Custom furniture is an investment. High quality, hand-picked materials and craftsmanship that takes years to develop is what separates a cheap piece of furniture from one that you will hand down to your children.
In this post I will shed light on one of the factors that determines the price of a custom furniture piece: cost of materials. I’ll discuss what kinds of materials I use to build custom furniture, why I use them, and how much they cost today (January 2026).
I also run some interesting AI experiments with ChatGPT to estimate material costs using photos of completed projects.
Ok let’s get into it…
Selection Criteria
Wood used for custom furniture is chosen based on several factors:
- Strength/hardness
- Grain prominence and figure
- Color
- Weather resistance
Wood strength and density is a balancing act, because you want to use materials that are strong enough to support the design, hard enough to resist wear and tear, but soft enough that they can still be easily machined without unnecessary tool wear. This is why you don’t see a lot of exotic hardwoods used in furniture because the immense hardness and oil content in the wood makes them a nightmare to work with.
Selection for grain prominence and figure always depends on the individual design. For a complex design with a lot going on, using a wood with a prominent figure can make the piece look too busy and thus detracts for the overall appeal. On the other hand, if the design is very simplistic, you might want to rely on a highly figured wood to give it that visual interest.
Color is pure design preference. For almost all my furniture pieces I try to stick to finishes that highlight the natural tone of the wood versus staining to produce a different color. I typically strive for calming/neutral colors in my designs, so I select wood species accordingly.
Indoor furniture has a lot more freedom when it comes to wood choices vs outdoor. Mother nature has its way of slowly imposing her will on outdoor furniture by UV radiation, temperature fluctuations, and precipitation. Endurance of outdoor furniture heavily relies on a quality wood finish and regular maintenance, but starting with a weather and rot-resistant material is fundamental to making a piece last in the elements.
My Top 5
Here are some of my common hardwood choices for my indoor furniture, and why I use them.
White Oak:
- - Very strong/impact resistant
- - Neutral light tan color, great for modern pieces
- - Grain can be subtle or prominent based on the piece
- - Machines well for a high-hardness wood
Walnut:
- - Good strength to weight ratio (lighter than white oak but still a strong furniture choice)
- - Rich medium to dark brown color with beautiful color variation, and occasional red and purple hues
- - Can be straight grained or wavy
- - Very easy on tools
Hard Maple:
- - Very hard and very impact resistant (great for surfaces that take abuse)
- - Can be difficult on tools (can cause burning)
- - Grain is very subtle
- - Very light tan color (can have warmer tint with oil finishes)
European Beech:
- - Good strength and hardness
- - Easy machinability
- - Tight and subtle grain, very consistent throughout
- - Very muted light tan but can be warmer depending on finish
Cherry:
- - Good strength and hardness
- - Very little seasonal wood movement
- - Easy on machines but harder on hand tools
- - Subtle grain prominence, dark brown/reddish color (weathers darker over time)
Ok now for price….
Hardwood lumber is sold by “board foot”. This is a volumetric unit. 1 board foot represents the equivalent volume of a 12” x 12” x 1” square.
For example, a board that is 12” wide by 24” long by 1” thick would be 2 board feet, but a similar board that is 2” thick would be 4 board feet (remember… volume).
Below is a list of the five most common woods I use and their average price per board foot in the Connecticut area. This highlights the significant difference that wood species selection can have on the overall cost of a project.
Now if you read this chart and ask yourself “How do I determine what the cost of materials might be for the piece I’m interested in?”
I ran a quick experiment with the help of AI to estimate material costs for furniture designs using pictures of some of my past projects. (The last example, a dining table, is not my work but is used it to give a good representative sample of possible furniture size)
My prompt to ChatGPT read “Please use this image and estimate the amount of wood in board feet that it would take to build this piece of furniture. The piece has an overall dimension of x, y, and z. Apply a conservative factor of 1.2 for wood waste.”
I then compared ChatGPT’s response to what I actually spent on wood for these projects. I was surprised to find that it was pretty damn close.
There were occasions where the chatbot made assumptions that were not quite accurate, but it was easy enough to provide some simple corrections to yield a more accurate number.
Below are the five furniture photos I used in the prompt, and a list of estimated wood cost for each of my top five favorite woods.
Nightstand Set
Coffee Table
Side Table
Bookcase
Dining Table
Conclusion
Once again, lumber costs are only one part of the equation. The complexity and size of the design is also a significant factor that will affect the ultimate cost to build the piece. But this should provide some insight into what quality materials cost to help better equip clients when requesting furniture commissions.
This blog post will be part of a “Client Corner” series where I share relevant information about the custom furniture building process. These posts are meant to equip current and potential clients with the necessary information to better understand and appreciate the work that goes into designing and building quality furniture.
I plan to write a future post touching on how different design details impact labor time and cost, so be on the lookout for that!
If you have questions about custom commissions, don’t hesitate to contact me on my website or Instagram. I’m always happy to answer questions on any topic!
Thanks all.