Custom furniture from Poland for a home in Europe: how it works

Custom furniture from Poland for a flat in Germany, France or Spain is bought like any other goods inside the EU, with no customs. An hour of labour in Polish manufacturing costs €17.1 against €49.5 in Germany. There are two weak points, remote measuring and installation, and the contract settles both before you pay a deposit.

The labour figures come from Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, and refer to 2025. In France the same hour costs €47.1, in Spain €28.2.

This article was prepared by the Grandis team. We are a European manufacturer of custom furniture and deliver across Europe, so our interest here is direct. We do not quote a saving in per cent, because there is no open data that would let us calculate one honestly. The article is for information only and does not replace advice from a lawyer or a tax adviser.

Why the price is lower: what the labour data show#

The price difference comes down to the cost of a working hour. According to Eurostat, an hour of labour in Polish manufacturing cost €17.1 in 2025. In Germany it cost €49.5, which is 2.9 times more. Made-to-measure furniture involves a lot of manual work, from measuring and design to fitting and installation.

Eurostat counts wages together with employers' contributions and covers only businesses with ten or more employees. Furniture making is not shown as a separate line in these data, which cover manufacturing as a whole.

You cannot carry the one-to-three ratio over to the price of a finished kitchen. The data describe labour only and say nothing about the prices of board, worktops and hardware, meaning hinges, runners and lift mechanisms. The fitting team's travel and the transport add costs that a local manufacturer does not have.

The gap is narrowing, too. Over one year the Polish hour in manufacturing rose from €15.5 to €17.1, and the German hour from €48.5 to €49.5. One year of data does not show that waiting pays off.

Date of the data. The Eurostat figures refer to 2025, and the database was updated on 23 April 2026. Before ordering in 2027 it is worth looking up the latest values.

How ordering at a distance works: eight steps#

An order from another country goes through the same stages as a local one. The difference is that distance rules out "popping round to fix it". That is why dimensions, drawings, materials, the total and the date are put in writing before production starts.

1. Enquiry. You need a floor plan with dimensions, photographs of the walls and corners, and a list of built-in appliances. The discussion takes place by message and video call, and you do not have to travel anywhere.
2. Preliminary estimate. From the plan the manufacturer gives a price range, and this is the moment to ask for separate lines for measuring, delivery and installation.
3. Measuring. The manufacturer's surveyor comes out, a local tradesperson measures following the manufacturer's instructions, or you measure yourself. Whoever measured is responsible for the dimensions, and this is written into the contract.
4. Design. You receive drawings and a visualisation and use them to check heights, the position of sockets and water connections, and which way the doors open. The approved sheets are signed.
5. Contract and deposit. What the contract should contain is covered below in a separate nine-point list.
6. Production. With us, production usually takes 2–4 weeks after the design is approved and the deposit paid. We write the specific date into the contract before production starts.
7. Delivery and installation. Our team usually assembles a wardrobe in one day and a kitchen in one to two days. How long the journey to your city takes depends on the route, and there is no single timeframe for all countries.
8. Handover. You inspect the furniture, note any remarks in the handover report, sign it and pay the balance.

At Grandis Trade the design with visualisation and the estimate are free and carry no obligation. We measure with a laser, and the furniture is installed by our in-house team. For orders abroad we agree the cost of travel and installation in advance and include it in the estimate.

If you are in Germany, France, Spain or another European country and would like an estimate for your own dimensions, you can send us a request on our website.

It helps to set out who is responsible for what in a single table and attach it to the contract.

No paperwork, no order. A seller who gives you no written quote and no receipt for the deposit leaves you without evidence. It is worth getting both documents before making any payment.

What the price is made up of and when the order makes sense#

The price of furniture from another country has two parts. The first depends on the furniture itself, the second on the distance, and it barely changes with the size of the order. So a single cabinet carries the travel costs in full, while a kitchen together with wardrobes spreads them over a large volume.

Three cost items depend on the furniture itself.

• Carcasses and fronts. The price is calculated per linear metre, that is, per metre of furniture length along the wall.
• Worktop, built-in appliances and lighting. In our estimate these are separate lines.
• Hardware and interior fittings.

Three more items depend on the distance.

• The trip to measure, if the manufacturer does the measuring.
• Transport, unloading and carrying up to your floor.
• Travel and accommodation for the fitting team.

What to put in the contract#

The contract replaces your ability to come and see how the work is going. It should state the dimensions and materials, the full amount including tax, the date, the handover procedure and the procedure for remedying defects. Treat anything promised in correspondence that did not make it into the text as not promised.

• Subject. The drawings and specification are attached and signed, and the carcass and front materials, hardware and thicknesses are named.
• Measuring. It states who did the measuring and who is responsible for an error in the dimensions.
• Price. One amount including VAT, the rate and the country of the tax, plus a list of what it includes out of delivery, carrying up, installation and the team's travel.
• Price changes. It records the conditions under which the amount may rise. With us the price is fixed and changes only if the client changes the scope.
• Payment. A deposit on signing and the balance on handover of the installation, with the shares stated in figures.
• Deadline. A calendar date for delivery and installation and the consequences of a delay.
• Handover. A report in which remarks are recorded, and the deadline for dealing with them.
• Guarantee. The period, the address for complaints and the answer to who comes out to remedy a defect and at whose expense. We give a guarantee of 1 to 5 years depending on the type of product, and we write the period into the contract.
• Language. A version of the contract in a language you understand, and a statement of which version prevails.

Poland, a local manufacturer or ready-made furniture#

Ordering from Poland with the manufacturer's installation makes sense for a large made-to-measure job, when you need a kitchen, alcove wardrobes, a walk-in wardrobe or furniture for the whole flat. For a single piece, a local manufacturer or modular furniture is the more sensible choice. Ordering without installation is worth choosing only if you have a fitter you trust.

The further you are from the seller, the more detailed the contract clause on guarantee call-outs should be.

If your designer or architect is running the project, bring them in at the drawings step so that any changes go through them.

Ten questions for the manufacturer before the deposit#

Checking a manufacturer costs nothing and is done by correspondence. You need the company's registration details, a sample contract and straight answers to the questions below. A refusal to answer any of them in writing already tells you enough about the seller.

1. What the legal entity is called and what its registration numbers are. For Polish companies these are the NIP (tax number) and the KRS (court register number).
2. What the company's VAT number for intra-EU transactions is. It can be checked in the VIES system on the European Commission's website.
3. Who does the measuring and who is responsible for an error in the dimensions.
4. Who does the installation, an in-house team or a subcontractor.
5. What the price includes and which lines are calculated separately.
6. Which country's VAT is on the invoice and at what rate.
7. What date will be in the contract and what happens if it is missed.
8. How the payment is split and when the balance is paid.
9. Who comes out under the guarantee, within what time, and who pays for the travel.
10. Whether the company has had orders in your country and whether you can see completed projects.

We can answer the first questions straight away. The legal entity behind Grandis Trade is BOBIDI TRADE sp. z o.o., NIP 7011091688, KRS 0000975678. The office is in Warsaw, production covers 3 000 m², and installation is carried out by our in-house team. In 15+ years we have completed 300+ projects, and for many years we have worked with clients from different European countries, including Germany, France and Spain.

You can order a design and an estimate for the dimensions of your room through the form on our website.

This article is for information only and does not replace advice from a lawyer or a tax adviser in your country. The production time stated is the usual one, and we write the specific date into the contract, as we do the guarantee period.