Is made to order the same as custom?

No. Made to order means an existing design is built after you order it, in the specified materials and sizes. Custom, or a commission, means the design itself changes for you. The first has a known shape and a known price. The second has to be discussed.

Why is a piece made to order rather than kept in stock?

Because holding finished furniture ties up money and space, and because some pieces have choices in them, like upholstery colour, that only make sense once somebody has chosen. Building after the order also means the piece has not been sitting in a warehouse for a year.

Can I change the size of a made-to-order piece?

Sometimes, sometimes not. Changing a dimension can mean new jigs, a different frame calculation or a new mould, which turns a made-to-order piece into a commission with a different price. Ask before assuming either way.

How do I know what the terms are?

They are on the piece listing and in the order confirmation. Read what it says about lead time, payment and returns before ordering rather than after, because the answers are different for something built for you than for something taken off a shelf.

Made to order · 4 min read

What Made to Order Actually Means

The difference between stock, made to order and a commission, and what changes for you in each case.

Three phrases get used as if they are the same thing, and they are not. Knowing which one you are buying changes what you should expect on timing, on price and on what can still be changed after you click.

In stock

The piece exists. It is finished, it is sitting in the workshop, and what you see in the photographs is the object that will arrive. Order it and it gets packed.

The advantage is obvious: speed, and no imagination required. The limit is equally obvious. When that piece is gone it is gone, and if the art on it is not repeated then nothing else will be exactly like it.

Made to order

The design exists and is fixed. The object does not exist yet. You order it, and it gets built.

What is fixed: the dimensions, the materials, the construction, the price. The Frame Chair is 440 by 480 by 820 mm with a tubular frame, a moulded seat and ash, whoever orders it and whenever.

What is open: the choices the design deliberately leaves open. On the Two-Seat Sofa that is the wool colour, one of five. Those are decisions the workshop wants from you, not negotiations.

What changes for you:

Time. There is a build between your order and your delivery.
Commitment. Materials get cut and finishes get sprayed for your order specifically.
Consistency. You get the design as designed, not a one-off interpretation of it.

Commission

The design does not exist yet either. You describe a problem, the workshop proposes something, and what gets built is new.

This is the most flexible and the slowest, and it is the one where price cannot be quoted from a page. A commission involves drawing, sometimes a prototype, usually new jigs or a new mould, and a conversation that takes longer than the build.

It is worth it when your situation genuinely is unusual: an alcove nobody else has, a ceiling height that rules out the standard version, a piece that has to do two jobs at once. It is not worth it when you want an existing design in a different colour, which is usually a made-to-order question.

Why a workshop does it this way

Finished furniture is expensive to hold. Every piece on a shelf is money and floor space doing nothing, and the pressure that creates is what produces warehouses full of beige sofas discounted in January.

Building after the order removes that pressure. It also means pieces are made in the quantity people actually want, with the materials that are good at that moment rather than the ones bought in bulk eighteen months ago.

The honest cost of that choice is waiting. There is no version of handmade furniture that is both built for you and available tomorrow.

What good communication looks like

The difference between a comfortable wait and an uncomfortable one is almost entirely information. A workshop that is doing this properly will tell you three things without being chased.

When the build starts, which is not the same as when you ordered. Materials have to be in the building first.
When it is finished and curing. Finishes need time, and a piece that is rushed out of the workshop before a coat has cured arrives soft.
When it ships, and how. Heavy furniture goes by pallet or by a two-person delivery, and which one it is changes what you need to arrange at your end.

If a date moves, you should hear it from the workshop before you ask. A small operation can be honest about this in a way a large retailer structurally cannot, and that honesty is most of what you are buying when you order from one.

What to check before you order

The lead time, and whether it is confirmed or estimated.
What is fixed and what is a choice. If something you care about is not listed as a choice, assume it is fixed and ask.
Access. Measure doors, stairs and lifts now, not when a 62 kg cabinet is on the pavement.
The terms on the listing. Lead time, payment and returns are written on the piece and in the confirmation. Read them before ordering.
Who to talk to. On a made-to-order piece you want a person at the other end, not a ticket number.

The one thing that does not change

Stock or made to order, the art on a piece is not repeated. Two Frame Chairs ordered a month apart are the same chair as a design and different objects as finished things. That is the point, and it is also the reason the question to ask yourself is not whether you can wait a few weeks. It is whether you want the one that exists, or the one that will exist because you asked for it.

Common questions

Is made to order the same as custom?: No. Made to order means an existing design is built after you order it, in the specified materials and sizes. Custom, or a commission, means the design itself changes for you. The first has a known shape and a known price. The second has to be discussed.
Why is a piece made to order rather than kept in stock?: Because holding finished furniture ties up money and space, and because some pieces have choices in them, like upholstery colour, that only make sense once somebody has chosen. Building after the order also means the piece has not been sitting in a warehouse for a year.
Can I change the size of a made-to-order piece?: Sometimes, sometimes not. Changing a dimension can mean new jigs, a different frame calculation or a new mould, which turns a made-to-order piece into a commission with a different price. Ask before assuming either way.
How do I know what the terms are?: They are on the piece listing and in the order confirmation. Read what it says about lead time, payment and returns before ordering rather than after, because the answers are different for something built for you than for something taken off a shelf.