Built-in furniture or showroom furniture in Praia Grande: what works for a beach apartment

By Lucy Home. Published 14/11/2026, updated 14/11/2026.

Off-white buffet with a curved wood detail and tapered legs, next to a vase of dry branches, in front of a slat panel, in the Lucy Home showroom

Every week someone walks into the showroom and asks whether Lucy Home makes built-in furniture. The answer is no, and I would rather say it in the first line than make you read to the end to find out. Lucy Home is a showroom furniture store: sofas, tables, chairs, armchairs, TV units and buffets, freestanding pieces you see, sit on and measure before buying, in stock or made to order with customization. But the question is a good one, because behind it is a real decision: what, in a beach apartment, should be fixed cabinetry and what should be a freestanding piece. This guide is the answer I give at the store.

Rectangular wood dining table with light chairs, in a room of the Lucy Home showroom

Table and chairs set up in the Lucy Home showroom: a freestanding piece is seen and sat on before buying, and changes address with you.

What is built-in, what is made to measure and what is a showroom piece

Three terms that get mixed up:

Built-in is fixed cabinetry, designed and installed to the room’s measurements: bedroom wardrobe, kitchen, TV panel with niches, counter, closet. It stays in the property; leaving with it means dismantling, and it rarely fits the next address.
Made to measure, at Lucy Home, is a freestanding piece made to your measurements: the sofa the exact length of your wall, the table the size of your room. On made-to-order pieces, the store customizes color, fabric, size, arm and module. The piece is still furniture you take with you.
A showroom piece is what is set up at the store, in stock or as a sample of what can be ordered. The advantage is sitting down, opening a drawer, seeing the color in daylight and comparing with the piece beside it.

Lucy Home does the last two. It does not do the first, has no joinery of its own and has no in-house architect. Anyone who needs built-ins needs a joiner or a built-in furniture company, and I will not recommend one, because I have no basis for comparison.

Where built-ins work best

My opinion as a decorator, not a rule: built-ins make sense where the furniture needs to close off a wall end to end and use every centimeter, and where the piece will never move. Kitchen, laundry area, bedroom wardrobe and closet are the classic cases. In a small beach apartment, a built-in wardrobe in the bedroom frees the living room to be a living room. That is its ground, and I do not dispute it.

Where the freestanding piece works best at the beach

Four reasons, each with a source or with the store’s spec sheet:

It moves with you. Praia Grande has 41.7% of its homes in occasional use, according to the 2022 Census, and beach apartments change owners and uses often: they become rentals, become a child’s home, get sold. A freestanding piece goes to the next address; a built-in stays for the next owner.
It is replaced in parts. Most Lucy Home sofas are delivered in modules. If the humidity of a closed-up winter ruins one module, you replace the module. Fixed cabinetry that warps calls the joiner back.
It breathes. Purdue University explains that wood and wood-based panels swell in humid air and shrink in dry air, and that a finish slows but does not stop that movement. A freestanding piece, a few fingers away from the wall, lets air pass behind it; a built-in against a damp external wall does not. It is not a defect of built-ins, it is physics, and it applies to both: a finish on every face and ventilation.
It needs no permission. In a rented apartment, Brazil’s Tenancy Law, article 23, item VI, requires the landlord’s prior written consent to modify the internal form of the property. Installed cabinetry is installed in the property. The guide furniture for a rented beach apartment goes into detail.

How I combine the two in a beach apartment

What I draw up most often for people who live or summer in Praia Grande:

Built-in bedroom, freestanding living room. Wardrobes in the bedroom, and in the living room a modular sofa, table, chairs, armchair and floor-standing TV unit. The living room is the room that changes role and layout the most, and it is where the freestanding piece pays off.
Built-in panel, freestanding TV unit. If you want the TV panel closing off the wall, fine; the unit below it can be freestanding, and it leaves with you. The guide TV unit for the living room has the measurements.
Made to measure instead of built-in for the sofa. Anyone who wants the sofa “to the wall’s measurement” does not need joinery: the Diamond sofa, for example, runs from 2.10 to 3.90 m by adding modules, and on made-to-order pieces the store adjusts size, arm and module.
A table that organizes the room without fixing anything. The Org table, at 1.80 or 2.00 m, and the Âncora rectangular, from 1.80 to 2.70 m, give the dining room a center without touching the wall.

What to ask before deciding

Will this piece change place or home in the next few years?
Is the apartment mine, rented, or could it become a rental?
Is the wall it goes against external and damp?
Do I want to see and sit before buying, or will I decide from a drawing?
If one part fails, how is it replaced?

If most answers point to moving, renting and humidity, the freestanding piece wins. If they point to “stays forever and needs to close off the wall”, the built-in wins, and I say so at the store even when I lose the sale. The guide furniture that lasts at the beach lists what to check on the spec sheet of any piece, built-in or not.

Come see the freestanding pieces set up

The Lucy Home showroom is at Av. Presidente Kennedy, 3870, Aviação, Praia Grande, with sofas, tables, chairs, armchairs, TV units and buffets set up to see and sit on. Bring the floor plan or the measurements; the team knows each piece and lays out the room with you, with room planning at no cost, and separates what makes sense freestanding from what makes sense fixed. Delivery and assembly are included. If you prefer, message us on WhatsApp. See also the sofas page and the tables page.

Frequently asked questions

Does Lucy Home make built-in furniture?

No. Lucy Home is a showroom furniture store: sofas, tables, chairs, armchairs, TV units and buffets, freestanding pieces you see and sit on before buying, in stock or made to order. On made-to-order pieces, the store customizes color, fabric, size, arm and module. Fixed cabinetry, built to the wall's measurements, the store does not do.

What is the difference between made-to-measure and built-in furniture?

At Lucy Home, made to measure is a freestanding piece made to your measurements: a sofa the length of your wall, a table the size of your room. Built-in is fixed cabinetry, designed and installed to the room's measurements: wardrobe, panel, niche, counter. One leaves with you; the other stays in the property.

Does built-in furniture withstand beach humidity?

It depends on the material and the finish, like any furniture. Purdue University explains that wood and wood-based panels swell in humid air and shrink in dry air, and that a finish slows that movement without stopping it. Ask for a finish on every face, including hidden ones, and ventilate. I do not compare built-in brands, because I have no source for that.

Can I put built-in furniture in a rented apartment?

Brazilian Law 8.245/1991, article 23, item VI, says the tenant may not modify the internal or external form of the property without the landlord's prior written consent. Fixed cabinetry is installed in the property; ask the owner first and keep the answer in writing. A freestanding showroom piece avoids the question, because it leaves with you.