What is so special about Custom cabinetry?
There are many places to buy cabinetry that will fit pretty well, and there are many places in a home where pretty good is plenty good enough. However, there are some places in your home that need to be special. They need to be more than off the rack and better than you see everywhere else. For these places, extra care must be taken in designing the perfect atmosphere. Some people buy their suits off the rack, and there is nothing wrong with that. But to those who know, there is nothing like a custom tailored suit. Likewise, those who know wood are rarely awed by what is mass-produced.
Why does some furniture last longer than others?
There are three aspects of any piece of furniture that determine its lifespan.
The first is the quality of the wood. Naturally some types of wood are harder and more durable than others. Much of the furniture made today is formed from softer varieties of traditional woods. Softer woods are easier to form and easier on machines. “Cherry” can often mean any wood that once stained turns out a reddish color. Oak can really be Ash and Maple can be a low grade of Birch. Even these substitutions are not inherently bad. However there are varieties of wood native to China, Indonesia, and other such places, which have very little structural strength. These woods look very beautiful in a show room, and feel firm enough but they dry out and deteriorate in a very short time.
The second is the quality of the joints. Many of the joints used, especially in cabinetry, are based on speed and simplicity rather than accuracy and strength. Even with a good joint, dry cracking wood will break away from the glue. Composite products such as K3 (a type of particle board) have no torsion strength and therefore crack and break at the joint if not thoroughly supported.
The third is the quality of the finish. Most production furniture has the minimum amount of finish over the wood. This makes the piece more susceptible to humidity changes. It also increases the probability of a bump or scratch damaging through to the wood. Some finishes take a more in-depth process of application such as a chemical reaction or hand rubbing. Many production companies use second-rate finishes because they are cheaper and dry faster. Frequently time and quality sacrificed in production results in time and quality lost afterwards.
Why is custom work so much more expensive than prefabricated goods?
Most prefabricated furniture is made with cheaper materials in countries where labor is a fraction of the North American rate. Large companies can make very large material orders further reducing cost. Frequently pre-fabricated cabinetry is built to the minimum strength required in order to reduce labor and materials. A custom piece takes extra time to discuss with the client and design. Custom work means individual setup of each machine necessary and cleanup before moving on.
Why does custom woodwork take so long?
First of all, plans must be made in great detail to avoid any calculation errors along the way. Every joint and relationship must be determined before any wood is touched. No other trade has as many tools as a woodworker. That is because every piece of wood must be cut, straightened, planed, shaped, sanded, cut to length, and fit. This process is often repeated several times on the same piece. Even when the materials come technically ready to use, warping and inconsistencies in the wood require most of the process to be redone. Any given project has hundreds of individual and unique pieces each taking care and time. If any part is rushed, there are often visible inconsistencies in the finished product. Finally, there is all of the preparation for finishing followed by carefully applied coats alternated with sanding. The amount of time and care spent on a piece is a large part of what distinguishes it from others.
Is it possible to perfectly match existing woodwork?
The answer to this question is two fold. Yes it is very possible to make a new piece of furniture to match perfectly to existing wood. The more perfect the match, the more the work to get there. First of all, the shapes of the bits and tools used before are so varied that a perfect match often takes two steps instead of one without the original tool. The color match is by far the most difficult.
For a very reasonable match, stain can be matched on a scrap and compared to the original. For most purposes, this is more than adequate even though some sections of the piece may vary slightly in hue. Wood is an organic material with its own pigment. Much of wood’s natural beauty is derived from the variations in the amount and color of this pigment. Besides this, the cell orientation changes throughout each board. Again, although this affects color in every level of finishing, this variety can produce awe-inspiring formations.
For perfection the stain must be first made lighter and then faded in tones with the entire original beside for comparison. Each segment must be done separately to compensate for the natural color variation and grain pattern in wood. Then tinted finishes and finally waxes applied in turn. If too much color is added then the piece must be stripped back to bare wood and started again. As you can see, this process takes far more time and money. Most of what we do has 3-6 layers of finish (including stains). For a perfect match, the 8-20 layers of finish can hide much of the natural beauty in the wood.
Why do you have to custom design each piece?
All of my work is original. Each piece is built to match the tastes of the client and the existing surroundings of its new home. Even a simple size change usually requires at least half of the measurements to change. None of what I do is a bought plan or downloaded off the Internet. Even if they were, the sizes usually have to be altered. To really make a design that fits, I have to learn the tastes and needs of the client. Only then can I perfectly meld form and function into a fluid structure. Then I move from an image (whether mine or someone else’s) to a blueprint. If I make a mistake on the blueprint, I will make that mistake in the project. That is very costly to me in both time and materials so I must take the time needed to get it right the first time. The result is furniture that is neither disproportionate nor awkward to use.