Most bespoke furniture takes four to six weeks from first survey to finished installation. A full kitchen runs longer, usually eight to twelve weeks. A small job such as understairs storage can be done in two or three.
Two things about that period surprise people. The first is how little of it involves anyone being in your house, usually just a couple of days at each end. The second is that many firms quote twice as long, because they are booked months ahead and the wait to start is being counted as part of the making.
Those are separate things and it is worth separating them. This guide sets out the real timeline stage by stage, explains what is happening during the weeks when your home looks untouched, covers what genuinely causes delays, and shows how to plan if you have a fixed date. Written from over 20 years of running these projects across Jersey.
Typical timelines by project
| Project | Survey to installation | Days on site |
| Understairs storage | 2 to 3 weeks | 1 day |
| Pair of alcove units | 3 to 5 weeks | 1 to 2 days |
| Media wall | 4 to 5 weeks | 2 days |
| Home office fit-out | 4 to 6 weeks | 2 to 3 days |
| Full wall of fitted wardrobes | 4 to 6 weeks | 2 to 3 days |
| Staircase | 5 to 7 weeks | 2 days |
| Bespoke kitchen | 8 to 12 weeks | 5 to 10 days |
| Bar or commercial fit-out | 5 to 8 weeks | Often a single overnight fit |
Add roughly one to two weeks at the front to get the survey booked in, which is the current waiting time rather than a fixed rule.
A kitchen takes longer for specific reasons. It is not simply more cabinets. Other trades are involved, appliances carry their own lead times, and the worktop usually cannot be templated until the base units are physically installed, which adds one to two weeks between fitting the units and getting the surface on.
Where the weeks actually go
Using a typical fitted wardrobe project as the example.
| Stage | Duration | What happens | In your house? |
| Survey | 1 to 2 hours | Measuring, checking level and plumb, discussing how you use the room | Yes |
| Design and drawings | 3 to 5 days | Layout, materials, hardware, drawings produced | No |
| Your approval | Down to you | Reviewing, requesting changes, signing off | No |
| Ordering materials | 3 days to 2 weeks | Boards, timber, hardware, paint | No |
| Workshop build | 1.5 to 2 weeks | Machining, assembly, sanding | No |
| Finishing | 5 to 8 days | Preparation, spraying, curing between coats | No |
| Installation | 2 to 3 days | Delivery, fitting, scribing, adjustment | Yes |
| Snagging | 1 to 2 hours | Adjusting doors and drawers, touching up | Yes |
Across roughly five weeks, you see somebody for about three days in total.
Survey: a couple of hours
Someone measures properly, checking for level, plumb and square in several places rather than taking a single width off a tape. In older properties the width at floor level and at ceiling level can differ by several centimetres, and everything downstream depends on catching that now.
This should be free and it should happen in person. A firm price given without a visit is a price for standard units, whatever the quote calls them.
Design and drawings: three to five days
Layout, door style, handle positions, internal fittings, lighting and finish all get decided and drawn up. You should see drawings to approve before anything is cut.
Take this stage seriously. Changing a drawing costs nothing. Changing a finished cabinet costs a great deal and adds weeks. Every question answered now is a problem avoided later.
Ordering: three days to two weeks
This is where Jersey adds time that a mainland workshop would not carry. Stock sheet materials and common hardware move quickly. Anything specified rather than standard has to come across, and shipping is a real factor rather than a token one.
If your project involves a particular timber, a specific handle range, custom cutters ground to match an existing moulding, or specialist internal fittings, that lead time should be discussed at the design stage rather than discovered afterwards.
Workshop build: one and a half to two weeks
The quiet stretch. Timber is cut down, planed, thicknessed and profiled, then components are glued, clamped and assembled.
This happens in a workshop rather than your house for practical reasons: controlled conditions, proper clamping pressure, accurate squaring and none of the dust indoors. It is also where the tolerances are held. Cabinet work is accurate to fractions of a millimetre, which is not achievable on a landing with material propped across trestles.
