As promised in my formal living room update post, I&#;m giving you a peek into the custom furniture ordering process. I&#;ve talked about custom furniture here on the blog many times before (here is a recent resource list, if you missed it), but I&#;ve never elaborated on what that process looks like as a consumer. I figured it would be helpful to share the process from the initial order to the furniture&#;s arrival, so you know exactly what to expect when ordering custom. I&#;m sharing my recent experience with Maiden Home. Click through to learn about how I made my selections, how the furniture is constructed, and what the delivery process looks like.
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Before we dive in, you can also catch a really fun interview I did with Maiden Home&#; they shared it on their blog over the weekend, which was a happy surprise. I answered lots of amazing design related questions, if you&#;re interested to read! Ready to dig into the custom furniture process? Of course this is all based on my personal aesthetic, preferences, furniture needs, and overall experience.
I stumbled upon Maiden Home&#;s site a couple years ago and actually saved the Carmine Sofa to a wishlist Pinterest board back in the day (it was one of the first pieces they introduced). It wasn&#;t until we were shuffling furniture last fall, that I had a need for another sofa. That Pinterest board led me right back to the Carmine and I knew the shape and size would fit our floor plan and aesthetic perfectly. Once I had that component figured out, I had to choose new swivel chairs. I usually start with the size and shape, then narrow it down from there. It&#;s always best to ensure a piece fits your space, and that immediately helps to narrow things down. I try not to waste my time looking at options that work work (size, budget, etc).
I obviously landed on the Dune Swivel Chairs because the nice modern shape beautifully contrasted the sofa, but most of all- because I knew they would be super comfortable. Once I have my selections figured out, I usually go through the details with a fine tooth comb, checking the material list, the construction, the fabric options, and double checking the dimensions. After I&#;m positive the frame is right for a room, then it&#;s onto the fun part of the selection process: ordering swatches.
Having used to work for a design firm, I miss the days of having a fabric library at my fingertips. It&#;s always fun to play designer again and order swatches to look at in my space. When it comes to custom furniture, I always order a swatch before committing. I actually ordered quite a few swatches from Maiden Home, all of them being performance fabrics of some type&#; because obviously we have dogs that also use our furniture.
Once the swatches arrived, I took them into our living room to see how they interacted with the light, how they felt in my hand, and I double checked their specs (like the rub count). FYI- if you want to know more about making fabric selections, check out this post! Eventually I landed on the Slate Blue Mohair for the sofa and a linen-looking Performance Chenille (in color Alabaster) for the swivels. You can check out all of their swatches here, if you want to know what other options I had. They have a handy guide that tells which fabrics are cleanable, liquid resistant, fade resistant, etc.
I had my ducks in a row, I was excited about the design & fabrics, and I pressed the order button! The lead-time was 8-10 weeks when I placed my order, and I immediately received a confirmation . Now the hard part&#; waiting. Despite lots of furniture companies having crazy lead times right now, I was pretty impressed with how quickly my furniture arrived. I ordered last November and it got to me in mid January.
It&#;s important to understand that custom furniture is made specifically for you with your preferences- it can take awhile. Your selections can also influence the lead time. I think lead-time throws a lot of people for a loop. Since I used to work in the industry, I&#;m ok with it and I know it&#;s worth the wait&#; but if you&#;re not familiar with the custom furniture process, it can feel annoying to wait SO long. Just know that it&#;s normal! Furniture makers are working as quickly as they can while maintaining their quality and standards. That&#;s something I&#;m willing to wait for.
Having worked with many high-end furniture makers and showrooms during my days as a designer, I&#;ve done the factory & workshop tours, I know what goes into making furniture, and I really love seeing skilled artisans & tradespeople representing their timeless craft. That&#;s why I was thrilled to receive construction update emails from Maiden Home. It was the happiest surprise! When ordering custom in the past, I&#;ve never had a company do that. It&#;s usually just an order confirmation and a shipping confirmation&#; unless you&#;re working with a designer and they can call for updates.
From framing, springing, cutting & sewing, to upholstery, Maiden Home sent construction updates (and delivery timing updates) as my furniture was being built. I was impressed! It was nice to see who was building my furniture and understand what stage in the process everything was at. Many of the craftsmen & craftswomen have 30-40+ years experience! It honestly made those eight weeks go much faster knowing things were actively happening behind-the-scenes in the workroom.
