How to buy fitted furniture

• How to buy fitted furniture
• Commission a professional
• Key points to consider in dressing rooms
• Key points to consider in bedrooms
• Key points to consider in home offices
• Key points to consider in living rooms
• Useful contacts

However spacious your home, creating perfect storage systems for tvs, media centres, computers and an ever-growing collection of possessions is a challenge.

Fitted furniture will make the most of the space and is ideal for awkward corners, such as alcoves, eaves and rooms too small for standard fittings.

Bespoke companies can also produce sleek, cohesive design and offer internal storage solutions, such as revolving trouser rails, pull-out shoe racks and specialist forms of storage, to get even the most extreme hoarder organised.

WHY CHOOSE A SPECIALIST DESIGN?
There is a good choice of specialist companies, from wardrobe and home office suppliers who fit modular pieces to your specification to truly bespoke companies, and this is reflected in the price.
Personal recommendation is often the best way to find your supplier but, in the absence of that, don’t be afraid to grill the showroom staff on the products and services a company offers. Find out whether the furniture is made in the com-pany’s own workshops or assembled from components, as this will affect design flexibility.

*Truly bespoke
You can ask to visit the workshop to see the quality of build and check the sometimes loose interpretation of "bespoke". Penny Coaker at Aldenham outlines what it should mean: "A bespoke company can design furniture to any size and work around odd shapes. Look for the designer who can make any size of cup-board and cope with unusual spaces or dimensions."

*Solutions for your home
A good specialist company will send a designer to your home to assess both your lifestyle and your specific storage needs. Be honest if you are untidy, as the more information they have, the better the resulting design will be. If you don’t feel you have a good rapport with the designer before the work begins, go elsewhere. Ask a lot of questions at this point, including the proposed starting date and what happens if something goes wrong.

*Approving a design
The designer will produce initial drawings for your approval, and should show you different materials; final scale drawings will follow once the details are agreed. You may have to pay for those, but this should be refunded if the project goes ahead. Ask about lead times too.

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