What 'bespoke' actually involves, week by week

"Bespoke" is used to mean anything from "we changed the fabric" to "we designed it from nothing." Here is what it means at our workshop, with the real durations.

Week 0 — the conversation

Usually on WhatsApp, often with a photograph of the room and a photograph of something you saw online. We are not offended by reference images; we would rather see them.

We ask what the room is actually used for, who uses it, and what you disliked about the last piece that stood there. That last question tells us more than the reference image does.

Week 1 — survey and drawing

We measure the room and the delivery route ourselves anywhere in Osun State. You receive a scaled drawing and a materials list, not a mood board.

Week 2 — materials and deposit

You see the actual timber, the actual fabric swatches and the actual leather hides. Not a printed sample card. A 60% deposit releases the piece into the build queue and locks the price against material cost movement.

Weeks 3–7 — the build

Frame, then joinery, then finishing, then upholstery. You get photographs at frame stage and at finish stage. If something has to change — a board that turns out to have a defect, a fabric that turns out to be discontinued — you hear about it that week, not at delivery.

Week 8 — delivery and install

We deliver, assemble in the room, take the packaging away and do not leave until you have sat on it.

Where the time actually goes

People assume the delay is the workshop being slow. Mostly it is finishing: a hardwax oil needs to cure between coats, and there is no way to hurry a cure without producing a finish that marks. A piece that arrives in ten days arrived with a finish that was still soft.