When you order custom-made furniture from us you start the ball rolling on a unique building process. This process may take anywhere from 4 to 12 weeks.
While we always strive to deliver all orders as quickly as possible, it’s important for all of our customers to know our lead times for final delivery often depend upon a number of factors. While the following ones may not include everything we do, they are probably the ones that impact delivery dates the most.
The Batch Cycle…
Although we’re building more and more custom pieces of furniture nowadays, most of our business is still centered on hand-crafted farmhouse tables. We typically build all farmhouse tables that are currently on order in one batch. We do this because it’s much more efficient for us to select the proper number of high-quality boards for multiple tabletops at one time. Then we devote lots of space in our shop to planing and gluing them together. If we’re working on a batch cycle like this then we’re not building other pieces at the same time.
We normally build a new batch of farmhouse tables every 8 to 10 weeks. If you place an order just prior to the start of a brand new batch then we can usually fit your table into this new batch of farm table orders. If you place an order for a farmhouse table in the middle of a current batch cycle, however, then your table will be placed in cue to be built during the next batch cycle because the wood for the current batch has already been selected. That means, of course, your table won’t be completed until the end of the next scheduled batch cycle of farmhouse tables (in 8-10 weeks).
Doing things this way ensures that your piece gets premium attention, along with the best wood we have on hand for the job. We don’t rush any part of this process because, after all, we’re producing the highest quality custom pieces from re-claimed barn wood. All details in your piece, including exact measurements, are made to order. We’ve got to be very careful about what we’re doing. The table or other customized furniture you acquire from us is far different from some table sitting on a showroom floor at Pottery Barn that comes from a mass production factory in China.
Your Type of Design…
Some design types are easier to build than others. Certain shapes and/or styles are more labor intensive. A leg table, for example is easier to build than a trestle table. We’re getting many more orders for trestle tables nowadays and they add a little bit more time to those batch cycles.
We’ve built a few entertainment centers lately that have been custom-sized (with other custom features) in order to fit exact spaces in customers’ homes. A few have features such as bi-fold doors, which pocket and slide back into the cabinet, instead of folding outward. Intricate pieces such as this require exact dimensions and measurements before the building process can begin.
My husband, Michael, also creates detailed drawings for intricate pieces so we can consult with customers and make sure they’re getting exactly what they want. That requires a certain amount of time before the building process even begins. It’s also not uncommon for a customer to change one or two specifications before placing their order. Doing that often requires new drawings though, which adds a bit more time to the overall process.
The Size of Your Piece…
Some pieces simply take longer than others because of their large size. A big hutch or table, designed with precise specifications and measurements to fill a larger area, for example, requires a much higher degree of attention in order for us to handle all of its features. We also devote greater amounts of space in our work areas to build them. We don’t mind; we love creating large pieces. But we know from experience that products like this simply take longer to design and craft.
The Finishing Process…
After a table or other piece of furniture is finished being built, it comes into our finishing shop. At that point, I often take a snapshot of it and email the picture to the customer so they can see what it looks like before colors are added. An average table takes us about a week to finish. But then we really like for it to sit in our shop about a week afterwards so it can cure properly, prior to final delivery. As you can imagine, the finishing time for certain pieces is often longer, depending upon size and types of finish.
Custom Craftsmanship, Heirloom Quality Furniture
One aspect of the modern world many of us have come to enjoy is speed. We all get most orders for physical products fairly quickly today. I like this too … most of the time. Having us build a custom, heirloom-quality piece of furniture for you, however, isn’t that sort of “instant, push button” type of product. The time it takes for us to build hand-crafted furniture reflects its high value.
The time needed to design, build and finish your furniture is very small compared to the generations who will cherish it. Our long-time customers understand this. Putting a huge amount of work and effort into every piece of furniture is what we do every day.
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