This is how furniture procurement works at BPH, in six stages. We tell you what happens at each one, what we need from you, and roughly how long it takes.
The lead times below are real. They assume approvals come back when they are asked for, which is the single thing most likely to move a date.
1. Brief and costing
We need: a schedule, a drawing set, a moodboard, or a description. Room dimensions if you have them.
We do: identify the right manufacturing route for each item, get supplier pricing, and come back with an item-by-item costing in pounds. Branded pieces are priced against our trade accounts. Bespoke items are priced by the workshop best suited to them.
Typically: three to five working days for a straightforward schedule. Longer where stone or specialist metalwork needs quoting.
You see the numbers line by line, not as a single total. If one item is distorting the budget, you will be able to see which.
2. Supplier selection and quotation
We do: confirm the route, issue a formal quotation, and set out payment terms and the delivery basis.
Where it is useful we price the same schedule two ways — Turkish manufacture against a UK workshop — and give you both. On one recent residential package the client took the comparison and split the order, sending upholstery to London and the case goods to Turkey.
Standard terms: sixty per cent on order, forty per cent before delivery. Quotations valid fourteen days.
3. Samples and drawings
We do: issue manufacturing drawings for every bespoke unit, plus physical samples — finish panels, stone offcuts, fabric cuttings, ironmongery.
You do: approve them, or mark them up. Nothing goes into production until this is signed off.
This stage exists because a stone sample looks different in a London flat than it does in a workshop photograph. Approving from a screen is how projects go wrong.
Typically: one to three weeks, mostly depending on how fast approvals come back.
4. Production and quality control
We do: place the order, monitor production, and inspect before anything ships.
For Turkish manufacture that means physically visiting the workshop during the run. Carcass construction, finish quality, hardware, dimensional accuracy against the drawings. Faults get corrected in the workshop, where correcting them is cheap and does not cost you a delivery date.
This is the stage that most procurement failures trace back to, and it is the reason we go.
Typically: six to ten weeks for bespoke joinery. Branded furniture runs to the manufacturer’s own lead time, which can be anything from four weeks to six months.
5. Freight, customs and warehousing
We do: book the freight, handle the Incoterm, clear customs, and take the goods into UK warehousing.
Turkish-origin furniture normally clears at zero duty under UK–Turkey trade terms with valid proof of origin. Import VAT at twenty per cent applies on the landed value. We handle the paperwork; you are not registering for anything.
Warehousing matters on larger projects. Goods land ahead of need and are released when site is ready, which is rarely the same week.
Typically: ten to fourteen days road freight from Turkey, plus clearance.
6. Delivery and installation
We do: deliver to site and install. White-glove as standard — unpacked, positioned, assembled, packaging removed.
Fitted joinery is installed by our own teams. Loose furniture is placed to the room plan.
You do: walk it with us and snag it. Anything wrong is ours to put right.
What this means in practice
You have one contact for the whole of it. When a workshop misses a date, a forwarder loses a crate, or a brand’s admin sends the wrong Incoterm, you do not hear about it as a problem to solve. You hear about it as something we have already dealt with, if you hear about it at all.
Careful planning before production is why that is usually true.
Common questions
How long does a full residential package take? Twelve to twenty weeks from approval to install, on average. Branded pieces with long factory lead times can extend it.
Can I visit the workshop? Yes. Clients and designers are welcome on QC visits.
What if I only want part of this? Supply-only is fine. So is sourcing without installation. Take the stages you want.