Custom furniture & bookcases
A bookcase for that wall nothing seems to fit. A table cut to the exact size of your dining room. A headboard, a desk, an entry piece you have been looking for, for years, without ever finding it in a store. Sometimes the project is a whole apartment; sometimes it is a single piece of furniture.
Designing furniture is the other half of our craft. A piece is designed like an apartment: starting from you, your room, your light. Here is how it works, and what it can become.
Store-bought furniture has a limit
Store-bought furniture is designed for an average room — and the average room does not exist. In your home there is a skirting board that sticks out, a radiator under the window, a corner that is not quite square, a ceiling height the catalogues ignore. So the piece that is « roughly the right size » leaves ten lost centimetres here, a useless gap there.
Made to measure takes the opposite path: it starts from your wall, your room, your habits — and the piece takes exactly the place it should. In a grand old apartment as in a studio.
Fitted pieces and one-of-a-kind pieces
There are two families of custom furniture, and we design both. The fitted work, first: the bookcase rising to the ceiling, the wardrobe settling into a recess, the low cabinet running under the windows. These pieces follow the walls — they are designed with the room.
And then there is the one-of-a-kind piece: the table, the desk, the headboard, the console. A piece that touches no wall, yet is designed for your home — its proportions, its materials, its exact place in the room. A piece nobody else will have, because only one exists: yours.
In both cases, it starts with a drawing. The sketch is the piece's first portrait — the silhouette, the proportions, its place in the room. Then come the precise drawings, face by face, and perspectives faithful to the materials, so everything is validated before making.
The right piece changes the whole room.
From the drawing to the workshop
At the end of the design, each piece has its file: its exact dimensions, its materials, its finishes, every detail settled — everything needed to make it without guessing anything. The making itself belongs to the craftsmen: those whose trade it is, depending on what your piece calls for — wood, metal, fabric.
You already have your craftsman? The file is ready for them. You do not? We can look for the right one for you. Either way, you know exactly what will be made — and the design remains yours: this piece will exist only once.
A single piece is also a short project: a few weeks, from the first conversation to the making.
Materials that last
Solid oak that takes on a patina, walnut, brass, linen. A piece designed for you is a piece that stays: it ages well, it can be repaired, it crosses the years without going out of style — and it sets the tone for the rest of the room.
It is also a matter of proportions: the thickness of a top, the height of a seat, the setback of a base. Those millimetres are not seen — they are felt. That is precisely what the drawing is for.
The right measure
A custom piece is not a luxury reserved for grand projects. Everything can be designed, at every budget: the wood, the finishes, the details — every piece has its right measure. We start from your budget, and we design the piece that makes the most of it.
Your questions
A single piece — is that too small a project?
No — it is a beautiful project. A single piece receives the same care as a whole apartment: listening, the sketch, the drawings face by face, the perspectives, then the making by the right craftsman. And it is a short project: a few weeks are usually enough.
In what order does a project unfold?
Four steps, always the same. Listening first: your room, your habits, what is missing. Then the sketch: the piece, drawn — and redrawn as many times as it takes for it to be truly yours. Then the precise drawings and the perspectives, faithful to the materials. Finally the file, ready for the making. The full sequence is described, step by step, in our method.
Who makes the piece?
The right craftsmen — those whose trade it is. Depending on the piece: a cabinetmaker for wood, an upholsterer for the seat, a metalworker for brass or steel. You already have your craftsman? The file is ready for them. If not, we can look for the right one for you.
Can you design a piece without redoing the apartment?
Of course. Many of our pieces are born alone: a bookcase for an existing living room, a table for a dining room you love as it is.
Is made to measure necessarily more expensive?
Not necessarily. The price of a piece depends on its size, its material and its complexity — not on the words « made to measure ». At equal size, a piece designed to last compares very well with a beautiful store-bought one. And it will never be replaced because it did not fit.