Finishing: five to eight days
The stage most often forgotten when people estimate, and the one that cannot be compressed.
Spray finishing applies paint in fine even layers inside a booth. There is drying time between coats and curing time after the final one, and curing is not the same as drying. Paint can feel touch dry within hours while still being soft enough to mark for days.
French polishing takes longer again, building up many thin coats of shellac by hand.
Rushing this is the most common cause of a finish that looks perfect on handover and shows marks within a month. The days in the schedule are the reason it does not.
Installation: two to three days
The finished pieces are delivered and fitted, scribed to follow the actual shape of your walls, then adjusted and touched up in place.
Because the making is done, this is quicker and tidier than most people expect. It is also where an accurate survey pays off, since correct measurements mean pieces that go in without drama.
Snagging: an hour or two
Doors and drawers settle slightly after fitting. A return visit a week or two later to adjust hinges and runners and touch up any marks is normal and should be included in the price.
What actually causes delays
In rough order of how often they come up.
1. Slow approval of drawings. Comfortably the most common. A project waiting three weeks for sign-off finishes three weeks later. Nothing can be ordered or cut until the drawings are agreed.
2. Changes after approval. A change of door style or colour once materials are ordered adds one to three weeks. A change to dimensions after cutting has begun can mean remaking components.
3. Shipping on specified materials. Stock items are quick. A particular timber or hardware range coming across to the island is not, and it is the single most avoidable delay if it is flagged early.
4. Other trades running late. Joinery cannot be measured accurately until framing and plastering are finished, because the real internal dimensions always differ from the drawing. If the plasterer slips a fortnight, the survey slips with it.
5. Discoveries in older properties. Lift a rotten window sill and there may be a lintel needing attention. Open up an alcove and find damp, or a wall too soft to take fixings. Common enough in granite buildings that it is worth asking up front what happens if something turns up.
Planning around a deadline
Work backwards from the date. These allow for getting the survey booked, plus a sensible buffer.
| Deadline | Start the conversation |
| Christmas | Mid October |
| A summer event | 8 to 10 weeks ahead |
| Before a new baby arrives | 3 months ahead |
| Before moving in | As soon as you have keys and access |
| Before the house goes on the market | 8 to 10 weeks ahead |
| A kitchen for a specific date | 4 months ahead |
Add two weeks of buffer to whatever you are quoted. Not because good firms routinely overrun, but because your own approval time, other trades and shipping all sit partly outside anyone’s control.
If the date is genuinely fixed:
- Say so at the survey, not later. It changes how the job is scheduled and sometimes how it is specified.
- Block time in your diary for reviewing drawings. Two days rather than two weeks.
- Be flexible on details you do not care about. A handle range already in stock beats one that has to be shipped.
- Ask whether a simpler finish helps. Supplied primed for your own decorator takes the spray booth and curing time off the critical path.
- Consider phasing. Getting the main run in before the date and adding a secondary element afterwards is often achievable when the whole job is not.
Why the quiet weeks are the point
The stage that worries people is the one where nothing appears to be happening. It is worth reframing.
Furniture cut and assembled in your house means weeks of dust and noise in exchange for a job that finishes sooner on paper. Furniture made in a workshop means a quiet stretch followed by a short, contained fit. Most people, offered the choice, prefer two quiet weeks and three days of activity to two weeks of someone sawing on the landing.
It also affects the result. Workshop conditions are what allow the tolerances, the clamping and the controlled finishing. The time is not padding.
What is happening in the workshop, week by week
For a typical fitted wardrobe run, so you know what to picture.
- Days 1 to 3. Drawings turned into a cutting list. Sheet materials broken down on the panel saw, solid timber planed and thicknessed.
- Days 4 to 7. Components machined to size, profiles run, joints cut, drawer boxes made up.
- Days 8 to 11. Assembly. Carcasses glued, clamped and squared. Doors and fronts made and checked against the drawing.
- Days 12 to 14. Preparation for finishing. Filling, sanding, sealing every face including the backs and undersides.
