Custom dictates

Custom dictates
PHOTO: Custom dictates

AS people become more houseproud, getting furniture off the shelf doesn't cut it anymore. Customisation is the latest decorating trend as homeowners work with interior designers to create bespoke pieces.

Cynics might dismiss bespoke as a euphemism for getting a carpenter to make you a chair in a certain size, but not quite.

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"Bespoke furniture entails customisation, but it also allows clients to work with a designer for his needs and wants," says Yang Tah Ching, founder of Studiorigins, an independent design studio providing product design services with a focus on furniture and interior accessories. "The resulting piece will be unique and personal."

Designers who offer bespoke furniture services are mostly in the interior design industry, so they are able to visualise how a bespoke piece will fit into the client's homes.

It is, however, a more tedious process than picking furniture in a store. Since they are one-of-a-kind, clients need to have some idea of the design they want and where they want to put it.

It also takes more time.

Mr Yang has designed a few bespoke pieces for his clients and says the process can sometimes take from three months to even a year.

Factors such as the time taken to confirm a design, creating a prototype, sourcing for materials and production will affect how soon a bespoke piece is completed.

And be prepared to pay a premium too.

Designers often charge a design fee for their services, depending on the complexity, and making it will cost more since the manufacturer is often producing just one piece.

Design Intervention

www.designintervention.com.sg

INTERIOR design firm Design Intervention is known for transforming blah homes to wow ones, but the business actually started as a bespoke furniture firm.

"That was how I started nearly 10 years ago," says principal Nikki Hunt.

"It was only several years later that clients began asking me to help with full interior design and architectural projects."

Today, bespoke furniture remains one of its core business.

Ms Hunt cites several reasons for homeowners to go the bespoke route, top of the list being scale. Most high-end furniture is designed for European homes which are larger than those in Singapore.

Comfort is another reason. Ms Hunt says that most furniture brands manufacture for their main market, so a table that is the right height for a tall European, will be uncomfortable for smaller-framed Asians.

"We are often asked to design a family sofa that must fulfil the needs of a group of multi-sized people. As designers, we consider the needs of the largest and the smallest individual. We also design the appropriate cushions with the correct fillings which not only provide decorative appeal but function as added support for family members," says Ms Hunt.

When getting a designer to create a bespoke piece, the more detailed the brief the better.

"If it is a table, I will need to know the number of guests that the table will need to accommodate. Is the table for daily use, or more for special occasions or entertaining? This helps me choose the right material," says Ms Hunt.

While there's no fixed length of time for completion, Ms Hunt says it's important to understand that the process will take time.

"Often we make a sample or a prototype to be certain of the proportions. The artisans also need time to understand a new design," she says. "Bespoke furniture is not a process that should be rushed if you want the best results."

How much a bespoke piece will cost depends on the amount of time involved in coming up with the design, the materials involved and also the number of different production processes.

"If I am making a silver leafed table with mirror insets, then I will need to coordinate the carpenter who makes the frame of the table, the glass-smith who cuts and polishes the mirror and the silver leaf specialist," says Ms Hunt.

Her bespoke pieces are all made in Singapore. She has tried, in the past to use cheaper suppliers in Indonesia or Malaysia but "I need to be present during the manufacturing process to check, guide and often to tweak the design," she says.

"By manufacturing in Singapore, there is better control of the process and assurance of the quality of the product."

Some of the items that she has designed for her clients include a 3m-long sofa with a dragon print, for $7,800, as the client wanted a statement piece.

For a home in Sentosa, Ms Hunt designed a pair of wall lights, made from stainless steel. "The sea air can be corrosive and many materials will discolour under such extreme conditions," she says.

The firm not only produces bespoke furniture and lights but can also specially design softer items such as rugs. "A rug can instantly transform a space by adding life, colour and pattern like no other element in a designer's arsenal," she says.

Ms Hunt's favourite reason for bespoke furniture is that "finding pieces that are unique and different is almost impossible. By creating something truly original, I can give a personalised signature to a home."

Paris Home

23 Binjai Park

www.parishomeonline.com

WHEN Michelle Wong was shopping for her home some years ago, she fell in love with French-style furniture and paid "lots of money" for it.

Then it struck her - maybe her husband's family, who owns a furniture factory in Indonesia, could make the pieces for her.

Ms Wong left her job at an events company, and now runs a department at the factory, specialising in bespoke European-styled furniture, such as Baroque and French.

She can also do pieces in the Hotel and Hollywood Regency styles. The latter has a slight threatrical feel to its pieces. She started Paris Home in 2007, and sales have been doing well six months into the business.

Bespoke European styled furniture is hard to find in Singapore she says, explaining her business's success. "Most of the local craftsmen do carpentry work and if they do bespoke pieces, it is usually Oriental style," says Ms Wong.

