How much does custom furniture cost? | What is the value of Fine handmade furniture?
A quick Google search of the question will lead to hits from various aggregators that will give you an range of arbitrary numbers. A blog post from Colorado furniture artist Brian Benham tries to answer the same question (see Brian’s post here), giving a range from $500 - $10000. Brian does a good job of explaining the details and resources that go into custom furniture.
What is the proper direction to take with custom furniture?
But to be provocative, is it really the right question? Is custom furniture a transactional decision or a lifestyle investment? What monetary value do you place on your time? Is efficiency of your effort important? What about the price of living for years with something you like, but don’t love?
Perhaps the better question is, “What value can custom furniture bring to my lifestyle?”
Then the transactional question that follows is, “What am I willing to invest to achieve that value?” The answers, of course, are different for each individual, each family and each circumstance.
Handmade furniture looks and feels like nothing else.
For all the reasons that Brian so nicely lays out, custom furniture usually, and should, cost more money than furniture from a box store or online retailer. More resources go into the making of that piece. Trying to quantify the precise costs become exercises in futility, as custom furniture, is, by definition, unique. Thus, costs are dependent on the details. And the details matter.
If you are willing to invest in getting the return for the way you live then fine handmade furniture is for you. It is not for everyone.