AMN Construction · Finish carpentry · Built-ins

Built-ins, made for one wall in one house.

A built-in is cabinetry or shelving made to fill a particular wall, alcove or corner. Ours are built in our small boutique shop in Carpinteria, then brought to the house and scribed to the walls, floor and ceiling.

Email photographs and measurements 805 886 0988

In short

A built-in is made to the room, so it fills the space with no leftover gaps.
Wiring and ventilation for electronics are planned before anything is built.
Most of the work happens off site. The time in your house is short.

Built-inMade in the shop, then scribed to the wall, floor and ceiling so it looks part of the house.
Crown moldingCovers the joint where wall meets ceiling. Its size should suit the ceiling height.
BaseboardFollows the floor. Inside corners are coped so they stay closed as the house moves.

A room in elevation: a built-in bookcase, tied into the crown and baseboard of the room.

Step by step

How a cabinet is built, frame by frame.

1 / 6

How a cabinet is built

Cut the partsSides, bottom, top and back are cut from one sheet of cabinet-grade plywood, so the grain and color match.
Assemble the boxThe parts are glued and screwed into a box, then checked corner to corner so it is square.
Face frame or edgeSolid wood is fixed to the front edges. It is what the eye reads, and where the doors will hang.
Doors and drawersDoors and drawer fronts are made and hung with an even gap all round, the same width everywhere.
Finish in the shopPaint or stain goes on in the shop, sanded between coats, and cures before the piece leaves.
Level, fasten, scribeOn site the cabinet is leveled from the floor’s high point, fastened to the wall, and a filler is cut to the wall’s real shape.

Built by Tom. Fifty years of custom cabinets and finish carpentry, from Oregon and Hawaii to Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Westlake Village, and now from Goleta to Carpinteria. Meet the carpenter

What we do

What is included.

Bookcases and shelving walls, with fixed or adjustable shelves.
Window seats, with a lift-up lid or drawers below.
Media walls, with openings for cables and air for the equipment.
Mudroom benches and lockers, with hooks, cubbies and a place for shoes.
Home office desks and alcove cabinets beside a fireplace or under a stair.
Scribing to walls and ceiling, then trim to tie the piece to the baseboard and crown.

How it goes

Step 1
You send photographs of the wall and rough measurements, with a sketch or pictures of what you like.
Step 2
We measure on site, find the outlets, vents and switches, and plan wiring with the electrician if needed.
Step 3
You approve the layout and the finish, then the piece is built in our small boutique shop in Carpinteria.
Step 4
It comes to the house in sections, is set level, scribed to the walls and ceiling, and fastened to the framing.
Step 5
Trim, doors, drawers and hardware go on, and the piece is finished or left ready for the painter.

Yours to decide

Decide these first.

What it holds. Book sizes, a television, baskets or boots set the shelf depths and spacing. Measure what you own.
Open or closed. Open shelves display. Doors and drawers hide clutter and keep dust off, and cost more.
Paint or stain. Painted built-ins can use plywood and MDF. Stained ones need matched veneer or solid wood.
Fixed or adjustable shelves. Fixed shelves are stiffer and look cleaner. Adjustable ones allow for change.
Whether it reaches the ceiling. Full height looks built with the house. Stopping short leaves a ledge to dust.

How to tell good work

No gap where the piece meets the wall, floor or ceiling, and no wide strip of caulk hiding one.
Shelves that stay straight under a full load of books.
Doors and drawers with even gaps all around, which trades call reveals.
Baseboard and crown that run across the piece as if it had been there from the start.
No visible cables, and equipment that does not run hot behind closed doors.

What moves the price

Size, and how many doors and drawers it has. Drawers cost more than doors, and doors more than open shelves.
Material and finish: painted plywood and MDF cost less than stained hardwood.
Electrical work, lighting and ventilation for a media wall or a desk.
The room. Walls far out of plumb or a sloped ceiling take more fitting on site.

Prices vary with the materials and the hours a job takes. Each job is custom and unique, so we price it once we have seen the room.

