How do I show every finish option for a made-to-order furniture piece without booking a new photoshoot for each one?

One base photograph of the piece, plus a photo of each finish swatch, produces the same piece shown in every finish it comes in, holding its exact shape and proportions. What We Make verified this on its Round Tapered Leg Dining Table, where a single photograph generated the piece in 8 finishes across 13 completed workflow runs. A new wood or finish option does not require rebooking a studio, it runs through the same workflow.

Can I migrate a large made-to-order furniture catalog without losing product data?

Yes. What We Make's entire catalog, made up of 48,196 products and 64,050 variants across every wood, finish and size combination, was migrated into one canonical catalog with zero blockers. 52,939 media assets and 214,353 metafields carried over intact in the same migration, and 8,490 orders now sync through that catalog.

How does a finish-swap workflow hold up across a catalog with tens of thousands of variants?

The workflow runs finish by finish from the same base photograph and finish swatches, so it works the same way whether it produces one finish or every finish a piece comes in. What We Make's catalog spans 48,196 products and 64,050 variants, and the same workflow that turned one photo of the Round Tapered Leg Dining Table into 8 finishes across 13 runs is the one used for every other piece in the range.

Do I still need a professional photographer for a custom furniture line if I use AI-generated finish photos?

The finish-swap workflow starts from a real photograph of the actual piece and real photos of the finish swatches, not a text prompt, so the generated images hold the piece's exact shape and proportions instead of reinventing it. What We Make used it to turn one photograph of its Round Tapered Leg Dining Table into 8 finishes across 13 completed runs. It replaces rebooking a studio for every new wood or finish option, not the original photography of the piece itself.

What We Make × Automated Commerce

What We Make, a made-to-order furniture workshop near Chicago and Automated Commerce's first US client, migrated 48,196 products into one canonical catalog and built a workflow that generates every finish of a piece from a single base photograph.

By Max de Smit

May 19, 2026

success-storyfurnitureproduct-photography

What We Make is a solid-wood furniture workshop in Algonquin, Illinois, outside Chicago, and Automated Commerce's first client in the United States. Every table, desk, bench and storage piece is made to order in a wood, finish and size the customer chooses, which is exactly the kind of catalog that breaks a normal product page.

About What We Make

Around 20 people build What We Make's solid-wood furniture from reclaimed and sustainably sourced timber: tables, desks, benches and storage. Every piece is made to order, in custom sizes, woods and finishes. That made-to-order model is the business, not an add-on.

The challenge

Made-to-order furniture multiplies. A single table design exists in as many versions as there are combinations of wood, finish and size, and that arithmetic is how one workshop ends up with 48,196 products and 64,050 variants. Photographing every finish of every model in a studio was never realistic at that scale.

How Automated Commerce helps

Automated Commerce migrated the entire catalog into one canonical catalog with zero blockers, giving What We Make a single source of truth for every product and variant. On top of that catalog it built a finish-swap workflow: one base photograph of a piece, plus a photo of each finish swatch, produces the same piece in every finish it comes in, holding its exact shape and proportions. The workflow was verified on the Round Tapered Leg Dining Table, where a single photograph produced the piece in 8 finishes across 13 completed runs. Auto Mate runs that workflow finish by finish, so the workshop is not rebooking a studio every time a new wood option ships.

The result

The numbers, verified in production:

48,196 products and 64,050 variants migrated into one canonical catalog, zero blockers.
52,939 media assets and 214,353 metafields carried over intact.
8 finishes generated from a single base photograph, verified on the Round Tapered Leg Dining Table across 13 completed workflow runs.
47,524 listings live on the connected channel.
8,490 orders synced through the same catalog.