Two factories can quote "the same" sofa and give you numbers a third apart. Nothing is wrong with either quote. One priced a pine frame with a cover, the other priced a hardwood frame with reinforced joints - and neither assumption was written down anywhere. After twenty years of quoting furniture, that is the mistake we see most often: you and the factory are pricing two different objects, and you only find out when the sample arrives.
If you are still working out where to start, everything we make puts the whole catalogue in one place, and Sample and Mock-Up Approval Guide for Custom Furniture is the closest read to this one.
So the useful question is not "how much is a sofa". It is "what exactly is being priced, on what terms, and what is not included". This page covers what a factory needs from you before it can quote, what a quotation you can actually compare looks like, and which commercial terms decide whether a project is worth running at all. We are a custom furniture manufacturer in Foshan, China, and we quote project work from drawings and schedules rather than from a catalogue. The sequence below is the one our own project team follows, from the first brief to a signed price and terms. If you have not fixed the specification yet, start with how custom Italian furniture is specified, because a quotation is only as good as the drawings behind it.
What a Factory Needs Before It Can Quote
The most common reason a quotation takes three rounds is that the request describes a style instead of an object. Nobody can price "a modern walnut sideboard". They can price a sideboard of stated dimensions, in a named veneer, with named hardware, at a stated quantity. Five sets of information carry almost all of the pricing weight, and a sixth - the commercial frame - decides whether the project can run at all.
Send all of it before you ask for a number, and you will usually get a price you can act on in one round instead of three.
The Six Sets That Make a Quotation Comparable
This is where the two quotes stop being the same product. The table sets out the six things to fix, what you should state, and why each one moves the price.
If the two quotations disagree on any of the six, ask each supplier to confirm in writing before you go further. A factory that will not put the answer on paper is telling you something useful.
What a comparable furniture quotation must fix before prices can be compared
Item to confirm
What the buyer states
Why it changes the price
Dimensions
Overall size plus control points: seat height, armrest height, backrest angle, leg diameter, wall clearance
Layout, access and installation clearance
Materials
Wood species and grade or solid/veneer/board, upholstery composition and weight, metal type and wall thickness
The largest single cost driver and the one most often substituted
Construction
Frame material and joint method, suspension type, foam layering, internal reinforcement
Durability, comfort and the warranty position
Finish
Lacquer, oil, wax or paint, gloss level, open or closed grain, edge treatment
Labour hours and how a run of pieces matches
Quantity
Units per model, and whether this is a trial, a phase or a rollout
Our own quotation runs through six steps, and the diagram below shows the sequence. The point of the sequence is that each step has an owner and a piece of paper, so nobody is guessing at handover whether the project scope or the price changed.
Two things are deliberately not in the price, and we would rather you knew that at quotation stage than after the goods have shipped: duties and taxes under your own Incoterm, and site installation. Both can be quoted, both cost money, and both surprise people who assumed they were included.
How a custom furniture quotation is produced: scope review, specification, drawings, sampling, commercial confirmation, order confirmation
Reading a Quotation as a Landed Cost
A quotation is a factory price, not a landed cost, and the difference is often larger than people expect. What sits between the two: freight, which for furniture is charged on volume rather than weight, so a light but bulky piece is expensive to move; duty and tax, which depend on your country and on the Incoterm; insurance; and installation, if you need it.
Our wholesale project furniture service covers how the commercial terms are structured for project work, including how delivery enters the price.
The practical approach is to ask for two numbers: the factory price and the landed estimate. A factory that will give you both is one that has done this before.
Payment, Minimums and Lead Time
Three commercial terms decide whether a project is workable, and they should be in the quotation rather than in an email afterwards. Payment is normally a deposit against the order, a balance against the finished goods or before loading, and occasionally retention held for a period after handover. Minimum order quantities are set per project rather than as a fixed factory threshold, so a single made-to-measure piece, one room, one villa or a full hotel programme are all normal scopes. Lead time is set by the production slot and is confirmed at order, not estimated in a brochure.
If you need a number for a budget before the specification is final, ask for an indicative range instead of a fixed price. We do that regularly and we mark it clearly as an estimate, so nobody quotes the estimate downstream as if it were firm. A straightforward piece with drawings and a specified material usually comes back in three to five working days.
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