Going custom

Morning. I’m a little bit under the weather this morning I hate to say, a hacking cough and a very sore throat coupled with constant temperature fluctuations. Nice hey! Luckily no one is in today just me the two M’s and G so I can sit quietly in my studio for most of the day and not use the voice.

I thought I might talk this morning about getting those big-ticket items like sofas, chairs and dining tables custom made. Furniture pieces upholstered in a fabric of your choice say or specified in a certain finish or size – big expensive decorating decisions that we cannot get wrong.

The expectations are enormous with these pieces, we wait, 8, 12 even 16 weeks for them to arrive and then when they do it can be a big disappointment. Houzz recently did a feature called ‘its OK to hate your new custom sofa’ so if any of you have felt let down, disappointed or wanting to scream and chop such custom pieces up into lots of tiny bits then know this – apparently its a common reaction!

Here is why:

We are often times not mentally prepared for change. Even me who changes things quite a lot can have lots of mini breakdowns when pieces go in and don’t work with how I saw it in my head. You almost have to clear your mind of how the space looked before and start again, mentally that is I’m not suggesting  getting rid of things that are in there!

Be flexible. Don’t expect all the old stuff to work seamlessly with the new stuff. You’ll need to rejig certain things. You might say need to swap up the cushions or put a different rug down or have a few different accessories. You might even need a whole new furniture layout – be flexible and play around with it.

Don’t panic is the key component. Change as they said over on Houzz ‘no matter how positive, can be challenging, difficult and stretching’.

I don’t think actually I’ve ever brought a big piece of furniture like a chair or sofa and put it where I first saw it in my head. I’ve had to move it all over, in front of the fireplace hmm no, how about in the corner? Doesn’t work.  Ok lets try slap bang in the middle of the room. WRONG, Ok OK how about in front of the bookcase. Perfect! See takes time, takes patience (something I am lacking) but the end results will be better than you ever imagined if you stick with it.

To demo my point – this sofa which was one of the first pieces I brought 13 years ago and  is still going strong. It used to live here:

ma1

Which is my studio only at the time it wasn’t my studio is was our so called ‘winter living room’. Which basically translates as a room we never went in – no brainer there seeing how empty and dull its looking its not such a surprise!

I then moved it downstairs – that of course is the Royal we not me personally to here!
ma2Here it remains to this day. It’s where Maud and I hang out most evenings (you can barely see her but she snuggles into my knee and she doesn’t like Mungo on it when I’m on it). She is a little bit complicated!

However during the day it is a different story!

ma

 

Back to blog