Lately at Buildlane we’ve been selling a ton of beds. I believe the main reason is that custom beds are quite competitive with consumer beds in terms of pricing. Retailers can price beds higher based on the perceived value based on the large footprint of the item. But in reality there is much less material than other upholstered pieces so when a custom shop is pricing material + labor the price ends up being much more reasonable.
We’ve discussed the possibility of having standard pricing on our “Templates” from the moment we came up with the idea. A little more than half a year later, we know the demand is there to try it out, starting with upholstered beds.
So today we are releasing our first instant-order “line”. But we don’t want to make lines so we’re calling it Buildlane Basics. We’re starting with 14 basic beds. You can still fully customize these beds and we’ll work with our partners to get quotes for you, but if you want to order “as is”, we’re ready to build with quick lead times!
Why Beds?
Beyond the sweet spot in price, beds also lend themselves to standard sizing. With most of the custom beds our designers order, they aren’t tweaking the dimensions very much. You pick a style you like and then size the bed frame around the mattress you are using.
We also purposely chose 14 styles that have very little exposed wood (just simple feet). Much of the volatility in custom furniture pricing lately has to do with lumber prices. Keeping the exposed wood to a minimum means we can focus on nice looking styles that are consistently priced. Make them yours with COM.
What does this mean for the designer’s timeline?
For the first 30 Buildlane Basics bed orders, the lead time will be 6 weeks from receipt of COM. The beds will all ship from Los Angeles. We’ve coordinated a special upholstery line to make these quickly because the designs are all standardized.
We are also engaged in vetting upholstery shops across the country and part of the conversation is about building these beds for projects in their area. Like I said, these will ship from Los Angeles right now, but in the very near future we’ll be able to ship from Buildlane workshops closer to your install to cut down on shipping costs.
What’s the process? How do we get started?
We have a price list and we’d love to send it to you. I can’t post it in this article because one of your clients might be a super detective and get their hands on it.
But if you email [email protected] or ask in a Message box on our web app we’re happy to share it with you.
