The whole journey, mapped
The journey runs: a free conversation, with us or Nadia at any hour; free deciding tools, samples, your room drawn to scale, your sofa rendered in your own photograph; the order, with a 50% deposit to begin; approximately eight weeks of genuine making in the UK; delivery, with the access already solved on paper; and then the long, supported ownership of washing, plumping, additional covers and, years on, the replacement cover. Nothing on this map costs anything until the deposit, and nothing after delivery leaves you alone with the sofa.
Shops sell objects; workshops conduct journeys, and the difference deserves a map rather than a surprise. What follows is every stage in order, with what happens, what it costs (mostly nothing), and what you should expect of us at each one, written down so you can hold us to it.
Stage one: the deciding, all free
It begins with a conversation, not a basket: tell us or Nadia about the room, the household and the life the sofa is for, at any hour, in any state of decision. Then the tools arrive, every one of them free and without obligation. Samples, five of your own choosing for �5.95 postage, with matched cuttings free once we are working together, to audition in your actual light. The floor plan: send measurements and photographs, however rough, and our design team draws the room to scale with your candidate sizes placed in it, walkways and door swings included. The render: your exact specification, fabric, cushions, skirt, pictured in a photograph of your own room. And the access check: the route in, measured and solved before anything is made, including the split frame conversation where it is needed. By the end of stage one you have seen the sofa in your room twice, on paper and in pixels, held its fabric in your hand, and spent nothing but the postage.
Stage two: the making and the arrival
The order is the moment the workshop starts: a 50% deposit begins production, and your sofa, which until now existed only as a specification, starts becoming timber, springs and cut fabric. The UK lead time is approximately eight weeks, and it is genuine making time, the frame joined, the seat sprung by hand, your fabric cut and pattern-matched, the covers sewn and finished, over fifty hours of skilled handwork; we keep you informed along the way rather than leaving the weeks silent. The balance is due when your piece is ready for dispatch, and delivery day itself should be the anticlimax good planning makes it: the route already measured, the sofa arriving as expected, covers dressed, cushions plumped, and the room changed. If anything at all is not right, that counts as a same-week conversation with the people who made it, not a discovery you live with.
Stage three: the decades, supported
Most furniture journeys end at the door; ours turns into the long, quiet stage that justifies everything before it. The early weeks settle in, with the habits worth starting immediately. The years run on washing days at 30 degrees, plumping rituals sized to your fill, and rotation that shares the wear. The wardrobe options stay open for life: an additional cover whenever the household wants a spare or a season, a replacement cover whenever a decade or a redecoration calls for one, each tailored to your exact sofa. And throughout, the same team and the same workshops answer the phone, for care questions, for covers, for the moving-house measurements, for whatever year fifteen brings. The map has no edge on the right-hand side. That is the design.
The honest length of the journey
Counted end to end, first conversation to delivered sofa is typically a few months: the deciding takes as long as you give it, and the making takes its eight honest weeks. We will not pretend that is impulse-purchase territory, and we built the journey for people choosing the next few decades rather than the next few days. What we promise in return is that no stage is padded: the free tools exist to make deciding faster and surer, the lead time is making rather than queueing, and the long right-hand side of the map, the supported decades, is where the journey quietly pays for all of it.
The map has no edge on the right-hand side. That is the design.
SophieLovely things to do next
Wherever you are on the map, the door for that stage is here.
Questions, answered honestly
How does buying a made-to-order sofa work?
In three stages: free deciding (conversation, samples, a to-scale floor plan, a render of your spec in your room, the access check), the making (50% deposit to begin, approximately eight weeks of genuine UK making, balance at dispatch), and the supported decades after delivery, with care help and covers for life.
What does the deciding stage cost?
Nothing beyond �5.95 postage on a set of five self-chosen samples: the floor plan, the render, the access check and every conversation with Nadia or the team are free and without obligation, and matched cuttings are free once we are working together. Nothing is owed until the deposit starts the workshop.
How long does the whole journey take?
Typically a few months end to end: the deciding takes as long as you give it, and the making takes approximately eight honest weeks in the UK, which is real workshop time rather than a queue. We keep you informed throughout, and the access is solved on paper before delivery day arrives.
When do I pay?
Half and half: a 50% deposit begins production, and the balance is due when your sofa is ready for dispatch. Everything before the deposit, all the deciding tools, costs nothing, so the first money changes hands only when the specification is exactly what you want.
What support exists after delivery?
The same team and workshops, indefinitely: care and washing questions, plumping advice, additional covers, replacement covers years later, and moving-house help. The journey is designed without a right-hand edge, because a sofa built for decades deserves a maker who stays for them.