Interested customers can either give her a picture of the furniture style they want, or pick from the many samples she has on the website.

She can draw up a new design, but "I'll still need a point of reference as a starting point." It can be as simple as the ornate carvings on a picture frame, which Ms Wong can translate onto the frame of an armchair.

She not only customises the pieces according to the client's sizes and colour selections, but is able to transform items as well.

"For example, if you see a picture of an armchair you like, but want it as a sofa, that can be done," she says. "Or if you like a side table, but want to turn that into a desk or a cupboard, it can be done too."

She draws up the pieces and then they are manufactured at a factory in Jepara in Central Java, a region known for its furniture industry, notably teak furniture.

Ms Wong has 15 full-time staff making the bespoke French style pieces. The factory also produces Indonesian-style furniture.

"The craftsmen there all have many years of experience and they can produce a piece of furniture just from a photograph or illustration, down to the last detail," says Ms Wong.

As there is no middleman involved and the company has its own manufacturing plant, Ms Wong is able to keep her prices low. A bespoke side table costs about $270, an L-shaped sofa about $1,600 and a four-door cupboard is $2,000.

There are additional charges for more detailed customisations, such as changing the carvings on the cabinet handles.

Only solid mahogany and teak wood are used to make the pieces. Since she has her own factory with no need to rely on other manufacturers, waiting time is only about two months.

Her clients are mainly Singaporeans in the 26 to 40 age group, with a sprinkling from Vietnam and China.

Over the years, she learnt that Singaporeans refrain from the distressed look for their furniture, as "it is harder to match with the decor". Her clients stick instead to solid colours such as gold and silver, in both matte and glossy finish.

Lanzavecchia + Wai

www.lanzavecchia-wai.com

SINGAPOREAN designer Hunn Wai, one-half of Lanzavecchia + Wai will have you know that a bespoke piece of furniture is more than going to a carpenter and asking him to make a chair.

"Try asking a carpenter to do a bespoke piece and count the number of times he will say "this cannot be done" or "it can only be done this way"," says Mr Wai, who runs the firm together with Italian Francesca Lanzavecchia.

He adds: "The limitations of employing only woodcraft or metalwork, as opposed to having a richer material palette available, via a designer's experience and knowledge of material and manufacturing technologies is what makes bespoke furniture so special."

Mr Wai admits the firm has yet to design any bespoke pieces for local homeowners, but he assures he can do it.

"We have contacts for craftsmen and artisans in Italy, from fine carpentry, bronze casting, fine metal work and marble sculpting."

The firm does not have a particular style of furniture design, but rather "we allow the zeitgeist and our interests, such as in cultural anthropology, to inspire us," says Mr Wai.

Their pieces may not be found in homes yet, but the duo have produced some unusual works.

Among them include a ping pong dining table produced for lifestyle concept brand Mein. This is an official-sized game table with a Corian surface, that comes adorned with computer-engraved French Rococo details filled in with gold lacquer. In the middle of the table, a long rectangular vase filled with dainty blossoms doubles as a game-net and a table floral arrangement.

Another recent project is a series of limited edition carpets which they designed for Nodus, an Italian carpet company.

The designs on the carpet are that of insects which have been mutated by radiation. The carpets are hand-made by Nepalese craftsmen from natural dyed wool and bamboo silk. Should a client want their own carpets designed by the duo, they can do it too.

"Depending on the piece, it could be made in Nepal, various places in Italy, Singapore, Indonesia, depending on the production capability or craft required," says Mr Wai.

But before the product can be made, the designers will need input from clients, such as personal habits, or a fondness for certain possessions.

"We would also probe the client for keywords that evoke a certain mood or atmosphere he wants. After which we can begin to define the archetype, the size, the semantics, aesthetics and material choice for the pieces," says Mr Wai.

As with most other bespoke designers, the length of time and cost to complete a piece will depend on the complexity, availability and cost of materials.

Mr Wai says bespoke pieces are worth the while.

"A bespoke piece is by definition unique and hence personal. Unlike a mass produced item from the store, bespoke objects are unfettered by the demands of mass production, the buyer will own the purest form of creative expression from the designer and workmanship from the craftsman, par excellence."

Su Misura

www.sumisura.asia

WHEN a client asked for an illuminated storage unit that would incorporate a hidden side table that swings out, a curved bed head and an organic shaped study desk, Angela Lim, creative director for interior design firm Su Misura, was not fazed.

Since it would have been difficult to find such items at furniture stores, Ms Lim designed them from scratch, hence her company name Su Misura - is Italian for 'made-to-measure'.

Ms Lim does interior design for private homes and showflats, and designing bespoke furniture pieces makes up about 30 per cent of the firm's work. That number will rise, she says, "as more bungalows are being built, and they usually require bespoke furniture to fit."