Once everything is finished, it&#;s carefully wrapped and ready to ship. Custom furniture is usually sent via white glove delivery. I got a call from my local freight company asking me to schedule the delivery. When the furniture arrived, the delivery people unboxed it for me, and even positioned it in our living room (asking me where I wanted it)- they were also respectful of our home (wearing shoe covers, and of course masks). It was a good experience and Emmett & I didn&#;t have to deal with recycling, trash, or heavy lifting.
Obviously once the furniture was in place, the fun began- styling, enjoying it, lounging in our new comfy swivels. Custom furniture does have a higher price tag, but I&#;ve come to find it&#;s a worthy investment. I was especially impressed ordering from Maiden Home this first time because of their quality and pricing. Their entire business model is based on cutting out the middle sources (showrooms, wholesalers, designers, etc), bringing furniture from the workroom to your home (as a regular, non trade consumer). You can read more about their process and concept here, if you&#;re interested.
I got to chat on the with Nidhi, the Maiden Home Founder, and our conversation was so inspiring! She talked about why she wanted to start this business in the first place- how she noticed a gap in the custom furniture market that was accessible & affordable to consumers (without having to work through a designer or shop). She&#;s really an impressive female entrepreneur who cares, and has created many US jobs for skilled furniture makers. I thoroughly enjoyed our chat and will definitely be ordering from them again in the future.
Do you have any custom furniture questions for me? It can be about design, ordering from Maiden Home, furniture in general, whatever you want. I&#;ll do my best to help! I hope covering my design thoughts of making selections and the custom furniture process was helpful. Have a wonderful Tuesday, my friends!
When buying furniture of your furniture supplier in China its nowhere near as simple as you may think. This is why we have compiled this list of 73 questions you ask your furniture supplier before and after buying your furniture.
In general, there are some simple questions to ask your furniture supplier such as the ones below to get a general feel of how things are and if working with them is a good idea or not.
1.Where is your factory?
2.When are you suitable for a factory audit?
3.Before the final payment, we will have a third party agency inspecting before paying if that is okay?
4.Do you participate in any trade shows? (if yes a quick google search will show their name)
5.Have you ever participated in any trade shows before if so when? (same as above)
6.Can you make a sample? (this question has multiple parts to it)
7.Can I pay to your company&#;s bank account? (You can check the company bank information matches)
8.Can I have your address to pick up the sample? (You are double-checking the address is the same, if not red flags are flying)
9.How many employees does the factory have? (This question is important! You can tell a lot about their scaleability, from this. For example, does their catalog have 100s of different types of products but they only have a few hundred staff? Make sure the numbers add up)
10.Do you have an export license? (All of these facts can be checked up on their Alibaba/global sources account)
11.Do you have any customer references from my country? (here you are checking if they are making stuff up or are the real deal, sadly a lot of companies will make up reviews).
12.I want to export to X country what regulations are you able to provide? (You are checking they know your local market regulations instead of just saying yes yes yes)
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So in addition to the 12 questions above, there are also certain extra things you can do to make sure the furniture from your furniture supplier you are getting is top quality.
If you manage to do these check-ups on all of your furniture suppliers you&#;ll be onto the right path of knowing who exactly you are working with.
Now we understand certain parts of these questions you may not feel comfortable asking, however, this guide is to give you a complete list of potential questions to ask to minimize your risk.
So on we go with some more questions to ask your potential furniture supplier.
14.How many employees in total? (before it was the factory but knowing the total amount will give a good idea of how many sales, support staff, etc)
15.Please, could you tell me what is your total domestic market sales?
16.What is your total export sales? (This will give you a good idea of their real capabilities, in larger companies sometimes the domestic market can be larger than the export market)
17.What furniture product do you mainly sell to the X market?
18.Which furniture product do you recommend for the X market?
19.Which product do you sell best globally?
20.What is the main furniture manufacturing process for the X product?
21.Are there any parts that are subcontracted out? If so which parts?
22.Are there parts of the product which are half-made here?
23.What is made entirely in the house?
