Furniture
What a bespoke furniture maker costs in Cyprus
Bespoke joinery in Cyprus is priced by the linear metre. Here is the working range, what moves you inside it, and what most quotes quietly leave out.
8 min read
Photo: casa lalla takerkoust on Pexels
Elena covers interior design, furniture and lighting for Cypriot homes. Her focus is the gap between a scheme drawn for a northern European climate and one that survives this light, this heat and, near the coast, this salt.
Published
Bespoke joinery in Cyprus is quoted by the linear metre of finished run, not by the item, and the working range is €320 to €1,100 per linear metre with the middle of the market sitting around €560. That covers custom carcasses with a sprayed finish, made and fitted. A four-metre wardrobe wall therefore lands somewhere between roughly €1,300 and €4,400 — and which end you land on has far less to do with the workshop's reputation than with three things: what the carcass is made of, how the doors are finished, and how far out of square your walls are.
The short answer
Ask three workshops for a price on the same wardrobe run and you will get three numbers that look incomparable. They usually are, because they are pricing different objects. The spread from €320 to €1,100 per linear metre is not a spread of quality — it is mostly a spread of specification.
At the bottom of the range you are getting melamine-faced board carcasses, edged, with hinges that will work fine and doors that are the same material as the box. It is honest furniture and it is the right answer for a rental property, a guest room, or a utility cupboard nobody will look at twice.
In the middle you are getting MDF carcasses with a sprayed lacquer front, soft-close ironmongery, a scribed fit and a template-measured run rather than an assumed one. This is where most Cypriot residential joinery sits.
At the top you are paying for solid timber or veneer, sprayed surfaces in several coats, integrated lighting, and a maker who will build a prototype door before committing the run. On a coastal property it also buys marine-grade or galvanised fixings, which is not an upsell in Kato Paphos — it is what the salt in the air requires.
Site carpentry, if you are pricing labour separately rather than buying a supplied-and-fitted run, sits at €28 to €55 an hour with materials extra. That matters when a workshop quotes "supply only" and expects you to find a fitter, because fitting is where a bad measure becomes visible.
What drives the range
Carcass material
Melamine-faced chipboard, moisture-resistant MDF, birch ply and solid timber are four different price bands before a single door is hung. In Cypriot coastal properties, moisture-resistant board is worth specifying even inland of the front line — humidity swings inside an unoccupied apartment through August do more damage than most owners expect.
Finish
A sprayed lacquer finish is the single biggest cost jump in the range. It is a booth process with sanding between coats, and it is priced by the surface area of the fronts rather than the metre of run. Veneer is dearer again because the sheets have to be matched across the doors. Foil-wrapped and melamine fronts sit at the bottom.
Ironmongery and internals
Runners, hinges, lift mechanisms, internal drawers, wire baskets and integrated lighting are all priced separately and all easy to leave out of a quote. Two quotes for the same wardrobe can differ substantially on ironmongery alone without either being wrong.
How square the building is
Most Cypriot housing is masonry with rendered blockwork, and rendered blockwork is rarely plumb. A run that has to be scribed to a wavy wall, packed at the base and filleted at the ceiling takes longer to fit than one that drops straight in. Makers who have worked in the older apartment stock price this in. Makers who have not, discover it on site and ask for more.
Access
A run that cannot be carried up a stairwell has to be made in sections and assembled in the room, which costs more and shows more joints. On hillside plots — Peyia is the standard example — the access road itself limits delivery vehicle size.
Cost by district
The island is not one market. Quoted joinery in Limassol runs around 12 per cent above the island median, Paphos around 6 per cent above, Nicosia sits roughly at the median, Larnaca around 4 per cent below and Famagusta district around 8 per cent below.
The reasons are prosaic. Limassol has the deepest concentration of high-value residential fit-out on the island and workshops there are rarely short of work, which sets the floor on what they will quote. Paphos carries a large expatriate renovation market and a lot of coastal specification, which raises the material line rather than the labour line.
Famagusta district — meaning Paralimni, Protaras, Ayia Napa, Deryneia and Sotira, the Republic-controlled part of the district — prices lower on paper but the work is compressed into the winter. Holiday-let and hotel joinery there gets done between November and March because the rooms are earning the rest of the year. If you are refurbishing a rental in that market, book the workshop before the season ends rather than after, because a quote in October and the same quote in January are not competing for the same calendar.
Travel time is real money here. A Nicosia workshop quoting a job in Polis Chrysochous is pricing a van and a driver for most of a day on each of the measure, fit and snagging visits. Ask whether travel sits inside the quoted price or on top of it.
What is usually excluded
Almost every dispute about a joinery invoice comes from this list rather than from the headline rate.
Less suitable when
Commonly outside the quote: removal and disposal of the existing units; making good the plaster where the old run was fixed; painting or repainting the surrounding wall; electrical work for lighting inside or above units; stone or composite worktops, which are nearly always a separate trade and a separate template visit; appliance supply and connection; plumbing moves; crane or hoist access; and, on kitchens, the design fee itself.
