Furniture can transform and define a certain space, not just aesthetically but functionally also. Placing the right furniture at the right place is the first step to design in any space, so your furniture must be user-friendly according to your requirements otherwise it can also turn into a disaster.
The biggest question that comes to anyone’s mind before choosing furniture for their space is whether to go for modular or ready-made furniture from the market or you get skilled labor and get it made on-site that is to customize according to your requirements.
It is believed by many interior experts that furniture is that element of any space that makes or breaks a space both in terms of aesthetics and functionality, so if you do the furniture right, you already have achieved an ideal interior.
So, at the end of this debate, it is very important for one to know all the pros and cons of each type and then make a wise decision instead of jumping into the results. So let us see and compare their pros and cons one by one to understand both of them wisely.
Typical Process of Manufacturing Furniture (In Factories)
- Cutting
- Edge-binding
- Lamination
- Polishing / Finishing
In factories or in ready-made furniture manufacturing a lot of machinery is used so of course, the finishing looks better. So, you need to make sure in the customization process you have labors who:-
- Have good materials to give the factory-like or even better finishing.
- Who are skilled enough to understand your thought process
- Who has the ability to complete the work on time.
Advantages of Modular/Ready-made Furniture
The top-most advantages of buying the furniture directly from the market are:-
1. Speed of Delivery
You know you can just directly approach any furniture showroom at your local place and get it delivered the very same day. So you don’t have to wait at al
2. Wide Range of Variety
Another benefit of ready-made furniture is you can just directly approach the local store without even giving time in thinking about your choices. When you visit the store you will be amused by the wide range of choices in terms of colors, sizes, and design that you will get and make a decision accordingly by comparing it to your space and design requirements.
3. Affordable
Ready-made material is always much affordable overall as they are made in bulk in the factories, so they have usually a lot of margins. Also, the great offers and your bargaining skills can make them even more affordable.
4. Movable
Another great advantage of modular or ready-made furniture is you can move it anywhere around the house when needed or even if you are shifting as they usually come in standard sizes which can fit everywhere.
Advantages of Customized Furniture
The top-most advantages of customized furniture you one must know are:-
1. Fit Your Needs
The biggest advantage of customized furniture is that it can fit your needs according to your requirements for e.g. the furniture sizes in markets comes in standard sizes but you might need extra storage capacity which you would not be able to get in the ready-made furniture. So, you may be able to achieve the following things with customized furniture:-
- To fit your size requirements.
- To fit your space requirements.
- To fit your design requirements
- To fit your budget requirements.
- Freedom to add/subtract.
2. Trust in Quality
Oftentimes it is seen that the furniture from the market starts chipping or breaking off after some time or it is not able to take a lot of a load of your stuff, this is because the quality of material used is not premium or up to the mark.
So when you get your furniture customized you have the liberty to choose all the materials on your own almost at the same cost.
3. Match your Interior
When you customize furniture on-site you can easily match it with your already done interior of the house like wall color, space needs, etc. You can even get it to design however you want it with whatever colors and textures you want to put on it that matches the particular space.
4. Durability
You just cannot always trust the durability of the furniture from those furniture stores, because they are made in bulk in the factory, but you can always trust what’s being manufactured in front of your eyes right? You can research the best quality of wood, laminates and other finishing materials and get them customized in front of you.
Comparative analysis Between Customized and Readymade Furniture
1. General Design vs User Specifics
In the case of customized furniture, all the materials in terms of functions to aesthetics can be personally chosen so there are high chances of your furniture being unique from others while so your thought process is exclusively yours whereas the ready-made furniture is general in terms of size and design so it won’t be unique it can be repetitive.
2. Adaptive vs Rigid Structure
Custom-made furniture is mode adaptive in nature as compared to factory-made. For e.g, you have a really lavish big bedroom so you need to have a large built-in wardrobe to be installed in it. In furniture stores, you will generally find wardrobes of sizes 6-8 feet but you need to have a wardrobe of at least 12 feet so in that case, you can’t go for factory-made furniture you will have to get it customized according to your space needs.
Therefore ready-made furniture is more rigid and confined in nature so they are not easily adaptable according to your needs.
3. Pocket Friendly vs Value for Money
Ready-made furniture is definitely inexpensive but you must know that most of the factory-made furniture is made from plywood, fiberboard, and other engineered wood instead of authentic wood. Hence they do not even last long so even if it is inexpensive it is not worth it.
Whereas custom-made furniture is initially expensive but they are a kind of investment as they last for a much longer time due to the use of authentic materials from scratch.
4. Flexible vs Static
Custom-made furniture is not flexible as their production costs a lot of time, effort, and most importantly money. Also as they are made according to the design requirements of a particular space they are not easily movable and easily subject to change. So overall custom furniture is quite static in nature.
Whereas the investment in ready-made furniture is not very high so they can be easily changed within sometime according to the change in taste or even space’s interior. So they can be easily moved from one place to the other.
5. Duration Short vs Long
As custom-made furniture is made from scratch by the owner from thinking about the design, explaining it to laborers from time to time to running to markets to buy the best possible raw materials and then executing it by the laborers takes a lot of time.
Whereas ready-made furniture is very easily accessible and can be fetched from any furniture store whenever you require it.
So these were the main analysis points on custom-made and ready-made furniture both have their own pros and cons, so the decision should be based on your requirements, needs, and budget.
If you are planning to build a space for the long term then it is advised to go for custom made furniture for the longevity and durability that it gives but if you are a frequent traveler and you easily get bored with furniture sometimes then going for ready-made furniture would be the right decision.
– Asmita Madan
