Custom Furniture for lobby: Where the Dollars Really Go
Custom Furniture for a lobby — the entrance drop zone of a landed home or the private foyer of a condo — spends most of its budget in three spots: the carcass, the hardware, and the labour to fit it true. Knowing where the dollars go stops you over-paying for a finish nobody touches and under-paying for the hinge that fails. Here's the breakdown we give every client.
The Carcass Is Half the Bill
The box behind the doors is where money sits:
Plywood runs roughly S$70 to S$120 per square metre of panel and lasts; our default for a lobby that sees daily bumps.
MDF with laminate is the cheaper route at S$40 to S$70 a panel, fine if the lobby stays dry.
Solid wood pushes past S$150 a panel and looks rich, but it's the part you only see when a door is open.
Most clients overspend here on a grain they'll never show. Spend the saving on the front instead.
Hardware Eats the Rest
The bits that move are where lobby furniture lives or dies:
Soft-close hinges — S$8 to S$25 each; a lobby door gets opened fifty times a day, so cheap ones rattle by month six.
Push-to-open catches — tidy for a handle-less look, S$10 to S$30 a door, but they need the carcass square or they bind.
A soft-close drawer slide — S$20 to S$60; the shoe drawer gets yanked, so don't cheap out.
Good hardware is the difference between a lobby that feels solid and one that sounds like a shed.
Custom Furniture Labour and Fit
The fix counts more than the board:
Measuring and scribing to the skirting — this is the labour that makes it look built in, not bolted.
The install day — a lobby run takes one to two fitters for a day; at local rates that's a real slice of the bill.
Make-good — touching up the wall where the old unit came out, often forgotten until the invoice lands.
We price fit separately so you see it; a quote that buries labour is the one to question.
Cost Ranges and Timeline
A lobby drop zone — shoe drawers, a bench, a mirror cabinet — runs roughly S$2,500 to S$6,000 on average, more for solid wood. The full 6 to 10 weeks from measure to install holds, since it's a made-to-order piece.
Within a whole-flat reno budget of S$30k to S$70k the lobby is a small line, but it's the first thing you touch coming home, so it punches above its cost in daily feel. Keep the 1-year defect liability period on the fit, not just the boards.
Where Not to Spend
Skip the exotic veneer on the carcass interior and the lit handle nobody asked for. Put the dollars in a square carcass, soft-close on the doors you actually open, and a bench top that wipes.
A condo MCST may cap how far a lobby fit protrudes into the common corridor, so check before you spec a deep bench.
If you're budgeting a lobby, ask the maker to split carcass, hardware, and labour on the quote — that's where the dollars really go, and seeing it stops you paying for grain you'll never show. Build the box in plywood, fit soft-close on the doors you use, and keep the bench shallow enough for the corridor rule. Spend there and the entrance feels right every time you walk in, which is the only part of the reno you meet twice a day.
