Serving Oakland, Macomb, and St Clair counties, as well as Grosse Pointe in Wayne county
St Clair, St Clair County, MI
The houses along the river in St Clair were built to look at the water, and the built-in that matters most here is the one that lets you sit in a window and do it. Window seats, bay seating and library shelving are the pieces we are asked for most.
A window seat in a bay is a deceptively particular job. The bay angles are rarely the neat ones on a plan, the sill height sets the seat height whether it is comfortable or not, and there is usually a radiator that has to be housed rather than removed. Done properly the seat is built to the actual bay, the radiator gets a grilled housing that still lets it work, and the storage under the seat opens in a way that clears the cushion. The second piece is library and study shelving, which suits these houses because the rooms have the height for it — full-height cases with a proper cornice and base, built in the same register as the room's existing millwork. Alcoves either side of a chimney breast take the same treatment and use space nothing else can. In the formal rooms we also build sideboards and cabinetry into panelled dados so the joinery becomes part of the wall scheme rather than furniture standing in front of it. The constraint throughout is matching: in a house whose value is its original woodwork, a new piece that ignores the existing profiles is a subtraction.
Every piece takes its profiles from the room it goes in. Built and finished at our Chesterfield shop, then installed scribed to walls that are unlikely to be plumb, because in these houses they rarely are.
St Clair is about twenty-one miles from our Chesterfield shop, well inside the area we cover along the river.
Our own work, photographed on site. Not every job shown is in St Clair — we do not label a photograph with a city we cannot verify it was taken in.
Custom Stereo Cabinet
A custom-built cabinet made to house audio components.
Mudroom Bench & Hook Rail
A mudroom locker nook — bench over open shoe cubbies, beadboard back with a hook rail, and a shelf with cubbies above.
Built-In Shelving Under a Dormer
Built-in shelving and drawer units fitted to a sloped dormer ceiling. Shown mid-build.
Schedule your no-obligation estimate today. We look forward to earning your business.
