Ordering Custom Furniture: Here’s What You Can Ask For
What does ordering custom furniture have in common with buying a brand new car? You start with the unit that you really like. Then, you request all the features you want to make the brand-new purchase uniquely yours. The same principle holds for buying custom furniture. First, you decide on the ‘necessary’ features such as the size, style, and finish (so the new furniture will match your existing pieces). Then, you decide on the cool features like self-closing doors and drawers, leaded glass panels, and LED touch lights. That said, let’s dive into ordering custom furniture: here’s what you can ask for.
Do the Amish build custom furniture?
Yes. Amish cabinetmakers build custom furniture that is renowned for strength, durability, a wide selection of styles, plus a plethora of custom choices.
Strength and durability.
The Amish handcraft each piece of furniture using time-honored woodworking practices, including joinery methods like dovetail and mortise and tenon joints. Top hardwoods like oak, maple, and cherry are also utilized. As a result, Amish furniture is incredibly sturdy and durable. In fact, the furniture is typically passed down from one generation to the next.
Wide variety of styles.
You can get Amish furniture in a wide variety of styles, including Traditional, Mission, Shaker, Rustic, and Modern. Amish cabinetmakers also create pieces that integrate different design elements into existing styles. This means you can order Amish furniture with the look and feel you really like.
Custom choices.
Building custom furniture has become a hallmark of Amish cabinetry. In fact, you can order furniture with all the features you want. This includes the style, wood species, finish, and hardware you desire. You can also choose from a plethora of features, including the type of glass (for cabinet doors and sides), full-extension drawers, touch-close doors and drawers, LED lights, and lots more. Bottom line: Customization frees you up to order furniture just the way you want it. Furniture that’s uniquely yours!
What are some reasons for ordering custom furniture?
Astute furniture buyers order custom furniture – such as what’s made by the Amish – for several reasons, including furniture that represents the perfect fit, unique design, best completion to a set, the ideal accent piece, strength, and heirloom-quality durability, plus a valuable investment.
Perfect fit.
Homeowners often order furniture to fit a particular spot in their home – such as a bookcase that fills the area beneath a staircase or a blanket chest with an upholstered top that fits below the window between two dormers in an upstairs bedroom. The possibilities are endless.
Unique design.
Some furniture buyers request custom furniture that blends design elements from more than one furniture style, thereby creating a one-of-a-kind piece.
Best completion of a set.
Ordering custom furniture to match existing pieces in a set is a great solution for many homeowners. For example, a young couple who inherits a Shaker-style bed, nightstand, and dresser may want a matching chest of drawers, blanket chest, and cheval mirror.
Ideal accent piece.
Custom furniture is frequently chosen to enhance the look of a room while adding function – such as seating, storage, or display space. Think of a hallway bench, a corner cabinet, a dining room accessory, or an accent table at the top of a staircase.
Heirloom-quality durability.
Astute furniture buyers know that custom-built, solid hardwood furniture far surpasses furniture put together on assembly lines using bargain substitutes, particleboard, MDF, veneers, and laminated cardboard.
Valuable investment.
Amish custom furniture – with its handcrafted construction using traditional methods and hardwoods like oak, maple, and cherry – is superior to all others in fit and finish, looks, and durability. The furniture may cost more than others initially. But its stellar performance and long life make the furniture a valuable, long-term investment.
When ordering custom furniture, can you choose the wood species?
Absolutely. When ordering Amish furniture, you can usually choose from a wide variety of hardwoods, including oak, maple, cherry, hickory, and walnut. In some cases, you may also be given the option of choosing elm, birch, mahogany, and other hardwoods. Custom furniture builders do not usually give you the option of selecting softwoods (like fir, pine, and spruce) because hardwoods are denser, tougher, and more durable for furniture-making.
Different hardwoods are chosen because of their individual characteristics. Here are some specifics:
Oak is highly favored due to its strength, durability, and relatively lower price compared to other hardwoods. Cabinetmakers also favor oak when the log is cut in a ‘quarter-sawn’ manner. This cut is more impervious to warping, compared to ‘plain-cut’ oak. Quarter-sawn oak also has an attractive ‘flecking’ grain pattern.
Cherry is frequently chosen for bedroom, living room, and office furniture, in large part because of its warm, reddish-brown color and resistance to warping.
Maple is the wood of choice due to its strength and resistance to dings and bumps. Add its eye-catching grain pattern, and it’s easy to see why maple is ideal for furniture with smooth, even surfaces – such as cabinets, armoires, and dining room tables and chairs.
Hickory is one of the toughest regional hardwoods with a unique grain pattern. As a result, hickory is often chosen for rustic furniture. Also, in fact, rustic pieces made from hickory often have a ‘live edge’ featuring bark or unfinished, rough-hewn wood.
Walnut is selected for high-end furniture due to its rich, dark color.
That said, you can choose the wood you like best for your custom furniture. Or, you can leave the decision up to the builder, who will most likely decide on the wood based on factors like price, availability, and what’s most appropriate for the piece.
Can you change the furniture size on an Amish custom order?
Yes. The Amish custom furniture building process allows you to ask for a different furniture size from the specifications given on the sales materials. For example, you can change the width, depth, and height of pieces like cabinets, hutches, bookcases, and dressers. Of course, the dimensions of elements like drawers and doors will change proportionately.
