How Much Does Decorating with a Custom Furniture Store Cost?
Shopping at a custom furniture store can feel like a dream for most homeowners. Many people assume that custom furniture is incredibly expensive because it’s custom. However, the items at custom furniture stores oftentimes are just as affordable as mass-produced furniture.
Why is Some Custom Furniture So Expensive?
There are some custom furniture stores that mark up their prices significantly because of their customization options. While it is completely understandable to mark up your prices, not all custom furniture stores do. How much they mark up their items from the cost of producing is at the discretion of the store owner. But, it is important to keep in mind that you can find a custom furniture store who prices their pieces at similar prices to big box stores.
It is easy to understand this concept by looking at mass-produced furniture stores. There are some stores that sell their items at very low cost, and some stores that charge more for their items. Despite both being mass-produced and made from the same materials, one store charges more. This price difference is typically because of the brand names or the customer service quality of each store.
Our custom Conway Table looks great in the Fausts’ home.
What Makes Up the Prices For a Custom Furniture Store?
While large corporations have strategic formulas and methods for pricing their furniture, custom furniture stores do not. At a custom furniture store, there are some factors that decide the cost of their furniture. For furniture stores who value keeping their prices low, there is a strategic reason behind all of their prices. Here are some of the biggest factors…
1. Labor
An amazing custom furniture store will typically source their labor from their home country. For example, all of our shop employees work out of our Kansas City Showroom. We don’t invest in cheap labor from overseas. This is to ensure the quality of our furniture items, and so we only engage in ethical practices with our furniture store. With that being said, a large percentage of our mark up goes towards paying our employees fairly. We value our employees greatly and want to make sure they are paid for their hard and skilled work. Additionally, our customers can feel assured knowing their bed, bookcase, coffee table, or desk was made ethically.
Our Rosedale Table being custom stained in our Kansas City Showroom.
2. Quality Materials
Custom furniture is usually made with solid wood. This is a far better material to use than particle board or plastic, as it will last for many more decades. However, quality materials can be very expensive to source. This means, in order to make a profit, the custom furniture store has to match the price of their materials. Here are the wood species we use in our store and the affordability of each.
Wood Species Rank In Cost
↳ Alder (Most Affordable)
↳ Cherry (More Affordable)
↳ Maple (More Affordable)
↳ Red Oak (More Affordable)
↳ Hickory (More Expensive)
↳ White Oak (More Expensive)
↳ Walnut (Most Expensive)
Additionally, if a custom furniture company uses raw steel, as we do, that material can be costly, as well as the time it takes to weld it. But, keep in mind, raw steel will last for a lifetime, so it is well worth investing in it.
When you want a wooden desk or a wood coffee table, it is best to go with a custom furniture store. This helps to ensure your furniture won’t suffer from wear and tear throughout the years of using it. This brings us to our next point on why you should choose custom furniture.
3. You Can Keep it Forever
Perhaps the biggest reason to purchase custom furniture is that you can keep it forever. This is a large factor that goes into the pricing for custom furniture. The piece you design will last you for decades, and you can pass it down to your children. Additionally, the piece will fit perfectly in your space, with no one else having a piece exactly like it. Custom furniture stores know this, so they are not banking on you needing to repurchase an item.
Rather than relying on you purchasing the same items over and over again, a custom furniture store makes money off of your purchase just once. This means they may mark up the item so they can make up for the lack of repurchases. But, this mark up will be far less expensive than what it costs to purchase a new buffet, or a new farmhouse table again.
The Shupe Family enjoying their dinner around their Conway Table.
4. Excellent Repair Policies
While most mass-produced furniture stores have 30-day return policies, a custom furniture store will not. This is due to the fact that the piece is custom made for your space and cannot be resold. However, a custom furniture store does not expect many returns, so they have excellent repair policies. This way, the customer will be happy with their custom furniture item, without the quality wood going to waste.
At Unruh Furniture, we have a lifetime warranty. This means that even if your dog did something to your custom furniture item, we will fix it for our customers for free. We offer this because we know our customers deserve the best. They buy their dining room sets or bedroom sets from us with the expectation it will last a lifetime. So, we will fix anything that happens to their furniture items, free of charge.
The True Cost of Shopping at a Custom Furniture Store
As mentioned above, the cost of a furniture piece from a custom furniture store will vary. However, we can show you the cost of some of our top-sellers so you can get a great idea of what it will cost you.
This is our Stockyard Table, named after the historic Kansas City stockyards. It is a favorite amongst our customers because of its farmhouse, country feel. It starts at $1,599, ranging in price depending on the size and wood species decided by our customers.
Our Lake House Platform Bed is a classic bed, looking perfect in combination with our Lake House Dresser. The bed starts at just $2,099, increasing in price depending on the size of the bed you are wanting.
This is our Dearborn Coffee Table. It has steel hairpin legs, giving it a modern, solid wood coffee table feel. This table starts at just $699, which means it is an affordable piece that ties an entire living room together. Not to mention, it matches perfectly with our Dearborn Dining Table, which also has stunning steel legs.
Buying From a Custom Furniture Store
We hope this guide helped explain how much shopping at a custom furniture store will truly cost you. As you can see from our furniture above, it doesn’t have to be expensive to buy a custom piece. Even if the price is more than you would spend at a large corporation, you can feel secure knowing your piece will last you a lifetime.
