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How we price things
In general, labor is more of a factor than materials. It takes a tremendous amount of time to make City Joinery furniture. Moving parts, such as drawers and doors add expense. Certain processes are much more expensive than others. Harder woods are more difficult to work with than softer ones. Tables with slides and leaves, for example, take more time to make than those without.
Certain woods are not only more expensive for us to acquire, but are much more difficult to work with because of their grain structure or sheer hardness. These species, such as Tiger Maple, Ebony, or Bloodwood, among many others, add cost to a piece's total price.
Dining chairs are the most difficult to make. Many people expect (based on years of buying from factory based production companies) that a chair should cost a small fraction of the cost of an accompanying table, but this is not the case. A well-made chair is almost as much work as a table. When you make things by hand, one at a time, you cannot avoid this reality. The result though, is something that is not only a pleasure to sit in, but will also last a long time.
In some cases we can value engineer a design to meet budgets. Volume pricing is possible in certain circumstances, but our process of making things one at a time allows limited economies of scale.
Discounts for architects and interior designers are not available. We can offer favorable pricing on certain large projects, but our ability is limited by the labor-intensive nature of what we do.
Creating value
City Joinery furniture may seem expensive to some at first glance, but we design our pieces with long-lasting value in mind. In fact, we believe the furniture will increase in value over time. The care we put into a piece of furniture is such that it will get better with age, unlike most things on the market today.
We know we are not getting rich from making it! Far too much work goes into it for that ...
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