Lemon Furniture Alibaba. Poor quality custom furniture – not as quoted, major corner-cutting, over $10,000 wasted
I contacted Shenzhen Lemon Furniture (Lemon Furniture on Alibaba) (Joanna Deng) on a referral from a designer friend for custom furniture. The quote was for solid walnut and ash at high prices. lemonfurniture.en.alibaba.com
What arrived was not that. The pieces were made of cheap wood covered in a paper veneer with a printed wood-grain stamp. The veneer did not hold up to sanding or varnish — it bubbled and flaked off in multiple places. One door was half solid wood and half veneer. I could not make the finish look acceptable no matter what I tried, and I ended up painting the unit a solid colour, which was not the look I wanted.
Other problems included:
Drawers that my designer had specified were simply left out.
Light-coloured wood filler used on dark wood.
Glue marks that became very visible once varnished.
None of the furniture arrived assembled. Assembly cost me thousands of dollars extra.
Some pieces could not be assembled properly because they had never been test-fitted at the factory.
On a buffet, the veneer roll ran out mid-piece, leaving an obvious ugly seam.
For a kitchen unit I sent a design based on a client photo of a similar Ikea piece that showed two units. They produced two units and insisted I pay for both.
Throughout the entire process I was not shown progress photos or given updates voluntarily. No questions were asked and nothing was sent for approval. I had to force updates and approvals myself.
I spent over $10,000 USD and received unusable or heavily compromised furniture. I do not recommend this supplier.