For some of her clients, mass produced furniture is not an option. "More clients have a keen eye for detail and high expectations," she says.

"Bespoke pieces are conceptualized by designers who understand the characteristics of the different materials used, the ergonomics involved and aesthetics in greater depth," says Ms Lim, on how bespoke services differ from merely going to a carpenter.

Popular bespoke items requested include book shelves - even a 7m-tall set is no problem for her, and tall storage or wall units. One of the more unusual pieces that Ms Lim has designed was a dining table that had to be incorporated into a cantilevered kitchen unit.

To better understand what clients want, Ms Lim recommends that they provide reference images of the envisioned piece. "I also ask who the piece is for, what is the function, and the importance of it," she says.

She will then draw up a design, while amending the dimensions and improving the design of the piece to fit the given space.

She won't say how long it takes to get from design concept to final product as "it really depends on how intricate the design is and the number of tradesmen it involves to create the piece."

Space Sense Studio

www.spacesense.com.sg

FANCY a dining table shaped like a baby grand piano?

For $2,800, interior and furniture designer Kelvin Teo can make it a reality. He recently did one for a client whose home was done up French style.

"The client works from home so instead of doing a round or square table, I designed something that is related to the theme," says Mr Teo.

Interior design makes up the main core of his business, but he does take on bespoke furniture orders, "upon request or when I cannot find something that the client wants from the shops," he says.

Not finding that perfect furniture piece for their home is what often attracts clients to the bespoke route, says Mr Teo. "They want something unique, which they can have customised according to their own specifications."

Apart from the piano table, other bespoke pieces he has done include a bathroom mirror with a hole so that it can be hung, a leather sofa that resembles an outdoor bench, a dining table with asymmetrical legs, as well as more common items such as a bed frame or a bookcase.

When he gets a request, Mr Teo, does some research before proposing a few designs to the client.

"There will be a few rounds of discussion before I do the technical drawing and selection of materials. Usually, most requests can be met, as long as there are the necessary resources."

Mr Teo favours wood or stainless steel. The award-winning designer prides himself on creating pieces that can be perceived as a piece of art or sculpture.

One example is his Paper Fold, a rocking chair that looks like a strip of ribbon.

A simple piece of furniture by Mr Teo can take two to three months to complete, but be prepared to wait from three to six months for more complicated pieces.

Cilicon Faytory

www.ciliconfaytory.com

IF you have been to Burnt Ends, the barbecue joint at Teck Lim Road, you would have sat on the chairs, which were shaped from thin metal pipes, and seen the pendant lights made using cast resin mixed with charcoal powder.

The chairs and lights were specially designed by Cilicon Faytory, who also did the restaurant's interiors. And if you want something similar for the home, founders Lui Honfay and Cici Chen can do that for you too.

The duo have designed bespoke furniture pieces for commercial outfits as well as for private homes.

"The main objective of bespoke furniture is not about how different and unique it is, but how the customised furniture fits with the interior design concept," says Mr Lui. "Hence most of the time, the design concept, materials and colours will be generated from the interior space."

And if you want them to design a bespoke piece for you, prepare basic information such as budget, timeline, material, colours and functionality.

"The rest is up to us. Most times, clients may not know what they want exactly, but we usually hit the nail on the head when they see our proposal," says Mr Lui, a former architect. Ms Chen is an industrial design graduate, and the two started Cilicon Faytory in 2009.

Apart from bespoke pieces, they also design for furniture brands such as Kian and Hinlim from Malaysia and Singapore's Eurosa Furniture. Some of their works have also gone on to win design awards from the Singapore Furniture Industries Council and the Society of American Registered Architects.

Depending on the material and complexity of a bespoke piece, be prepared to wait from one to three months, before the piece arrives at your home.

Cilicon Faytory has no fixed style of furniture.

"We believe in a design methodology rather than style when it comes to designing products. Understanding the client's need and the context are the two basic factors and usually we will shape the design according to the brief," says Mr Lui.

And if you want a bespoke piece, be prepared to pay a premium.

"The production cost will be at least two to three times compared to an 'off-the-shelf' kind of product," says Mr Lui. Then there is also the design fee to think about. Mr Lui declines to give a sum saying "it depends on the complexity and time spent designing".

The bespoke pieces are made in either Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia or China.

Mr Lui points out that there are not many furniture makers in Singapore, and most carpenters focus on general cabinet works and upholstery works.

Going to a carpenter and getting him to design a piece from scratch will be a challenge, so will finding a manufacturer on your own, as most will only take on a job when there is a minimal quantity order. So if you want a bespoke piece, it will be easier to work with a design firm.

"The main effort of doing bespoke furniture is about solving various problems, such as finding the right factory and manufacturer and looking for ways to solve logistic issues such as transportation and shipments," says Mr Lui.


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