Most of my clients reach out to me because they have a problem that cannot be solved by a regular contractor or off-the-floor furniture. They need a custom woodworker who will help them weigh options, costs and design. Bringing someone into your home to create an unknown solution requires a lot of trust. We’ve all heard the horror stories of promises not kept, shoddy work and disappearing employees. If you speak to my clients, you will not find this kind of feedback. Because, when I started my business 14 years ago, I began with the following tenets:
Work Directly with Clients
I show up at the first appointment and communicate the design, pricing and schedule. When the project starts, I am the one who comes to measure then go back to the workshop to order materials and build. I am the one who works in your home, along with my one assistant if needed. I am the one who shows up every day, lets your dog out, and keeps quiet when your kids are taking a virtual test. I am the one who finalizes the project with you, ensuring you are happy and collects the final payment. Not only do I enjoy the interaction, but also I complete the work to ensure the quality I expect for my clients. You will not have strangers coming and going while I am working with you.
Communicate in a Clear and Timely Manner
I respond to emails and phone calls – I know, it seems like a no-brainer but as you may have discovered, responding is a lost art. I am fortunate to be in demand, so my project timelines are months out. I communicate this situation with you, and keep you up to date with ordering information, etc. I am clear with my quotes and do not use gotcha pricing at the end of a project. If a problem arises later (or you want to complete another project), I still respond!
Minimize Disruptions
Once the project begins, I work as much as I can in my shop to minimize disruptions in your home. Also, once I begin work on your project, I am not working on any others, which keeps my time in your home to a minimum. Even my staircase remodeling process is focused on allowing my clients access to their second level throughout the project.
The Work is Not Complete Until the Client is Satisfied
Constant communication helps keep expectations top of mind, so there are rarely issues when the project is complete. However, if something does not quite meet my clients’ vision, then I fix it.
Hiring a custom woodworker should not be a worrisome experience. If you are considering a woodworking project for your home, reach out to me. I am happy to offer references. Send me an email or give me a call at (317) 679-5890.
Like many homes of the time period, their great room is adjacent to the kitchen and has vaulted ceilings, but not much else going on architecturally. We created a design that complemented the look of the kitchen cabinetry, with crown molding, linear cabinet doors and special detailing on the face trim. Because the ceiling has many angles to it, we kept the cabinetry lower to keep it from fighting the natural site lines in the space.
The design was created to include book and decorative storage, TV placement, and closed cabinetry. Choosing the spacing for the open shelving is always a mix of the size of the things to be stored and the available space. For this project, my clients wanted fixed shelving, so I created the standard bottom space to allow for coffee table books and taller decorative pieces, and then built the remaining shelves to be book height within the rest of the available space. Sometimes homeowners want the uppermost shelf to be a bit smaller since people usually store pieces that will not be accessed often up there, but for this design, we kept all three even.
The audio/visual area was designed to provide room for a larger TV down the road and to store equipment, all while hiding the ugly cords. I cut holes into the back of the shelves and cabinetry to allow the cords to fall behind the unit, reaching a power source within the bottom cabinet.
Since the footprint of the room was so small, we needed to house all the functionalities in one spot. A loft bed was the perfect solution. The base was sized for an extra-long single mattress to allow for her son to grow into the room. While I normally create most of the pieces in my shop rather than in my clients’ homes, this project required some on-site work. As is typical for older homes in the Butler Tarkington area of Indianapolis, the walls were not square. Since the bed was designed to hug the walls, I had to custom cut the support system on-site to ensure I was conforming to the actual conditions of the space. No store-bought bed would have been able to fit that bill.
The bed needed an access point and my client wanted a dresser – one could not block the other. And, the loft had to be supported well into the boy’s teenage years. I decided to use the ladder and the dresser as support for the bed, one on each end. The ladder was crafted as a series of cubby holes with additional cubbies behind them. The custom-built dresser supports the other side of the bed and a desk with shelving above sits in the middle. There is no wasted space in this design!
My clients were looking to update the look of their staircase, located in the main entryway of their home. New newel posts, treads, balusters, handrail – the whole shebang. I took the old carpet off and replaced the treads with a beautiful oak stained to match pieces of furniture in the home. Since the color of the wood was going to stand out in the new design, I made up many samples of mixed stain colors so my clients could pick exactly what they wanted. The balusters and the risers were painted white to contrast the stained wood.
Since the plan was to not include carpet on the staircase, I had to create a special piece for the midway landing. When builders know that carpet will be covering this piece, they do not waste time or money by placing nice flooring. I cut and stained a piece of oak to complement the new treads.
Another custom feature is the newel post cap design. I like to add a bit of personality to every staircase I remodel, and the newel post is one of my favorite ways to do it. For this project, I cut four pieces of the oak and turned them 90 degrees from each other and glued them together. There are three posts in this staircase and each one received a slightly different variation within this design based on the grain of the wood. The homeowner gave me creative license to add this special touch that suited the home’s design.