Bespoke, it seems, is the new luxury. Talk to the boys at Candy & Candy (responsible for the interiors, in case you hadn’t heard, of the amazing new apartments going up at Number One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge) and bespoke is definitely what their über-rich clients are looking for. Whether it’s a door handle, a cushion, a whole kitchen or a curtain, made-to-measure, site-and-job specific, is where new luxury is at.

Most of us, though, don’t have quite such extraordinary needs – or wallets. We like bespoke because it helps us acquire a table of a precise material, shape, size or colour. We like it because it is unique and special to us. Today there are many companies offering to make things to measure, ranging from jobbing carpenters to rare craftsmen. Jobbing carpenters are fine if all you want is, say, a fairly standard dining table of special dimensions, but sometimes there is a need for something infinitely more special, which is where Becher Bespoke comes in. Becher Bespoke is run by Richard Becher, who has run a joinery business for years but has gradually upped the ante, making finer and finer pieces. He’s been responsible for the craftsmanship in such modish interiors as Nobu and Hakkasan. But more to the point, Becher Bespoke now does one-off projects for everybody from hedge-fund managers who want a bespoke gym with a Jacuzzi and steam room to the fancy dressing rooms for those who need to accommodate their stacks of Manolos and Birkins. All this has led Becher Bespoke to produce a small collection of furniture which can be bought, so to speak, off the peg.

There’s a gentleman’s desk made of macassar with lots of secret little drawers, all beautifully hand-crafted, bien sûr, and a roll-top woman’s desk produced in association with Bill Amberg, to whom it turned for the leather. There are oak-turned lamps, a rosewood bedside table, a card table that folds away to become a console table and – coming in January – an enchanting little dressing table. Prices are not cheap (for the ready-made products they start at £620 for the lamp and £4,500 for the card table) but only the finest woods are used and all are most beautifully crafted. (See them on www.becherbespoke.com or call 020-8569 8302.)

A very different approach to bespoke is taken by a new and exciting company called Based Upon. Ian Abell, who with his brother Richard is behind it, uses liquid metal to create pieces of furniture, or more frequently, huge wall panels, which are purely personal. Abell, the creative force, believes that there is a band of people who are looking for something utterly special.

“Imagine, say, a hedge-fund manager’s wife. It’s his birthday and she wants to give him a major present. It’s hard for her to find something special enough for a man who has most things. What she needs is something utterly personal to him.” This is where Based Upon comes in. Abell takes the customer through a personal journey, asking what is special to him (or her), their most precious memories, their interests, their loves, their family, and from this he creates utterly special works that are neither quite art, nor yet sculpture, nor yet furniture.

Currently in the showroom at Contemporanea, 54 Fulham Road, SW3 (www.basedupon.co.uk), is a wonderful panel that Abell has made to celebrate special times in his own life – falling in love, getting married, having his first child. Featured in the beaten panel, which replicates the lines on the hand of his newborn baby girl and which functions as a piece of art, are subtle inclusions of things such as the first scan of his child in the womb, flowers that were important and so on. He has created a special panel for Candy & Candy to celebrate the project at Number One Hyde Park, and there are some beautiful benches made from liquefied metal destined for a house in Pantelleria which can certainly be repeated. These, too, are not cheap. However, the techniques are extraordinary and these boys are definitely, as they say, ones to watch.

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