Creating a custom piece of furniture is a valuable skill in any interior designer’s toolkit, providing the ability to achieve a more accurate vision or show the client that you’ve taken care of crafting something special for their space. However, the early stages of the process—getting those initial angles and dimensions on paper—can feel like a push to reinvent the wheel (or chair, or sofa). If you can access existing furniture blueprints in order to create a one-of-a-kind design, why waste time going through that unnecessary first step?
With the recent launch of its new template gallery, Buildlane has developed a way to simplify the process of designing custom furniture for its designer clients, and flatten some of the creative roadblocks. The initiative provides an entry point into creating custom pieces – rather than starting with a completely blank canvas, users can browse through an extensive digital library of frames curated by the Buildlane team, and draw on the design expertise of the furniture maker to choose the best base from who builds a unique piece.
“Custom can be intimidating, whether you’re a new designer or an experienced vet,” he says. Frank IbsenFounder and CEO of Buildlane. “Our job is to make it easier.”
The new service grew out of the reluctance with which designers requested custom furniture on the Buildlane platform, which were steps along the way to creating custom pieces that produced the biggest pain points. The company found that most designers tend to make minor adjustments to established design schemes—moreover, the majority sought guidance when it came time to extract the details of a custom piece.
With templates, Buildlane’s goal is to compile a huge library of popular source patterns, which are contextualized in advance information provided to designers on best practices for the specifics of each pattern. “It’s all very thoughtful, practical and functional,” says Ibsen. “The concept of ‘molds’ is common in fields like graphic design, but no one talks about it for furniture.”
In a project led by the brand’s “Furniture Academician”, Hunter Scanlon, the software’s templates were collected through an extensive research process that included historically popular furniture designs, styles frequently requested by Buildlane’s customers, and pieces commonly found at major retailers and commercial manufacturers. In an ongoing process of building model offerings (with new picks added weekly), selected patterns are made by Buildlane’s network of furniture makers, who help finalize specifications for each mold before it hits the platform.
After registering online for a free Buildlane account, Commerce members can browse through 100 existing template library designs, all of which are offered as 3D models rendered with basic wood finishes and simple off-white upholstery. From there, designers have the ability to download a template, design a piece, upload their custom copy, and request a quote from the Buildlane team to realize the idea (or even build the model as it is in their favorite COM).
Buildlane Template GalleryCourtesy of Buildline
The new show is poised to be a hit with designers new to the podium shows, but also designers already experienced in designing pieces that are one-of-a-kind with the company. Designed in Monterey, California Ashley Yates One of those current customers, who already had experience designing blocks from scratch with Buildlane when I started testing the templates feature. I’ve found that working within the existing framework provided by templates not only speeds up her creative process, but also helps move the piece so it can pass the quote to its client in a timely manner – a desirable gesture in a climate where lead runs so stretchy. Times have become the norm. “In the field, a lot of times when people want something, they want it yesterday. Any kind of delay opens the door for them to look for something like what they want elsewhere,” says Yates.
In one case, Yates set out to build a custom cheese lounge, but had problems drawing the corners, size, and proportions of the piece exactly as she envisioned it. To solve the problem, she scanned Buildlane’s Templates database and found a traditional mid-century sofa with the kind of classic fonts she could modify to fit the piece she had envisioned. Using the program framework as a starting point, Yeats split the back of the piece in half and brought one section to the opposite side of the sofa to form the tête-a-tête piece she dreamed of.
“It was really a quick way for me to take a design concept and run a classic design, and send it in without having to do the hand-drawing from start to finish,” says Yates. “I got this crazy holistic approach to furniture design, and Buildlane gave me the tools to simplify the big picture to get results.”
By January, Buildlane expects to have over 200 live models on the site, and the team hopes to increase that number to 600 over the next year. From there, the possibilities are endless: “This is just the beginning,” says Ibsen.
Additional reporting by Siobhan McGowan. This story is a paid promotion and was created in partnership with Buildlane.
Homepage image: Courtesy of Buildlane
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