Why are you designing custom furniture? You may be an interior designer for an architectural firm, a student designing furniture for a class requirement, or a homemaker who wants exceptional furniture or a table for your home. Different strokes for different folks, as the saying goes, and whatever reason that you may have in creating your furniture design, you must know some critical components in making them.
People usually design custom furniture when room space is small or the area is irregular. Another reason is when you want a unique design for your own home, and you cannot find the specific design that you like in brick and mortar furniture shops or even online. Also, you may have ideas that are mainly your own.
Some furniture would mainly serve as an ornament on a wide space, and some are mostly functional and not too pleasing to the eyes. You may also find some types of furniture that combine both function and aesthetics.
To guide you in designing that custom furniture you always have in mind, you can apply these four top design tips to help you out.
Sketch your design
If you have a furniture design in your mind, you must transfer that idea onto paper, or else it might fly off into thin air. It doesn’t matter if your drawing is a bit sketchy at first. Once you have your designs on paper, it is easier to work on different designs and shapes. You will reduce or enhance your design if you have something you can look at and alter. You may also use furniture software if you are more adept at using technology for designing your furniture. Different types of furniture software are available online that you can check out to help you with designing, measurements, visualizing dimensions, and room layouts.
Get inspiration from your surroundings
Sometimes your furniture design ideas may come from things, places, or people you often encounter. Or at other times, something that just caught your fancy may inspire you. A nature walk is an excellent motivation to improve on customizing your furniture. You may be able to get ideas from the beautiful shapes you see outside and in mundane things around you.
Do not underestimate experimentation
If your goal is to design one-of-a-kind furniture, then do not hesitate to experiment. However, it is not advisable to try your design on expensive wood. You can try making full-size or scale models but make sure to use only cheap materials for your models, such as Styrofoam, Masonite, or construction paper. In this manner, you can see the overall 3D image of your custom furniture and tables. Making scale models before you actually build your custom furniture makes you visualize your design very clear and allows you to make changes to the design and structure if you deem it necessary.
You can also try using new techniques or machinery to help achieve the specific details you want to see on your custom furniture and tables. For example, you can build a table these days without using a single wood slab but can be composed of woodblocks glued together, making a fascinating piece. Using this technique makes unique butcher block tables.
Combine different materials into your design
With the ideas and resources that you can find online, nothing can stop you from pushing through with customizing your furniture to make it unique. If you want a more eclectic design, you can find various materials that you can use aside from the usual wood or steel. You can use various materials such as rock, glass, stainless steel, copper, and handmade Japanese paper that you can experiment on by stretching, rolling, or bending to create that unique furniture or table. If you want to design a combination of different materials such as wood and metal, you should also be ready with the trade tools to help you cut, weld, and fabricate the metal components. You may also want to learn and try your hand out using these tools to help you understand how you can achieve the exceptional design you have in mind. Incorporating various materials into your design adds color, texture, sheen, patterns, strength, and functionality as each material has its unique qualities and purpose.
Designing your custom furniture and tables has many aspects to consider to make it unique and tailored according to your taste. You may have various reasons why you want your furniture and tables customized, but you must always think that aesthetics must come hand in hand with practicality and functionality.
