Frequently Asked Questions

Please check below our frequently asked questions

Q1. How much will it cost?

A1. Our average order value is around £5,000 including VAT and a 10 year insurance backed guarantee. However, prices can start from as little as £1,500. Because Options furniture is bespoke or, in other words individually designed, manufactured and installed, the price does not exist until the installation is conceived. However, we are very happy to give guide prices. You can: a. Call to speak to the duty designer, on 0845 375 2959. b. Send us an email describing what you require with approximate dimensions, and please provide a contact phone number so we can discuss any queries. c. Post or fax a dimensioned sketch of the room with a brief description of your requirements and full contact details. d. Visit our factory/showroom and talk to a designer. Monday to Friday 10 to 5 pm, weekends by appointment. e. Arrange for a designer to visit your home for a free, no obligation design and quotation.

Q2. Can I design the furniture myself?

A2. Yes, please discuss your designs with an Options designer who will be able to advise you on practical issues and will endeavour to adapt your ideas to suit our production methods.

Q3. Can I take references?

A3. Yes. We have a massive database of existing clients and we will be able to refer you to somebody in your area for reference purposes. However, you may prefer to visit our factory showroom and to read through our impressive file of 'thank you' letters

Q4. How can I be sure that I will be satisfied with the furniture and service?

A4. Our customer satisfaction rate is independently audited by The Consumer Protection Association. Since 2003 they have given us a customer satisfaction rate of 98 to 99%. The results for the first quarter of 2007 gave us a 100% satisfaction rate. About 33% of our new business comes from previous customers and their friends.

Q5. Can I take the furniture with me if I move house?

A5. Probably. We offer a dismantling and packing service and providing you move within the South East we will adapt and re-install at your new address. Please talk to a designer about this service.

Q6. Do you have any sales or special offers?

A6. No. Our industry is plagued with dishonest claims and "special offers". Many of our competitors have permanent "half-price sales" and it is amazing how often these sales are about to "end today". Please do not be fooled by these sharp practices. We are responsive to market forces but we do not infate our prices in order to "drop close" as the practice is called in the "direct selling" home improvement market.

Q7. How do your prices compare to your competitors?

A7. We operate in a competitive market and believe that we offer exceptional value for money. Our main competitors are: A carpenter. This should be your cheapest option and we do not attempt to match the freelance carpenter on price. However, there is a qualitative difference between cabinet making and carpentry. A carpenter cannot match our quality of finish, you will not know exactly what you are going to get until you have got it and a carpenter may turn your home into a workshop for weeks and even months. A cabinet maker. The cabinet maker is a highly skilled craftsperson who usually has his or her own workshop producing fine furniture. Expect to pay a premium over our prices for good quality hand-made cabinetry. The sheds. This term includes MFI, B&Q and Ikea. Our prices will be higher but a shed will not offer the quality and the flexibility of size and design. Also you will not enjoy a free in-home design and installation service. These products are intended for DIY installation or you can employ your own fitter, but remember, you take the ultimate responsibility for the finished installation. Major home improvement companies. These are our main competitors on quality and price: Sharps are the largest and usually the cheapest. However, they come nowhere near on quality and choice. Hammonds' prices and quality are usually comparable but they pre-manufacture and cannot offer the flexibility on sizes and finish. Neville Johnson and Conquest come close on quality but tend to be more expensive. Smallbone and Christians represent the top end of the market and will be more expensive. All the major home improvement companies except Smallbone and Christians have standard sizes of doors and carcasses and cannot claim to be producing bespoke furniture.

Q8. Do you have your own fitters?

A8. Yes. Our fitters are contracted to work for Options on a full-time basis and are under our direct control. We do not sub-contract to independent freelance installers. We do call on a small group of trades-people with particular skills in particular circumstances. These are well tried and trusted individuals.

Q9. Do you offer special hand paint finishes?

A9. Yes. We have specialist finishers who will apply special paint effects to lacquered mdf after installation.

Q10. What if I change my mind after order?

A10. We go to extraordinary lengths to allow, and even encourage, you to change your mind. After you place an order our surveyor/consolidator will visit to check the dimensions and complete a more thorough survey than our designer may have had time to. He will also ask you to re-approve the samples and then ensure that we have understood fully your expectations and requirements. In the majority of cases this results in revisions. This is the time to tell us anything that is worrying you about the design or finish. We are more than pleased to accommodate changes at the survey stage and we know that this ensures satisfied customers who will recommend us to their friends.

Q11. What happens after I place an order?

A11. Our administrator will write to confirm receipt of your deposit and will issue the CPA insurance backed guarantee. and will then telephone to arrange for the surveyor to call. It is helpful to prepare a written list about your concerns or questions and the surveyor will be able to address these issues when he visits. Approximately two weeks after placing your order you will receive a set of working drawings and a schedule showing all the detail and information we require to manufacture your furniture. We will then contact you to arrange for our surveyor to call. The surveyor will re-measure the room taking careful note of existing features such as electrical services. He will also review the drawings with you, explaining any confusing details and will give you the opportunity to reconsider important factors such as the door type, finish, colour and handles. We will then issue a revised set of drawings and schedule if necessary. This is your final opportunity to make changes or raise any points of concern. After we receive your approval of the drawings and finishes we order the raw materials and schedule your order for production. This is a good time to remind us of any fitting deadline. As your order comes to the top of the production schedule, our administrator will call you again to arrange for installation. Because we operate a 'just in time', bespoke production system, we cannot start production until we have an approximation of the fitting date. During the production phase we will contact you again to arrange a delivery date which is normally the day proceeding the first day of installation. On delivery we ask you to make your payments up to 90% of the total. On completion we ask that you inspect the work and pay the final 10%. Finally we issue you with your insurance backed guarantee, thank you again for your custom and hope that you will use our service again and recommend us to your friends and family.

