Custom Furniture Pricing: How Much It Costs and the Factors That Influence It

Talking about money in the design world can feel uncomfortable. Especially when it comes to custom furniture. But understanding what’s behind a custom piece and what value it brings helps make better, more informed decisions.

Custom furniture isn’t just a purchase, it’s a collaboration between design vision, what material enables, and where craftsmanship can take us. Each furniture piece is its own story, shaped by the many decisions made along the way. Retail brands design for volume, efficiency, and cost reduction. A custom studio designs for quality, precision, and longevity. In this article, we explain the key factors that influence cost.

Why People Invest in Custom Furniture

Despite supply-chain challenges and post-pandemic instability, the custom furniture industry grew steadily over the past five years by 3.1% (B2B US market). And the projected CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) is between 8.1% and 12.05% from 2023 to 2032. So why are more people choosing custom furniture pieces over typical furniture at an increasing rate?

Because custom pieces solve problems mass-market furniture can’t. They offer better scale, better materials, better craftsmanship and they age into the home instead of aging out of it. Designers also turn to custom work when they need precision: exact dimensions, tailored finishes, functional engineering, or aesthetic harmony that off-the-shelf items simply can’t deliver.

When you commission a custom piece, you’re not simply paying for furniture. You’re investing in a one-of-a-kind object designed to suit your space, your style, and your story.

The Artistic Director for Hermès, Pierre-Alexis Dumas, captured it perfectly in an interview. “Our work is not expensive, our work is costly.” Costly refers to the actual price of making an object properly with the required level of attention and quality materials. Whereas expensive describes a product that costs a large sum of money but fails to deliver the expected quality or value.

How We Price Custom Furniture

Each project we take on is unique, but there are several key elements that influence cost. Let’s break them down.

1. Design & Development

The design phase is where ideas take shape. Literally. This stage involves consultation, sketching, digital modeling, and refinement. For some projects, it’s as simple as interpreting a designer’s vision into construction drawings. For others, it’s a full design collaboration involving prototypes, finish samples, and structural problem-solving.

The time invested here ensures the final piece is not just beautiful but functional, proportionate, and tailored precisely to the space it’s meant for.

This phase may include:

• Design consultation
• Sketches / 3D modeling
• Construction drawings
• Prototyping
• Finish samples
• Engineering or structural problem-solving

2. Materials

The materials you choose have a major impact on both the look and cost of a piece. The price of wood varies widely depending on species, thickness, and grade. Locally sourced white oak, walnut, and ash are staples in our work, chosen for their stability and beauty, but specialty species, bookmatched veneers, or imported hardwoods can add unique feel.

Beyond wood, many of our pieces incorporate stone, metal, glass, and leather, each sourced from trusted suppliers who share our standards for quality and sustainability.

Mappa Burl Side Table for bespoke Inn

3. Craftsmanship

This is where the soul of the piece comes to life. Every curve, carve, and joinery detail is made by hand in our studio in Barrie, Ontario by skilled craftspeople who bring decades of combined experience to the bench.

Custom furniture isn’t about speed. It’s about precision. A single piece may take days or weeks of hands-on work, including shaping, assembly, sanding, texturing, and finishing. Our makers balance the precision of modern machinery with the touch of traditional craftsmanship to ensure each piece meets the standard we’re known for.

This phase may include:

• Milling, shaping, joinery
• Hand detailing
• Assembly
• Sanding and surface prep
• Finishing

4. Finishing

The finish is often what separates good furniture from great furniture. It’s also where much of the labour is hidden. Adam often says “Sanding is 50% of woodworking.” And that’s no lie. Creating the perfectly smooth surface before apply finish is a crucial step.

Simple finishes, like clear oils, bring out the natural grain and warmth of the wood. More complex finishes such as multi-layer coatings, custom stains, or carved textures like the Naguri patterning used on our Whisky Credenza require multiple stages of preparation, application, and curing.

These details are time-intensive but essential to achieving the level of refinement expected in high-end interior design.

Whisky Credenza

5. Operations & Overhead

Behind every project is a professional studio equipped to produce exceptional custom work. Running a woodworking business involves more than tools and timber. It includes tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in machinery, the maintenance to keep them running, space, insurance, training, power, dust collection, finishing facilities, and safety systems.

For many pieces, our work doesn’t end in the studio. Larger installations such dining tables or beds require on-site assembly. We handle the planning, transportation, and installation with our own crew to ensure the piece is delivered safely and set up exactly as intended.

Our tools & infrastructure:

• Industrial machinery
• Industry leading dust collection to ensure the highest safety of our employees
• Insurance & certifications
• Software and design tools

Custom Furniture vs Retail Furniture

Custom furniture naturally sits at a higher price point than mass-produced alternatives. But it also offers incomparable value. Retail pieces are often made from particle boards, which is material made of wooden scraps held together using glue: a material that is harmful to health. Thus furniture is built for volume, not longevity. Custom furniture, by contrast, is built from solid materials, designed to last, not to harm the human health, and to be repairable if ever needed.

There’s also an environmental argument to be made: local production, local materials, and responsible sourcing dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of a custom piece. Rather than shipping flat-packed furniture from overseas, we create heirlooms right here in Ontario: pieces meant to be passed down, not thrown out.

Final Tips

Because every project is different, there’s no universal formula, but here are a few practical ways to approach budgeting:

• Start with a design conversation. The earlier you involve the maker, the more flexibility you’ll have in aligning design and budget.
• Focus on your statement pieces. Investing in a dining table or console that anchors a space often makes more sense than spreading a budget thin across multiple smaller items.
• Plan ahead. Lead times for custom work typically range from a few weeks to several months depending on complexity.

The Takeaway

Custom furniture isn’t about luxury for its own sake. It’s about making something properly with solid materials, thoughtful design, and skilled craftsmanship. When a piece is built with intention from start to finish, it performs better, lasts longer, and becomes part of the home in a way off-the-shelf items simply can’t match.

At Pompous Fox, every project is shaped by care, precision, and a commitment to doing things the right way. Not the quick way. Each table, credenza, or bed that leaves our studio is the result of true collaboration between designer and maker: something personal, enduring, and genuinely one of a kind.