24.Do you accept signing legally binding contracts? (best to get Chinese lawyers involved at this point)
25.Are there any products that you have exclusive agreements within the X geographical area?
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We have already got to the 25 question stage so naturally, we want to give you some extra things to think about before choosing your furniture supplier.
In their factory its best to take note of what their main product is. For example, if you are looking to buy coffee tables but the majority of their staff/machinery is based on making sofas then its expertise is sofas, not coffee tables.
So you&#;ve noticed a fantastic piece of furniture in their showroom and want it. Who designed it? Make sure they have the rights to it before buying to save yourself a law case back home.
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For more Custom Outdoor Furniture & High-Quality Furniture Manufacturer|Weiyeinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.
So we are guessing if you are talking to someone on Alibaba via so here&#;s our own Alibaba template take on the initial message. (if you google Alibaba template you&#;ll find plenty of similar samples)
Subject: Would like some more information about (product name)
Dear (name),
My name is (your name), I am representing (company name) we are interesting in receiving more information about (product code and name),
Please could you send a quotation including:
Thank you
Yours sincerely
(your name, company name)
Feel free to copy and paste this template.
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Back to question 26.
So far we have had 32 questions which aren&#;t 100% dedicated to just furniture. Don&#;t worry the next bunch is.
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Next up we have another 25+ question which is more specific to furniture and will help you choose the best supplier for your needs.
33.What is the MOQ to work with your company?
34.How many different types of furniture can I purchase from you to put into a single container?
35.What is EXW furniture price?
36.Do you also help with shipping?
37.What price is the FOB price?
38.What is this furniture weight per piece?
39.How will you package the furniture? What care instructions do I need to pay attention to for this furniture?
40.What certifications does it have?
41.Do you have any other company brand names (many furniture businesses have multiple brands under different company names)
42.When was your company established? (The older they are the more established but it also means more fixed rules)
43.Do you have an Alibaba or company website? (their company website on average doesn&#;t give a lot of information but is helpful to learn a little bit more about them)
44.What are your main products? (If there are too many types of furniture its a red flag they are a trading company pretending to be a furniture factory)
45.Can I see some pictures of your company such as your employees, finished products, office, and factory? (take them and do a google reverse image search to check they aren&#;t stock images/from another factory)
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Hopefully, you can already see there are a lot of questions that need to be answered when buying furniture from China. If you would like some help why not let Simonsense do the hard work for you?
53.How many people work here? (Will give you a scale of their capabilities)
54.Have you ever sold to (your) country? If so to who?
55.What certifications does your company have?
56.To what standard quality are you able to make the furniture too?
57.What payment schemes do you accept?
58.Can I get an invoice for my furniture purchase?
59.Do you issue receipts?
60.If the furniture is not up to standard will you issue a refund?
61.Does the price include taxes?
Okay, so far we have covered over 50 different questions to ask, but what about the shipping part? (This is the final bunch of questions doesn&#;t worry, we promise)
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So the questions above are more to do with buying furniture from your furniture supplier, as well some more general questions to ask, the final 11 questions are to help you ensure you get the products back home!
First off let&#;s start with 6 generic questions to ask about shipping furniture
62.How long will it take you to package the furniture?
63.What is the timeframe it will take you to ship the furniture?
64.What materials will you be using to package the furniture?
65.From what port will you be shipping the furniture from?
66.What type of container will you be using?
67.What guarantees can you give on the safety of the furniture?
68.Before shipping can I inspect the furniture to ensure it is the quality I paid for?
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Shipping furniture by itself is a headache and there are some questions which you need to confirm directly with the shipping company you choose.
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Hopefully, after you have read all of those questions you&#;ll be inspired to do more research and hopefully will have a lower chance of being buying from the wrong furniture supplier. To sum up, remember to do your research, and don&#;t be afraid to ask some more difficult questions.
What do you think of our comments? Do you think we have missed any questions? If so leave them in the comments below and we will add them to the list.
Simonsense is a furniture supply chain management company that specializes in furniture. Simonsen&#;s has had over 10 years of experience in the furniture industry and supply chain market to help their customers find the best possible deal in terms of price and quality. Contact Simonsense today for a free one-hour consultation and see how we can help your business today.
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