Two of those deserve expanding.
Worktops. Stone and composite worktops are templated after the carcasses go in, not before, which means a gap between fitting day and finished kitchen. The gap is normal; discovering it on the day is not. Ask when the template visit happens and how long the fabricator needs.
Design. A bespoke maker will happily work from someone else's drawings. Kitchen design and specification as a standalone service runs €800 to €3,200 for the project, excluding the units, and whether you need it depends on whether the layout is settled. Replacing a kitchen in the same footprint, probably not. Moving the sink or reworking how the room is used, almost certainly — and paying for it before the joinery is ordered is far cheaper than changing your mind after the carcasses are cut. Our kitchen design pages set out what it covers.
How to compare quotes
The only way to compare joinery quotes is to force them onto the same specification first. Send every workshop the same document.
Works well when
A comparable brief states: the run lengths and heights; the carcass material and thickness; the door material and finish; the ironmongery brand or an equivalent-quality clause; whether internals such as drawers and lighting are included; who removes the old units; who makes good; and the fitting date you are working towards.
Then check three things on each quote that comes back.
First, the measure. Ask whether the price is based on a site template or on your own dimensions. A quote priced off drawings will be revised after the template visit, and you want to know that before comparing it with one that was templated.
Second, the payment structure. A deposit against materials is standard practice in a trade that cuts to order. A demand for the full amount before anything is made is not, and it leaves you with no leverage at snagging.
Third, the company itself. Every entry we publish is checked against the Registrar of Companies, and we show which trade registrations we have verified against the issuing body and which we have not. That is a check on who you are contracting with, not an opinion about their work — the portfolio is on the page for you to judge. Our area pages show which workshops cover which district.
Joinery workshops and furniture makers in Cyprus
8 companies covering this area.
Lavdas Furniture
Aspres, Nicosia
Lavdas Furniture is a furniture shop in Aspres, in the Nicosia district.
Vicko
Strovolos, Nicosia
Vicko is a houseware shop in Strovolos, in the Nicosia district.
Vicko
Trypiotis, Nicosia
Vicko is a houseware shop in Trypiotis, in the Nicosia district.
Andrelia
Palaiometocho, Nicosia
Andrelia is a furniture shop in Palaiometocho, in the Nicosia district.
Knitting Meeting
Panagia Evangelistria, Limassol
Knitting Meeting is a craft shop in Panagia Evangelistria, in the Limassol district.
Poltronesofà
Apostolos Varnavas, Limassol
Poltronesofà is a furniture shop in Apostolos Varnavas, in the Limassol district.
Florin Coman
Skala, Larnaca
Florin Coman is an art shop in Skala, in the Larnaca district.
Common questions
Is bespoke actually dearer than imported units?
Usually yes at the top of the range and often no at the bottom. An imported system delivered flat-packed still needs fitting, still needs scribing to a rendered Cypriot wall, and still needs a worktop templated on site. Bespoke wins outright wherever the space is irregular — under a staircase, into an alcove, along a wall that bows enough to leave a wedge of daylight behind a standard cabinet. Imported wins in a rectangular room with standard appliance sizes.
How long does a bespoke run take?
Ask for the lead time in writing, counted from the day you sign off the final drawing rather than from the day you pay the deposit — those are frequently weeks apart. Then ask what portion of it is spraying, because sprayed finishes are the part of the programme that cannot be compressed. Workshops are busiest before the summer and, in the eastern holiday-let market, in the November to March refurbishment window.
Do I need a permit for fitted furniture?
Freestanding and fitted furniture that does not touch structure, drainage or the building envelope does not require planning consent. The moment the work involves moving a wall, altering an opening, or changing drainage runs, you are in different territory and the drawings need certification by a professional registered with ETEK. That is a normal arrangement rather than a problem, but it should be settled before anything is cut.
Does coastal location really change the price?
It changes the specification, and the specification changes the price. On directly exposed frontage the salt in the air attacks fixings and hinges long before it touches the timber, which is why galvanised and marine-grade ironmongery is standard rather than optional in places like Kato Paphos. Ask what grade of fixing is quoted. It is a small line item and an expensive omission.
Can I supply my own materials?
Some workshops accept it; most will not warrant a finish they did not apply. Ask before you buy, because the saving is usually smaller than it looks.
Who is responsible if the run does not fit?
Whoever measured. This is the single strongest argument for buying supply and install from one company rather than splitting supply from fitting between two. When the workshop templates, makes and fits, there is no argument about where the error came from and no second contractor to blame it on.
Sources
- Cyprus Statistical Service (CYSTAT) — construction and price statistics — retrieved 2026-07-29
- ETEK — Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber — retrieved 2026-07-29
- Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property — retrieved 2026-07-29
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