Most people want their home to be a reflection of their personalities, especially when it comes to decorating their interior. Since furniture plays a pivotal role in developing the overall look and feel of a house, it’s something that merits special consideration. The biggest and most common debate concerning furniture is over custom vs. ready furniture. Should you go for a ready-made alternative or take it as an opportunity to show your creative side by opting for custom-made furnishings?
Custom, tailor-made, or bespoke furniture is one where you get to choose everything from the style and size of the piece to its colour and fabrics, ensuring that the furniture reflects your sense of style. Ready, factory-made or ready-made furniture is available in markets all over the country, which is often built in bulk to a default size, with colours and textures that are considered the most in demand.
While both forms of furniture have their own charm, this just might be a good a time as any to settle the matter for good. Below, we’ve listed some of the major factors that you should give a thought to while debating over
custom vs. ready furniture for your home.
Uniqueness and Customisation
If allowing your home to standout is the theme behind your decoration efforts, then ordering custom-made furniture will let you do just that. Custom furnishings are crafted as per your preferences, and they are one-of-a-kind creations. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the ready-made variety found in shops. Ready pieces are created in bulk. More often than not, you will find a similar, if not the same, furnishing in another person’s home as well, adding no uniqueness to your interior.
Customising pieces of furniture, particularly for storage, further allows you to optimise the space available indoors and use the colour scheme of your choice to coordinate your furniture. From the number of drawers you want in your dresser, to the number of shelves you want in your bookcase, you can make all the choices, keeping your storage needs and use in mind.
Quality and Durability
Most of us make a one-time expense on furniture and expect it to last for years. Well, custom designing your furniture ensures that you choose only the best raw materials to build the pieces, giving them a longer life. This is because factory produced furniture uses cheaper raw materials like plywood to make it more affordable and is basically made to be ‘disposable’ over time. Thus, the more your furniture is used, the sooner it’ll have to be replaced.
One thing to note here is that ready-made furniture is usually quite lightweight, to give it easier mobility. However, a downside to this is that it is more susceptible to damage and breakage as a result and will require a replacement earlier than custom-made furniture.
Size and Efficiency
The best part about bespoke furniture is that you can adjust its size to fit the space available in your home and room. From odd angles to small nooks and crannies, you can encompass them all by customising your furniture. In contrast, ready-made furniture, no matter how delicate or bulky it might be, is built to a standard size and cannot be modified once the piece is available for sale in the market. Thus, what you see is what you get.
If you want a bed that must be a few feet longer than the standard, well, you’re out of luck. Ready furniture is only available in sizes that sell the most. Thus, rather than optimising the space you have available, you might have to leave spare corners bare since you cannot fit the shelf or TV console into the gap. Customising works every time in such cases.
Cost and Worth
If you survey the market in any city of Pakistan, you will come to the conclusion that ready-made furnishings are far cheaper than their bespoke counterparts. This may also compel you to purchase that wooden bed you saw and loved in a particular store, rather than going through the trouble of custom designing one, but wait!
While a custom piece may cost more, it might be a lot more durable and worthy of that expense, especially when you compare it to a factory-made, store-bought alternative, since you really don’t know about the quality of the piece. If buying new furniture seems like too big an investment, you can always use some small hacks to give new life to your old furniture.
Speed and Ease
You’re in a hurry to style your home and move in. Well, ready-made furniture is your best bet then, since it’s readily available and can be delivered to you in a day or two at the latest. The ready alternatives win a point here because custom furniture not only takes a lot of creative designing and planning on your part but can also take a fair bit of time to build to your specifications. Those who have the time to spare should totally go for a custom piece of furnishing, but while custom furniture has a lot of pros, quick turnaround time isn’t one of them.
Additionally, nobody can deny the ease and convenience associated with going to the market and buying a statement piece you like and bringing it home, without worrying about whether you will be able to find a designer to replicate the look for you. Ready furniture offers a more natural alternative to people who prefer convenience over uniqueness for their interior décor.
Transparency and Finishing
If you’re worried about the raw materials used to build ready-made furniture, you’re right to be concerned. Often, low-quality materials are used to reduce the overall price of the piece. Thus, custom designing your furniture is one sure way to ensure better transparency in the overall manufacturing process.
When it comes to the finishing of custom vs. ready furniture, factory produced pieces often use poor quality fabrics and prints that are extinct in today’s time. Customising your piece can allow you to choose your own prints and fabrics for the furniture as per the style you want in your home. Ready-made versions also use any ornaments and fittings that are available at cheaper rates in bulk. From wheels to handles, you cannot rely on the quality of the accessories and finishing of the piece. In contrast, with a custom-designed alternative, you get to choose fancy drawer handles, durable wheels, and other finishing touches that give your piece a unique and extravagant look that is unique and a reflection of your personality.
The above considerations should help you decide between custom vs. ready furniture since both have their own merits. Ultimately, the choice depends on which factors matter to you the most. If you want unique and durable furniture that fits your room perfectly and has a high-quality finish, you should go with a custom design. If ease and convenience is your priority with a quick turnaround time at a lesser cost, opt for ready-made alternatives.
Aside from custom vs. ready furniture, the other big debate is on whether to choose wooden or metallic furniture for your home. Remember that your home is a reflection of your personality and therefore, you need to style it as per your preference.
For more tips on how to style your interior, please follow Zameen blog, Pakistan’s best lifestyle and home décor blog.
