When it comes to interior architectural mouldings, we always strive to turn back the tide of mediocrity both through our online range of skirting boards and architraves as well as with the unique bespoke designs we create for our customers.
This is not that these products do not have some value, but rather as a nation that thrives on ethnic and cultural diversity, why should we be offered less than 10 standard styles that are available in wood/MDF so thin that it can sometimes feel that you are lifting “fresh air”? When we can have access to the styles of the past through our online collection of period architraves and skirting boards.
Yet on some occasions even our standard range of 64 designs just is not enough.
We currently undertake the manufacture of over 15 bespoke designs per month from a variety of clients, including end users, developers and designers. But the key questions that are often asked are“when should I go bespoke?”, “Are there any guides on both how I go about it and where I get them from?”.
Bespoke Designs
These are designs that are specifically made for the client and fall into three distinct categories:
- Matching – this is usually where a Period Home is undergoing some renovation and in the process the wood mouldings have been damaged or removed and need to be replaced to ensure the continuity of the room.
- Creating – Here a designer may be creating a room in a certain style and wishes to ensure that all the items are in keeping. Often he or she would use a design from our current range but on occasions we are asked to recreate a designer’s vision.
- Enhancing – Here we will either take one of our moulds and make it taller or smaller, or we will be given drawings of an actual piece to resize to meet the clients requirements.
How do I go about it?
We have tried to make the process as simple as possible. Clients send us their requirements, we create a CAD drawing for authorisation and then, once approved, the agreed specification is manufactured.
We will accept requirements in a number of different ways – They can be a sketch with dimensions, an architectural drawing or even a piece of the actual skirting, architrave, dado or picture rail.
Yet all requirements go through the same process – being redrawn as a 3D CAD file ready for authorisation, authorised and approved by the client before the cutters are manufactured and thereafter the wood moulding is manufactured and despatched.
This process has been designed with three clear objectives for the client; clarity of cost before going ahead, ability to see the design and authorise before the cutters are manufactured and no minimum quantities once the cutters have been produced.
The End result
The final result is that the client has a bespoke wood moulding that is in keeping with the period of the house and matches the existing mouldings. But more than that, they know at any time in the future more mouldings can be produced enhancing the convenience of the restoration or development process.