Bolstead House
Made to Order
What happens between the swatch landing on your doormat and the sofa landing in your room.
Nothing in this building is made before it is sold. There is no warehouse, no clearance rail and no cloth we have not sat on ourselves. That has a cost, and the cost is time: about seven weeks in a house cotton, closer to eleven in a hide.
One upholsterer per piece
Your sofa is not passed down a line. One person takes it from bare beech frame to finished cover and signs the underside of the deck when it is done. If a seam is wrong in three years, we know whose hand made it and they will be the one to put it right.
Sizes actually move
Width, depth, seat height, seat depth and arm profile can all be altered. Custom sizing adds six working days because new patterns have to be cut and proofed. Full bespoke — an altered size plus contrast piping, buttoning or a second cloth — adds eleven.
Before we cut anything we ask three questions: how wide is the doorway, how tight is the turn at the top of the stairs, and is there a lift. The scale tool further down this page will tell you whether a piece clears a standard 810 mm opening on its side.
Delivery
Two people, into the room you want it in, unwrapped, placed, and the packaging taken away with them. We do not leave a sofa in a hallway.
Lead times
Where the weeks actually go.
Made to order is not a delay, it is a queue you can see into. These are the same working-day figures the workroom plans against.
49 days, swatch to living room
- 01 Swatch and selection 5 d Up to eight swatches posted free. The clock starts when you order them.
- 02 Order placed, cloth reserved 3 d House cottons ship from our own racks. Mill cloth is called off against your order.
- 03 Pattern cutting 4 d Every panel is cut by hand against the nap so the pile runs one way.
- 04 Frame build and sprung base 7 d Kiln-dried beech, dowelled and corner-blocked, then eight-way hand-tied.
- 05 Sewing and upholstery 16 d One upholsterer takes a piece from bare frame to finished cover.
- 06 Finishing and inspection 4 d Legs fitted, seams checked under raking light, cushions filled and weighed.
- 07 Delivery and installation 10 d Two-person delivery, unwrapped, placed and the packaging taken away.
Counted in working days from the morning your swatches are posted. Hides and woven-to-order cloth add to the reservation stage; altered sizes add pattern work before sewing begins.
Start here
Swatches before decisions
Eight pieces of cloth, posted flat, no charge and nothing to return. Live with them for a week beside your own walls and your own light before you spend anything.
