Bespoke furniture
A bespoke sofa is engineered to a room rather than chosen from a catalogue. Length, depth, seat height, back height, arm style and cushion proportions are all specified at design — and the piece is built on a solid hardwood frame that lasts decades of daily use. Most sofas leave the workshop in a residential cover; many leave in a contract specification for hotels, restaurants and members' clubs.
Every sofa is built on the same engineering: kiln-dried beech frames, eight-way hand-tied springs or sinuous-spring bases set to the seat depth, layered foam-and-feather cushion fills, and a cover pattern-cut to the technical drawing. The decisions that change between briefs are the line and the dimensions; the build is the same one set out on the upholstery workshop page.
Most residential and contract briefs land within a handful of sofa types.
Compact sofas for residential drawing rooms, snugs and apartments, sized to the wall they sit on. Standard configurations run from a 160 cm loveseat to a 240 cm three-seater, in fixed-back, loose-back or cushioned-back form. Arm styles range from square scroll to rolled, T-arm and English club; the line is set at design and reflected in the technical drawing before production begins.
Room-length corner sofas and modular sectionals built to fill a specific footprint. Each module is built separately and joined on installation; sectionals can be reconfigured later if the room changes. Specified widely for open-plan living rooms, hotel suites and members' lounges.
Curved or crescent-shaped sofas built to a radius. The frame is jointed in segments to follow the curve, the cushion arrangement is calculated against the seat length, and the cover is cut around the curve so the seams sit on the line of the design. Specified on hospitality lounge seating, formal rooms and around circular dining tables.
Fixed-back sofas, where the back is upholstered into the frame, give a crisp, tailored line and ask nothing of the household in terms of cushion plumping. Loose-back sofas, with separate back cushions, give a softer, lived-in look and call for daily dressing. Both are correct; the choice is set by the brief.
Engineered around proper mechanisms rather than compromised cushioning. The mattress sits inside a sprung base, the cushions are sized to disguise the mechanism, and the upholstery is specified to take the additional wear of converting in and out daily. A guest-room sofa bed in a private house and a contract sofa bed in a hotel suite are built differently against the expected use.
The first decision is the line: arm style, back height, leg style, skirt or no skirt, the curve of the seat front. The second decision is the dimensions: length, depth, seat height, seat depth, cushion proportions. The third decision is the build: spring type, foam density, cushion fill, fabric and detailing. All three are set in the technical drawing before any timber is cut.
Cushion fills are the decision that most changes how a sofa feels in service. A foam core wrapped in feather gives the soft-first-touch look of a feather cushion with the daily recovery of a foam one; a 100% down cushion gives the deepest sink and the most maintenance; a high-density foam gives the firmest sit and the longest service life. The full range is set out on the upholstery fills page, with a separate note on foam grades.
Fabric is COM-friendly: the workshop quotes the metreage your chosen cloth requires, and the fabric arrives 2–3 weeks before production. For contract briefs the fabric meets Crib 5 either passing the flame test untreated or with a back-coating; FR interliners are standard on residential pieces. Fabric families and rub ratings are covered on the fabrics page.
This page covers one of the piece-types built in the upholstery workshop. The broader range — sofas, armchairs, slipper and wingback chairs, dining and desk chairs, banquettes, ottomans, beds and headboards — sits under upholstered furniture. The engineering behind every piece is set out on the upholstery workshop page; the cushion fills are covered under upholstery fills, and the cover options are set out under fabrics.
