I’ve been designing quite a bit of custom furniture for my clients recently and thought it would be fun to share the process: from inspiration to execution to the finished product. Naomi recently did this with a beautiful custom console and I loved seeing all of the steps!

A couple months ago I had clients who wanted something really special for dining chairs. Unfortunately, most of what is available at retail is really basic and a lot of the to-the-trade options were more than we wanted to spend, so we decided to have something custom made.

We started here, with the inspiration image. We loved the shape and color but wanted to remove the “handle opening” from the back, simplify the leg and alter the curve a bit.

From the inspiration, our workroom built a prototype chair. I went and sat on it and felt the seat was a bit narrow and the back was a little wide. With a couple revisions we were ready to move forward.

We chose a cobalt velvet, white gimp and widely spaced nickel nailheads and voila! The finished product.

And this is a picture my client recently posted of their first dinner party with their new chairs!