Furniture Design Service

Furniture Design

Sam Nichol Designs offers a full furniture design service, from initial design concept to complete manufacturing drawings. I am an experienced furniture designer specialising in upholstery, banquettes, cabinetry and metalwork and have a deep understanding of materials and manufacturing methods

Work Includes

Worked for bespoke and mass manufacture in UK, Europe and East Asia. Strong understanding of manufacturing and processes, including hand-made and 3-Axis CNC work.
Maison 191 designing and developing British made furniture
Live Iconic, a London-based furniture company creating new designs for the low-mid range market.
Developing an in-depth range of flat-pack wardrobes and shelving units for Monty Payter.
Work frequently with Upholster London on banquettes and bespoke upholstered seating, including the London National Gallery.

Design Process

If you want furniture designed we have a process we prefer to follow below. This tested system allows for an excellent design, that is thought through, to every detail and results in the fastest design to manufacture time.

We start by discussing the brief together and going over details, ideas, manufacturing methods, timelines etc...

Then we start to work on research and inspiration for the design, this can vary widely depending on the brief. This will then be shown and discussed with you to make sure that everyone aggress on a rough direction for the design.

Then the sketch work begins, multiple pages of multiple variations of the furniture, this can seem random and often strange. But this is the idea, we show you this to allow any bad ideas out and good ones to flourish, long discussions of details etc with multiple iterations will be discussed then a few final designs can be worked on.

From the previous conversation, around three designs will be drawn in detail. This will be shown to you and discussed to come to a final furniture design concept. This will give the overall shape and size, material choices and manufacturing methods.

One will then be picked and refined with a 3D model. This Model will be fully detailed, with thoughts given to detail manufacturing, joining methods, upholstery choices etc. This will then be shown and can be adjusted/changed on your decisions.It's often good to include the manufacturer at this stage with feedback on changes to help in making.

After the 3D model is approved, a 3D render can be made to make sure that all details are aesthetically ok, material choices work and any final clients who need to sign off work are happy.

After complete design sign off is finished, we can work on the manufacture drawings. These can vary from General Assembly overview to full framing details with fixing details or CNC manufacture models. Again it is advisable to send these to the manufacture to make sure they are happy with the construction before it is completely signed off.