Marcelina Furniture Studio

White-Glove & DDP Delivery

How custom furniture reaches you: DDP duties-prepaid pricing, what white-glove delivery includes, 10–16 week timelines, difficult access, and who pays if it arrives damaged.

A made-to-order piece is only as good as the way it arrives. This page explains exactly how our furniture reaches you: what duties-prepaid shipping means in practice, what the delivery crew does when they arrive, how long each stage takes, and who is responsible if something goes wrong.

DDP means the quoted price is the final price

We ship DDP. Delivered Duty Paid. Import duties, customs clearance, brokerage and final delivery are all inside the number you approve. Nothing is invoiced to you on arrival, and no customs agent will contact you for payment before your furniture is released.

This matters more than it sounds. Importing furniture is where most international orders go wrong financially, because the shipping term decides who pays what, and the difference does not appear until the goods have already landed.

Shipping term	What you pay on arrival	Who clears customs
DDP (what we do)	Nothing. Duties, clearance and delivery are prepaid.	We do.
DAP / DDU	Duties, taxes and brokerage fees, billed at the border.	You do.
EXW (ex-works)	Freight, insurance, duties, clearance and last-mile delivery.	You do, from the factory door onward.

Worth checking on any quote you compare. An EXW price can look 20–30% cheaper than a DDP price for the identical piece, then cost more once freight, duties and brokerage land. When comparing suppliers, ask one question: is this delivered, duties paid, to my room? If the answer is no, the quote is not finished.

What white-glove delivery includes

White-glove is a specific service, not a courtesy phrase. On the scheduled day, a two-person crew will:

Bring the crate inside the property, not leave it at the kerb or in the lobby.
Uncrate and unwrap the piece, checking it with you before they leave.
Carry it to the room and place it exactly where you want it.
Complete any assembly, legs, tops, modular sections, wall fixings.
Remove all crating, packaging and protective material from the property.

Delivery is by appointment, and you get a window rather than a whole day.

Timeline, stage by stage

Stage	How long	What happens
Design and quote	2–5 days	Dimensions, materials and finishes confirmed; all-in price issued.
Production	10–16 weeks	Built to order in our own factories. In-stock pieces skip this stage.
Crating and QC	3–5 days	Inspected, photographed, custom-crated for the specific piece.
Transit and customs	2–4 weeks (US) · ~1 week (Panama)	Shipped and cleared under DDP. No action required from you.
Delivery and installation	Scheduled with you	White-glove placement, assembly and packaging removal.

If you have a fixed date, a move-in, a handover, an opening, tell us at quote stage. We schedule backwards from it, and we can hold finished pieces in storage rather than deliver into an unfinished space.

Difficult access is normal, not an obstacle

Narrow stairs, small elevators, service-entrance windows, buildings that only allow deliveries on certain mornings, none of this is unusual, and all of it is solvable if we know in advance. Because every piece is made to order, we can size a sectional to your elevator or build a large table with a removable base. Send us the constraints with your enquiry and we will engineer around them.

Insurance and what happens if something goes wrong

Every shipment is insured door to door. If a piece arrives damaged, it is our responsibility: we repair or rebuild it. Note the issue with the delivery crew, photograph it, and we take it from there. Beyond transit, solid-wood construction carries a three-year warranty.

What delivery costs

Every rate below is calculated at checkout before you pay, there is no separate invoice afterwards. On full commissions quoted by the studio, delivery is included in the project price.

Destination	Under $2,000	$2,000+
United States & Canada	$199	Free
Panama	$199	Free
Caribbean & Central America	$600	$1,500 · $2,500 over $5,000 · free over $7,500
Europe	$600	$1,500 · $2,500 over $5,000 · free over $7,500

Where we deliver. United States and Canada · Panama · Costa Rica, Guatemala, Belize · Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, British Virgin Islands, Aruba, Curaçao, Barbados, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Trinidad & Tobago · Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana · France, Germany, Spain, Monaco, Montenegro, Romania.

Frequently asked questions

How long does custom furniture take to arrive?

Ten to sixteen weeks for made-to-order production, plus transit. In-stock pieces ship far sooner. Transit itself is usually two to four weeks to the United States and about one week within Panama. Your quote states a firm delivery window, not an estimate.

Are import duties included, or will I be billed on arrival?

Included. We ship DDP. Delivered Duty Paid, which means the price you approve covers duties, customs clearance and final delivery. You are never billed on arrival. If another supplier quotes EXW or DAP, those costs are still coming; they are just not in the number you were shown.

What does white-glove delivery actually include?

Two people, scheduled by appointment: the crate is brought inside, unpacked, the piece is placed exactly where you want it, protective wrap and packaging are removed and taken away, and any assembly is completed. It is not a kerbside drop.

Do you deliver to apartments and high-rise buildings?

Yes, routinely. Tell us the access constraints at quote stage, elevator dimensions, service-entrance hours, stair turns, building loading rules, and we build and crate around them. This is one of the practical advantages of made-to-order: the piece can be sized to the access.

What happens if a piece is damaged in transit?

Every shipment is crated and insured door to door. Damage in transit is our problem, not yours: we repair or rebuild the piece. Note any visible issue with the delivery crew and photograph it, and we handle the rest.

How much does delivery cost?

To the United States, Canada and within Panama it is $199, and free on orders over $2,000. To the Caribbean, Central America and Europe it is $600 under $2,000, $1,500 from $2,000 to $5,000, $2,500 from $5,000 to $7,500, and free above $7,500. Every rate is shown at checkout before you pay, and on full commissions quoted by the studio delivery is included in the project price.

Which countries do you deliver to?

Panama and the United States are our primary markets, and we ship to more than 20 countries including Costa Rica, the Caribbean and Europe. Duties-prepaid terms apply wherever DDP is available; if it is not, we tell you before you order.

Can you hold delivery until my renovation is finished?

Yes. Storage and scheduled release are common on renovation and construction projects. Tell us your handover date and we align production and delivery around it rather than shipping into an unfinished space.

Do you deliver and install multi-room or whole-property orders together?

Yes. Large orders are consolidated into a single scheduled installation, or released in phases if you are opening floor by floor. For hospitality projects see our hospitality programme.