The price of a thing and the value of a thing are in my opinion, relatives but not siblings and certainly not identical twins.  Like most people, I would like to pay two bucks for a bottle of nice Cabernet Sauvignon or two bucks a pound for well raised, fed and aged filet Mignon.  But that isn't going to happen and it shouldn't.  In the case of furniture (mine anyway) it's mostly simple arithmetic with the added original art component.

Let's say a large furniture manufacturer wants to produce a new and unique end table.  The front end cost to get that end table to production is not insignificant.  There is the designer or more likely a design team, the marketing team, probably an engineer, there is the making of a few prototypes, CNC (computerized machinery) programming, tooling, material purchasing and probably a few more things I have left out before the end tables even begins it's journey to being a finished product.  I'm making an educated guess here, but that front end cost for a new end table might be in the neighborhood of $10,000  It should be, and most often is, a very well made piece of furniture but it won't cost you $10k.  So here's where the very simple arithmetic (my favorite kind) comes in...if they make 10,000 end tables, that front end cost is a dollar per end table.

For those of us in the custom furniture making business, the process is similar. The main difference is that we usually wear all the hats and the front end cost isn't even close to that of a large manufacturer.  To be sure, there is some front end cost (mostly in time spent) but the bulk of our cost is in the time and energy we spend "giving birth" to a new and unique piece of functional art. Look at this link - do you think the creator of this amazing piece was thinking about cost at this point or being creative? My guess is that he was thinking about a unique creation.

Finally another link to an article on the website CustomMade.com. I mostly agree with what they say, although I would add below a comment about Sam Maloof's rockers - his work was so admired as a work of art that its perceived value justified its cost.

"I would make one minor adjustment in the equation utility-price=value. This works fine for something utilitarian like toys, or even a basic table or desk that needs to fit a specific spot. But in high-end furniture, the equation clearly goes beyond just utility. Certainly a Maloof rocker did not provide tens of thousands of dollars of utility to its owner, but was so admired as a work of art that its perceived value justified its cost. While many custom inquiries are indeed based purely on utilitarian value, these ignores the importance of quality design, careful selection of materials and grain, and the artistic qualities a hand-crafted piece can exhibit. I don’t claim to be in the same universe as Sam Maloof, but I do strive to create beautiful things out of wood that I hope carry more value than just their usefulness as a table, box, or chair."

So, what do you think is value?