People request furniture in different dimensions for several reasons, including personal preferences, the need for more storage space, and the desire to fit a specific spot in the house. However, before ordering furniture in different dimensions, it’s helpful to bear a few matters in mind:
Preset dimensions. Certain furniture measurements are preset, and changing them might make the pieces fail to perform as intended. For example, some drawers in hutches, buffets, sidebars, and other kitchen cabinets are built to accommodate boxes for aluminum foil, storage bags, and the like. Similarly, desk drawers are sized to store letter-size or legal-size paper. In addition, dining chair seats are usually 18 inches in height, and bar stools are usually 24 or 30 inches high, so they can comfortably accommodate people while they are seated around the respective tabletops.
Additional costs and delivery time. Requests for different dimensions might result in additional costs and longer delivery times. So, be sure to discuss this with the product specialists when placing your order.
Do you get to decide the finish on custom-order furniture?
Absolutely. Custom cabinetmakers, including the Amish, give you the freedom to choose the finish for each item of furniture you order. Typically, furniture buyers choose a finish to complement other pieces in the room or to make the piece stand out.
Finishes offered by Amish furniture builders fall under three broad categories: varnishes, paint, and unfinished.
You can choose from a plethora of varnishes based on the species of wood used for your furniture. This gives you the option of everything from enhancing your furniture’s natural look to giving it a finish that is totally different from the wood’s natural appearance.
Finishing your furniture with paint is a great way to give the piece a vintage look. For example, finishing a kitchen cabinet with an off-white or pastel-color paint gives the piece a warm, mid-century look and feel. Similarly, white paint with an Antique Gray Glaze visually takes your brand-new furniture back a hundred years or more!
If you like having furniture in its natural state or wish to finish it yourself, ordering furniture unfinished is the best way to go.
Can you select the hardware for custom furniture?
Yes. One of the exciting parts of ordering custom furniture is selecting the decorative hardware – the handles, knobs, and pulls that make it easy to open and close the drawers and doors of furniture. Hardware also enhances the visual appeal of furniture.
The following pointers about hardware might help you select the ideal style for your next custom furniture purchase:
Hardware is made from a wide variety of materials, including steel, brass, nickel, aluminum, glass, plastics, and wood.
Furniture styles. Hardware is often an integral component of different furniture styles, as exemplified by Amish furniture pieces from Brandenberry. Traditional Mission pieces usually come with black Mission pull hardware, while Lexington pieces are built with chrome hardware. What’s more, traditional Shaker furniture features round wooden knob hardware. While furniture styles like West Village have no hardware.
Despite the hardware that is shown on the piece/s of furniture in which you are interested, you are free to choose the hardware you like the best from the plethora of samples shown.
Does custom furniture come with modern options?
Yes. Custom furniture, including Amish custom furniture, comes with lots of modern options to maximize comfort, convenience, storage potential, and aesthetic appeal. These options include the following:
Full-extension drawers provide easy access to all items in the drawer, even stuff at the back of each drawer.
Soft-close drawers and doors close with nothing more than a gentle push.
Mirrored back in hutches and curio cabinets maximizes the display of your dishware, glassware, and figurines.
LED lights enhance the aura of your figurines and other precious items in your hutch, sideboard, buffet, or curio cabinet. White touch lights control the brilliance of the light with just a touch.
Power controls on sofas, loveseats, and armchairs make it easy to adjust the chair settings for maximum comfort and relaxation.
USB ports on desks and other furniture make it easy to hook up your devices.
A wide selection of fabrics and leather gives you the ability to find the pattern and/or the color, texture, and thickness you’re looking for in your upholstered armchair, sofa, sectional, or loveseat.
European hinges remain hidden from view while keeping your cabinet doors secure.
These modern custom items are in addition to the myriad of custom features, such as wood species, size, finish, and hardware, offered by Amish cabinetmakers.
Does customization change the price of furniture?
Yes. Custom furniture, such as what’s built by Amish cabinetmakers, generally costs more than mass-produced furniture due to several factors, including higher labor costs, higher-quality materials, higher-quality components, increased design time, and increased material costs.
Higher labor costs.
Paying close attention to detail, Amish artisans from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana handcraft each piece of custom furniture using woodworking skills handed down from their ancestors. In contrast, mass-produced furniture – such as most furniture normally found in big-box stores – is put together by machines and production workers on assembly lines, many of which are in overseas locations.
Higher-quality materials.
Amish cabinetmakers build custom furniture from solid hardwoods like maple, cherry, and oak. Hardwoods cost more – and are far more durable – than manufactured woods like particleboard, medium-density fiberboard, veneers, and laminates. These materials are typically used in making furniture sold in popular name-brand furniture stores.
Higher-quality components.
The Amish typically use higher-quality components like decorative hardware, hinges, drawer slides, fabrics, and leather. Conversely, mass-produced furniture is normally built with more affordable components, including brads, nails, aluminum, and plastic fasteners, plus laminated cardboard.
Increased design time.
The time spent changing existing designs or creating new ones results in added costs.
Increased material costs.
Additional costs are incurred when custom furniture is built larger and with more components than what’s called for in the original plans.
Can I talk with a furniture consultant about my custom furniture order?
Yes. Custom furniture product specialists, such as those at Brandenberry Furniture, are available to assist you with your custom furniture order. To get started, simply log onto Brandenberry’s website and begin your search for the type of furniture you want, and follow the contact prompts. One of Brandenberry’s sales associates will happily assist you in creating a truly original piece for your home or office. Or visit Brandenberry’s ‘brick and mortar’ store in Shipshewana located in LaGrange County Indiana.
Can I order custom Amish furniture online, no matter where I live?
Yes. Many Amish furniture retailers, including Brandenberry Furniture, will fill your online order for custom furniture and deliver it to any address in the continental United States. Full information on Brandenberry’s shipping policy is available on the store’s website.