home, not ours. It needs to look right to the clients’ eye. We like to say that the clients should be the gas pedal, and we’ll be the brake. That is, we’ll only step in to substantively change the design when experience tells us that the project is moving in a direction that ultimately won’t benefit it. Too little stability, for example, or a table that doesn’t allow enough space for people to move around the room. We’ve learned these lessons from building countless tables, and from paying careful attention to how furniture interacts with the room it’s in. Our clients don’t have that experience, and we don’t expect them to. It’s why we’re here.
What, then, do you need to know when you reach out to us about a project. Really, just that you want a piece of beautiful, custom furniture built by committed craftsmen – we can get the rest of the way together. It’s nice, though, when people come to us with an image of a table they really like and want to emulate. It doesn’t need to be that we’re making an exact replica of that table, but it’s helpful to be able to point to specific elements you like in the piece. Whether it’s color, shape, base design – having a concrete reference point is always helpful. Knowing the rough size of the table also speeds things up substantially. If you don’t know specific dimensions, that’s fine; we can start by thinking about how many people the table should seat. Having the dimensions of the room also helps, because we want to think about how the table relates to the room. We don’t necessarily need floor plans, just the size and layout of the room itself.
Once we have this information, we can start things like working up ballpark quotes, which we’ll hone as the design of a given table reveals itself, as it always does. That’s it then: come to us with as much information as you have, and we’ll help you get a table that will become an heirloom. It’s what we do every day.
