Bespoke Pieces of Furniture Make Great Gifts
You may have considered giving many birthday gifts over the course of your lifetime, but…furniture? Yes, furniture. Specifically, custom-made or bespoke furniture makes an excellent birthday gift for a family member or close friend. Especially for loved ones who have just purchased their first home or who have recently welcomed a new member, bespoke furniture has the benefit of being both useful and fun to receive. From custom cribs to handmade china cabinets, here’s how you can make a lasting impression with this kind of gift.
Why choose bespoke furniture?
Custom furniture gives a homeowner a chance to express his or her personality in a unique way. If you tap into your recipient’s likes, hobbies, and interests, you can create a meaningful gift that is useful in the best way. Also, it is a chance for him or her to include furniture that matches perfectly with the decor, which can be difficult to do if they are choosing from pre-made furniture, no matter how wide the selection is.
Bespoke furniture also offers the possibility of sentimentality. Very rarely will homeowners gush over a couch or a coffee table bought at a retail furniture store, but a bespoke piece of furniture will likely stay in the family for generations. Keeping this in mind, you may even want to incorporate a special item, such as fabric from a loved one’s scarf or melted gold or silver from a cherished ring or necklace. There are more creative ways to make your custom chair or table sentimental as well, such as using reclaimed wood from a childhood home.
How to go about making bespoke furniture
Measurements are key. This is probably the least sentimental part of the process, but you will need to find out how much space you will have to fill with the gift, which means you should have some suggestions on where the recipient could place it in his or her home. This could actually be a benefit for homeowners who have uniquely-shaped layouts and cannot find stock furniture to fit it.
You will also want to keep aesthetics and functionality in mind. One of the primary benefits of getting custom-made furniture is being able to dream up and then create the perfect television stand with storage for everything you need, for example, or an L-shaped sofa that is actually big enough for your living room. Take advantage of the chance to balance these two factors by working closely with the furniture maker.
Remember to present your gift with the same sentimentality that you put into it by choosing from a wide selection of birthday cards, and for more design inspiration, visit the Guardian’s lifestyle section.