Why is Pine furniture so expensive ?

[Steve Maskery]

Hi guys
What do you consider to be an acceptable salary? I think the UK average is about 22K these days, so lets take that for a start, shall we?
Let us assume there are 220 working days in a year (weekends, hols, changing the blades on the planer, taking the cat to the vet, granny's funeral etc, etc). That means we want £100/day in our pocket
40% for wages is about right, so we have to multiply that by 2.5 = 240/day = £30/ hour for labour.
Could you make that pine bookcase in a day?Design it, visiting the client a couple of times. Go to the timber yard for the wood. Machine the stock, cut the joints, assemble it (using a few hundred quids worth of clamps) spray, sand, spray, sand, spray, polish. Deliver it. Print an invoice, wait to get paid, then go to the bank to cash the cheque. Only then can you spend the "profit".
I don't know about you, but I don't think I could do all that for £199 all in, not to the sort of standard I would be happy with.
I do NOT think that most people are happy to pay for quality. Most people want q, yes, but they are NOT happy to pay the economic cost of it. A bit more than IK**, maybe, but bespoke furniture of the quality we all aspire to is EXPENSIVE to make. I have a FEW clients, who have the taste and income to satisfy that taste. I don't make a profit. I'd need to make 4-5K a year just to get a return on the investment of my capital outlay, let alone any labour. Otherwise I might as well invest it in shares.
As Mrs Beeton might have said, "First equip your workshop". Any advance on 30K, anyone?
Cheers
Steve (MBA )

 

[johnelliott]

I'd like to add to what Steve said, that the average customer in a 'Pine shop' or DFS don't understand what 'quality' is-
They don't understand the difference between veneered and solid furniture until it is carefully explained to them. Even then, they don't see any reason to pay extra for solid.
They don't understand about traditional woodworking techniques such as dovetails.
When buying furniture all they want is to be able to view several different units of the same type, choose between them and have their choice delivered within the next few days. They will NOT be choosing on the basis of which dresser has a T&G back or a printed hardboard back.

Anyone who want's to make money doing woodwork would be well advised to look at the custom kitchen market, because this is where real money is spent and people understand about waiting a couple of months for soemthing to be specially made

John

 

[Dog]

Now I understand why pine furniture is so expensive Good points all round!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tony
In your profile you can set it so that you get an E-mail every time that a post is made in a thread that you posted in.

All the best

John

Ahh, I see. Do you receive the actual post or just a notification ?

Cheers

Tony

 

[johnjin]

Hi Tony

Just the notification.
Which is more than enough if you are very active on here.

John