Q12. Are your materials ethically sourced?

A12. We rarely use tropical hardwoods and then we only buy from established importers whose timber is certificated as being from sustainable sources. The vast majority of the hardwoods we use are oak, walnut and cherry from European and North American plantations.

Q13. Is the furniture guaranteed?

A13. Yes, all Options furniture comes with an insurance backed 10 year guarantee.

Q14. Do you use high pressure sales techniques?

A14. No.

Q15. Do you make free standing furniture?

A15. Yes. Because our furniture is bespoke we can make almost anything but you must expect to pay a premium over the cost of mass produced free standing furniture.

Q16. Where is the nearest Options showroom?

A16. Options has one showroom attached to the factory at Mitcham.

Q17. Is Options furniture made in standard size modules?

A17. No, everything is individually dimensioned for a perfect fit.

Q18. How do you deal with sloping ceilings?

A18. Our surveyors calculate the angles accurately and we manufacture the furniture to fit precisely. We do not 'cut-down' from standard doors or adapt on site.

Q19. Can I have the furniture in any colour?

A19. Yes. You can choose from a paint manufacturers colour chart, specify a Pantone colour or provide us with a sample to match to.

Q20. Do Options make real wood furniture?

A20. Yes. You can choose any hardwood that we can obtain, the most popular being: oak, maple, cherry, ash and walnut. These can be in solid wood or veneered on mdf. We can stain woods to any shade and we always submit samples for approval before manufacture.

Q21. What Are Foils, Laminates and Vinyls?

A21. These are increasingly popular wood substitutes that give a very realistic woodgrain finish to mdf and chipboard. The particular benefits are economy, an extensive range of exotic wood effects, durability, and consistency of colour and grain that make them ideal for fitted furniture.

Q22. What materials do you use?

A22. The doors and exteriors are from three groups of product with thousands of permutations of wood, wood effect and colour: 1.Solid hardwoods or hardwood veneer on mdf. 2. Woodgrain foil or vinyl 3. Lacquered paint finish (matt, satin or gloss) on mdf The interiors are usually high quality laminated chipboard in a broad choice of wood effects, plain colours and metallic effects but can be from the same materials as the doors if required.

Q23. Is the furniture 'rigid' or 'flat-pack'?

A23. Wherever possible, Options furniture is pre-assembled at our factory and sent out rigid. For practical delivery reasons wardrobes are assembled on site.

Q24. Where is the furniture manufactured?

A24. At our factory showroom in Mitcham.

Q25. What geographic areas do you service?

A25. London and the South East is our core trading area but we have been tempted further afield, even overseas on occasion. Please contact us to discuss out of area projects. We also have some retailers using our products in other parts of the UK, please ask for details. Most of our made to measure, bespoke fitted furniture is supplied in the home counties of Surrey, East Sussex, West Sussex, Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire (Herts), Buckinghamshire (Bucks), Bedfordshire, (Beds), Middlesex Hampshire and Greater London including south London, south west (SW) London, east London, north London, north west (NW) London, west London and central London. Also, by appointment Dorset, Wiltshire (Wilts), Warwickshire, Suffolk, Oxfordshire (Oxon) and Cambridgeshire (Cambs)

Q26. Do I have to pay for the furniture before it is delivered or installed?

A26. No, we do ask for a deposit and stage payments but we do not require more than 50% before delivery and always allow you to retain 10% until the work is completed.

Q27. Why is bespoke fitted furniture more expensive than ready-made furniture?

A27. Design costs: With ready-made furniture the cost of employing a designer to design a cabinet, a chest of drawers or a range of bedroom units can be recovered across hundreds, or even thousands of copies. Bespoke furniture is designed once for each individual installation. Survey costs: When you buy ready-made furniture, the onus is on you to ensure that what you buy will fit the space. A bespoke furniture maker makes fitted furniture to fit a space to the nearest millimetre in all three dimensions; if it doesn't its scrap. Therefore the manufacturer must follow the carpenter's rule 'measure twice and cut once'. The ready-made furniture maker measures once and cuts many times. Factory down-time: In a factory that makes ready-made furniture the machines are set up once to cut, finish and fabricate hundreds of identical pieces of furniture. In a bespoke workshop the machines are reset between almost every operation. The resetting time is known as down-time when there is no productive work happening; this increases the manufacturing cost by a huge factor. Installation costs: Having gone to great lengths to design, survey and hand-make furniture to an individual client's specification it must then be expertly installed. The fitters are usually the final contact with the client and customer satisfaction is in their hands at this stage. It would be madness to entrust our precious product and the invaluable goodwill to anybody but the most highly skilled tradesmen. These people are the best and must be rewarded as such, this all adds to the finished costs but explaine why Options has exceptionally high , documented, levels of customer satisfaction and obtains over a third of its business directly or indirectly from old customers.