Custom furniture provides high-quality, perfectly tailored furnishings for any home. But most homeowners don't have custom furniture throughout their house or apartment. How can you find the best balance between the desire to have customized pieces and the availability of standard ones?

The answer may lie in understanding when and how to deploy custom furnishings in your own home. Here are a few of the best times to opt for customization. 

1. Customize Your Image. Your public spaces — the living room, formal dining room, and entry areas — are the parts of your home which you present to strangers and guests. These areas are meant to convey the message you want, so it makes sense to customize them when necessary to achieve exactly that message. 

2. Customize Small Spaces. When you don't have much space to work with, you need to make the best use of whatever you have. That may mean creating a piece of furniture that has very specific dimensions, can serve multiple purposes, or is differently shaped than most items like it. 

3. Customize for Specific Effect. Sometimes, standard pieces of off-the-shelf furniture can't meet certain specific goals. If decorating a room with a midcentury modern vibe, for instance, you may not have as much available inventory to select from. So if that one particular style of chair is missing from your design, you may need to help design it yourself to fill the gap.

4. Customize for Comfort. The private areas of your house — your bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchen — should be tailored to fit only your style of living. And if this means you want something just a little extra for yourself, don't feel bad making it happen. Want to recreate that handmade bed set from your honeymoon? Go ahead and make something special. 

5. Customize Long-Term Buys. Modern mass-produced furniture isn't always of the best quality, nor is it made to last. However, you don't want to have to keep spending to replace major — and costly — elements of your interior decor, like sofas, beds, and dining tables. Therefore, if you plan to keep a furniture piece for many years, this is the time to ensure good quality and the right design. 

Where to Start

No matter where in your home you think custom furniture could improve things, start by learning more about the process. Visit a custom furniture designer and manufacturer like Branch and Bark Urban Sawmill in your area today.