Turning houses into homes with bespoke furniture designed in SketchUp

February 14, 2025

Marin Ryles

Manchester, England, UK

Neville Johnson is a UK-based firm specializing in bespoke furniture and other interior design elements for homeowners with sophisticated tastes. The design team relies on SketchUp to simplify complex projects while keeping the customer engaged.

a custom-designed living room/study with a wall of windows, light green walls, and white built-in shelving

Living room/study designed by Simon Tcherniak.

Behind every piece of handcrafted, custom furniture Neville Johnson creates is a design that anchors the project with vision, clarity, and substance. As a team that shuns the idea of "one-size-fits-all" for your home, they have become the pinnacle of luxury bespoke furniture in the UK. SketchUp allows them to formulate a vision and align expectations early on so the Neville Johnson team can wow clients with pieces worthy of a magazine spread or viral Instagram Reel.

For over 30 years, the Manchester-based firm has earned a reputation for transforming residential interiors with bespoke furniture and staircases. Award-winning Senior Designer Simon Tcherniak is dedicated to creating a collaborative dynamic where clients openly share their wants and needs. The goal is to have a design concept after the first consultation, helping clients to realize their vision quickly, and this is only possible with upfront feedback from the homeowners. From here, Tcherniak is eager to get to work designing with the help of SketchUp.

"I'll jump straight into SketchUp so we can start playing around with it. The key for us is to create a visualization that really brings it (the design) to life for the client. SketchUp gives them a clear idea of what they'd be getting - so when we discuss the budget, the figure relates to something as tangible as possible."
Simon Tcherniak, Senior Designer

Refined products for refined taste

Winning client trust is essential because, unlike mass-produced furniture, Neville Johnson's designs are custom and an investment in high-end, high-quality craftsmanship. The value of the work speaks volumes, and clients look to Neville Johnson to deliver luxury designs with a "wow" factor. Tcherniak considers it a privilege to work closely with clients on whatever interior design project they have in mind, but he's partial to living rooms and libraries.

"I have to say living rooms and libraries are my personal favorites, simply because it's the part of the home that, in a way, people care most about," Tcherniak reflected. "(It's where they) display their family heirlooms — their treasured items — the books they love, their photo albums, and ornaments. It's really nice designing around those and bringing that to life."

A walkthrough of scenes and dynamic components in the bespoke dressing room designed for Erica Davies demonstrates how the different areas will function.

Another area in which clients can let their personality shine through is their wardrobe or dressing room design. For example, the firm completed a project for Erica Davies, former fashion editor at the British tabloid The Sun and well-known Instagram personality. Her social media posts regularly showcase how her home wardrobe has been meticulously curated to her needs and personality, highlighting how Neville Johnson's designs are aspirational and inviting people to use their imaginations.

"When people see those images, they realize they can be a little bit more daring in this kind of private, personal space. People spend all this money on handbags and shoes but then lose them at the bottom of a cupboard or the back of a drawer. If they're nicely displayed, it's a little more inspiring when you're getting ready and helps you appreciate the things you've got. These are spaces that people have been aspiring to – wanting to have a Neville Johnson dressing room – their entire adult life."
Simon Tcherniak, Senior Designer

Final photos and design renderings of a bright pink custom wardrobe showcasing clothing and accessories

Final photos and design renderings of Erica Davies' bespoke dressing room.

Taking hand drawings to the next level

Though he earned degrees in philosophy and acting, Tcherniak began doing shelving installations as his bridge into bespoke furniture design. He first used SketchUp approximately 17 years ago as an artisan cabinet maker. He continues to rely on SketchUp in his daily professional workflow and processes, noting that the beauty of SketchUp is that it's easy to use and can be anything you want it to be.

"I personally use SketchUp because it's the nearest thing to hand drawing, and I love hand drawing," Tcherniak shared. "So, it's that intuitive feeling, like you're molding plasticine. It's just a lovely interactive tool to use."

close-up shots on a SketchUp rendering of design details for a light green library/office with lots of built-in shelving covered in books and other trinkets

Design close-ups of the bespoke office/library, designed by Simon Tcherniak.

SketchUp allows him to produce stunning images quickly, seamlessly turning his hand-drawn designs into 3D concepts. Working in pencil has its limits; designers lose material depth, color, and texture, which are critical in telling a richer story with the final design. When designing in color and three dimensions, you suddenly start making different design decisions that positively influence the project's direction.

"You get so drawn into this 3D world on your screen that I've found myself standing up in front of my computer and trying to look at the top of the model because it was so realistic and intuitive!"
Simon Tcherniak, Senior Designer

Walkthrough of the bespoke office/library demonstrating how the different areas will function.

Each month, Simon might take on anywhere from six to 12 commissions. Intricate designs require a good amount of time to materialize. The average project timeline from inquiry to completed installation is approximately 14 weeks.

Tcherniak invests considerable care and attention to detail during initial consultations. He starts by understanding the client's vision and then often sketches ideas directly in SketchUp, allowing for immediate, real-time visualization and laying the groundwork for a discussion on budget. From there, he presents a more polished concept to the client in a second meeting, animating the client through the model with the help of Scenes. Finally, he exports the model to LayOut to create dimensioned plans, elevations, and perspectives that help the client and the manufacturing team visualize the key elements. Moving into production, the drawing office uses Solid Works to make the shop drawings and begin manufacturing. Fitters then use a combination of all the drawings for on-site installation.

Final photographs of design details for a light green library/office with lots of built-in shelving covered in books and other trinkets

Final photographs of the bespoke office/library, designed by Simon Tcherniak.

Design with flexibility: The power of SketchUp

Before the product reaches the final stage, Tcherniak and his design team factor in time for revisions. SketchUp introduces an element of fluidity to the process that allows Tcherniak and his design team to change designs while still delivering on time, within budget, and with important constraints. One distinct advantage of SketchUp is the ability for users to create configurable dynamic components that represent the product's rules while allowing for creative exploration.

Simon narrates a walk-through of the office model, demonstrating how Neville Johnson utilizes Dynamic Components in SketchUp.

Tcherniak uses Component Finder by FlexTools to organize and share the library of dynamic components he has created with the 38 other designers in his team. To streamline the design process, go-to templates were created to capture client information, room layouts, standard elements, and commonly used room and furniture profiles, which are then drawn with Profile Builder by Mindsight Studios. What used to take five hours to assemble a room from scratch now takes an hour or less with SketchUp — cutting the time spent by 80%.

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary

Tcherniak introduced his colleagues to SketchUp's capabilities and benefits and became Neville Johnson's resident SketchUp consultant; now, they're faithful users, too. The Neville Johnson team's talents, vision, and expertise are a winning combination that allows them to get the most out of SketchUp to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Case in point: Tcherniak won an internal award for NJ Furniture Sales Designer of the Year four times, took home a Silver Award for Best Storage Solution at the House Beautiful Awards 2017, and secured the distinction of Best of Houzz for Home Offices in 2020.

Ready to follow Tcherniak's lead and create award-winning designs with greater ease and efficiency? It's time to try SketchUp. Start a free trial or find the right subscription for you today.

About Neville Johnson

For over thirty years, Neville Johnson has been recognized as one of the UK's leading luxury furniture specialists. The brand has been built through a reputation for innovation, quality and superior customer service.

The business offers a range of customized interior products in various sizes, shapes, finishes and materials, which the team builds from scratch to the precise design specifications. Fitters are highly trained and provide exceptional workmanship and customer service. From bespoke home studies to beautifully fitted bedroom furniture, the expert craftspeople at Neville Johnson can transform every corner of any home into a valuable, aesthetically pleasing space.