Frequently asked questions

Since 1997 we have been furnishing offices, professional practices and contract projects. We don't manufacture: we select. We buy from the makers — almost the whole range is Italian, with a few foreign exceptions we carry because in their category they are simply the world benchmark. Everything else we do ourselves: the selection, the space planning, the logistics, the installation and the service in the years that follow.

The advantage of not being a manufacturer is that we have no reason to talk you into what we happen to make. If the right answer for your boardroom is a table from one brand and chairs from another, we will say so.

Because on a furnishing project the difference is rarely the product — you can find that elsewhere too — but everything around it.

We tell you what to choose, and why. After nearly thirty years of furnishing offices we know which chairs genuinely last eight hours a day, which finishes age badly behind a south-facing glass façade, where an open-plan floor becomes acoustically unbearable and how to avoid it. Send us a floor plan and you get a layout back, not a price list.

We see it through. A furniture order passes through the manufacturer, the freight forwarder, the fitters and often a live building site. Any of those can go wrong: our job is that you never notice.

And we produce the paperwork when it is needed. We are certified to ISO 9001:2015 (certificate no. 9175.LMRC, issued by IMQ) and we supply the manufacturers' certificates: fire behaviour, emissions, provenance of materials, conformity with the EN standards for seating and work tables. On a public tender or in an architect's specification that is precisely what decides whether a submission survives the first check.

Yes — and the question is a fair one, because in design furniture a grey market exists. We buy through the manufacturers' official channels, every piece is new and arrives with its maker's documentation. No replicas, no refurbished stock, nothing of uncertain origin.

The brands we represent are listed on the site, with a page for each. If you are looking for something you cannot find, ask: the catalogues run deeper than the website, and we would rather check than tell you it doesn't exist.

We can. Offices, professional practices, hotels, public bodies and projects with architects, in Italy and abroad. Tell us the kind of setting you have in mind and we will point you to comparable work rather than a generic list of names.

Where a manufacturer's showroom is within reach we arrange the visit, and on larger projects we can accompany you to the factory: seeing how a chair is put together settles more doubts than any brochure. Where that isn't practical, we work with samples, photographs of real installations and, when it helps, a rendering of your own space.

Yes, and we recommend it. Wood, leather, fabric and lacquer look different under your own lighting, and a screen never tells the whole truth. Ask before you order: samples are the cheapest insurance there is against disappointment.

Within what each manufacturer allows, and often more than people expect: sizes, finishes, fabrics, configurations, cable management, the side the drawers open. Tell us the constraint — a bay window, a column in the wrong place, a corridor width — and we will find out what can be done.

Constantly, and with the sort of support a practice actually needs: technical drawings, specification sheets, certificates for the specification, samples for the client presentation, and quotations set out so they can be compared line by line. We work to your specification; we don't go round you.

With a floor plan and a conversation: how many people, what they do, how much of the week they're actually there, which rooms have to work hard. From that comes a layout with a budget attached, and from the layout the choices. Doing it the other way round — picking pieces first — is how projects end up over budget and short of storage.

You can order directly online, or ask for a quotation and we will build one with you. On anything beyond a couple of items we would rather talk first: it takes ten minutes and it catches the things a web form cannot.

By bank transfer or card, as set out on your order proposal. For companies and public bodies we work to agreed terms, invoiced in the ordinary way.

The production time is shown on each product page: it varies by manufacturer and by finish, from immediate despatch to around eight weeks. Transit is added on top and depends on the method chosen, which we state with the quotation. The actual date is confirmed in writing once the manufacturer confirms the order. Dimensions on our pages are given in both notations — 180 × 90 cm (70.9 × 35.4 in) — so nothing is lost in conversion.

No. We deliver to the United Kingdom on DDP terms: customs clearance and import duties are handled and paid by us, through a carrier registered in the UK. Nothing is due to the driver at your door.

The only thing that changes is how VAT appears on your quotation. If you are buying as a private customer, the price you see already includes UK VAT at 20% — the figure you pay is the figure you were quoted. If you are buying as a business, the price is quoted without UK VAT: the 20% is accounted for at import by our carrier and invoiced to you, and you reclaim it in the ordinary way. Either way, we say which applies before you order.

Within 5 days of confirmation, at no cost, whatever stage it has reached. After that it depends how far the order has travelled: nothing to pay while it is still with us, 30% once it has gone to the manufacturer, and no cancellation once production has started or the goods have been despatched. Ask us and we will tell you where yours stands. The full terms are on the delivery, guarantee and returns page.

As a rule, goods made to order are not returnable for a change of mind — they were built to your specification. If you are buying as a consumer, however, you have 14 days from delivery to cancel under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, and choosing a finish or a size from the manufacturer's catalogue does not take that away: only genuinely bespoke items are excluded, and they are marked as such on the product page. The cost of returning the goods is yours, and we state the figures rather than leave them vague — see returns and the right to cancel.

Yes. Standard delivery is kerbside and included in the price; delivery to the door, placement in the room, unpacking, assembly and full professional installation are priced before you order. We work with fitters across the United Kingdom, and for larger projects we can send our own team from Italy.

Check the packages before you sign and, if anything is visibly damaged, sign with a written reservation and send us photographs within 7 days. From there it is our problem, not yours: we deal with the carrier and the manufacturer and put it right.

Every piece carries its manufacturer's guarantee, stated on the product page because it varies by brand. Alongside it, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires that goods be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described — and if they are not, we put it right. In either case we handle the claim: you talk to us, not to a factory in Italy.

We do — the same people you dealt with when you ordered. One email to info@lamercanti.com and someone who knows your order reads it. There is no ticket queue.

Usually, yes: the manufacturers we work with keep parts available well beyond the guarantee period, and a castor, a gas lift or a fabric panel can generally be replaced rather than the whole piece. Tell us the order number and we will find out what is available before you assume it isn't.