- Days 15 to 18. Spraying. Primer, then colour coats, with drying time between each.
- Days 19 to 21. Curing, hardware fitted, final checks, wrapping for transport.
The Jersey factor
Two island-specific things shape the timeline, one adding time and one saving it.
Shipping adds time. Anything not held locally has to come across. It is a genuine constraint rather than an excuse, and the way to manage it is to settle materials and hardware at the design stage. A specified item raised in week one is a non-event. The same item raised in week three moves the finish date.
Older buildings add survey time and occasional surprises. Granite cottages, farmhouses, converted outbuildings and older townhouses across the island share a consistent set of conditions.
- Walls that lean or bow mean more measurements and more scribing at installation
- Floors that fall mean each carcass levelled independently, which adds fitting time
- Reveals varying in depth along their length mean components cut to follow rather than to one measurement
- Soft or crumbling wall material sometimes needs remedial work before anything can be fixed to it
None of this should surprise an experienced local firm, but it does mean a straightforward-looking job in a period property can carry a few days more than the same job in a modern house.
Three projects and how the time went
Composite examples of the kinds of jobs that come up most often.
Alcove units delivered in four weeks. A living room with two mismatched alcoves. Survey on a Tuesday, drawings sent that Thursday, approved by the client over the weekend. Materials ordered on the Monday, workshop build across the following fortnight, spraying and curing in week four, installed on a Wednesday and Thursday. Fast approval is what kept it at four weeks rather than six.
A kitchen that ran to twelve weeks. A granite cottage where plastering finished later than planned, pushing the survey back. Reveals varying by nearly 40mm along one run meant extra measuring at survey stage. A specified handle range had to be shipped, so the doors were finished and stored while the hardware arrived. Worktop templating could not happen until the base units were in, adding a further two weeks. All of it was foreseeable at the survey, which is why it was flagged then rather than explained afterwards.
A bar counter fitted overnight. A commercial refit where the venue could not afford to close. Six weeks from survey to install, nearly all of it in the workshop, with the curved front panelling, counter top and back bar shelving built and sprayed off site. The install ran through a single night with touch-ups completed before opening. The workshop time is exactly what made the short disruption possible.
Frequently asked questions
How long do fitted wardrobes take?
Typically four to six weeks from survey to installation, with two to three days of that on site. Workshop building and finishing account for most of the period.
Why do some companies quote eight to twelve weeks?
Often because they are booked months ahead and the waiting time is included in the figure. The making itself does not take that long. Worth asking any firm to separate the two, so you know when work will actually start.
Can I speed the process up?
Yes, mostly at your end. Approving drawings quickly, settling materials and hardware early rather than late, and being flexible on anything with a shipping lead time all shorten the timeline. Ask about a primed finish if the spray booth is on the critical path.
How long is the actual installation?
Usually two to three days for fitted furniture, a single day for a small job, and longer for a kitchen. The making is already done, so the fit is quick and contained.
How far ahead should I book?
Currently a week or two to get a survey in, though this moves with demand. If you have a fixed date, start the conversation earlier than feels necessary and add a two week buffer to whatever you are quoted.
What happens if the project overruns?
Ask before booking how the company handles it and whether the timeline is given in writing. Delays from discoveries in older buildings or from other trades do happen, and you should be told as soon as they are known rather than at the end.
Getting started
The most useful first conversation covers the room, how you use it and whether you have a date in mind. A survey then establishes what the walls and floors are actually doing, which determines both the design and a realistic timeline.
Davision Interiors Ltd has designed, built, finished and installed bespoke furniture across all parishes of Jersey for over 20 years, covering alcove units, media walls, kitchens, home offices, fitted wardrobes, staircases, renovations and commercial fit-outs, with spray finishing and French polishing carried out in house.
Most fitted furniture projects run four to six weeks from survey to installation, and we can usually get a survey booked within a fortnight. Every project starts with a free design and survey visit, all work is covered by our workmanship guarantee, and we are fully insured. Get in touch to arrange a visit and a no-obligation quote.