Our work

Built-ins, built and fitted.

Santa Barbara South Coast

Oak cabinetry through a new Spanish-style house

Cabinetry for a whole new house: a pale oak kitchen with a paneled hood, floor-to-ceiling storage in the hall and laundry, a dark wood bar with glass doors, a painted console cabinet, painted cubbies, and paneled wood doors.

Custom cabinetry · Built-ins · Door installation

A kitchen with pale oak frame-and-panel cabinets, a paneled hood, glass-fronted wall cabinets and a white stone island — The kitchen

A floor-to-ceiling pale oak cabinet with four tall doors and four upper doors, fitted into a hall alcove — Hall storage, floor to ceiling

Tall pale oak cabinet doors with long pulls, built to the ceiling — Tall cabinets in the laundry

Pale oak laundry cabinets around a stacked washer and dryer — The laundry

A dark wood bar cabinet with glass-fronted upper doors and drawers below, beside a stone fireplace — The bar: dark wood and glass doors

A low dark green painted cabinet with four paneled doors fitted into an alcove — A painted console cabinet

Santa Barbara South Coast

Cabinetry in a log house

Tom built the knotty wood cabinetry and trim for this log house: a bookcase wall built between peeled log posts, a bar and desk with glass-fronted cabinets, bath vanities, a loft railing, mantels and wainscot.

Built-ins · Custom cabinetry · Bathroom vanities

A wall of knotty wood bookcases and base cabinets fitted between peeled log posts — The bookcase wall, built between log posts

Knotty wood cabinets with glass-fronted doors above a granite bar and a built-in desk — The bar and desk

A knotty wood bath vanity with drawers and a tall linen tower beside it — Bath vanity and linen tower

A log-walled living room with a plank ceiling, wood-cased doors and a kitchen of knotty wood cabinets beyond — The living room, toward the kitchen

A bedroom with a log mantel over a stone fireplace, wood wainscoting and a plank ceiling — A bedroom: log mantel and wainscot

A loft game room with a wood railing of square balusters and a plank ceiling — The loft and its railing

Santa Barbara

A walnut refrigerator and wine wall

Walnut panels made to cover the refrigerator and frame a wine column, so the appliances read as one piece of furniture. The same house has a stained vanity and linen cabinet in the bath.

Custom cabinetry · Built-ins · Bathroom vanities

A tall walnut cabinet wall with frame-and-panel doors and brass pulls, beside a range under a plaster hood — The walnut wall beside the range and plaster hood

Floor-to-ceiling walnut frame-and-panel doors with long brass pulls beside a glass-fronted wine column — Panel doors and the wine column

A dark stained wood vanity with drawers under a marble top, and a matching tall linen cabinet — The bath: vanity and linen cabinet

Santa Barbara South Coast

Cabinetry, a stair and a library in a traditional house

Tom built the woodwork through this traditional house: a kitchen in warm wood with glass-fronted cabinets and a hanging pot rack, a butler’s pantry, a painted stair with a turned-baluster railing, a wall of library bookcases around a window, and a bath vanity.

Custom cabinetry · Stair railings and treads · Built-ins

A large kitchen with warm wood cabinets, a tiled island and a wood pot rack hanging above it — The kitchen

Warm wood wall cabinets with glass doors beside a range and hood — Glass-fronted cabinets by the range

A stair with wood treads and a white railing of turned balusters rising to a gallery — The stair and its railing

Floor-to-ceiling wood bookcases built around a window, full of books — Library bookcases around the window

A butler’s pantry with glass-fronted wood cabinets, a small sink and drawers — The butler’s pantry

A long wood bath vanity with drawers and a dressing table section under a wide mirror — The bath vanity

All finish carpentry projects

Questions

Built-ins: what owners ask.

What is the difference between built-ins and freestanding furniture?

A built-in is fastened to the house and fitted to its walls, floor and ceiling. Furniture stands on its own and leaves gaps around it. A built-in uses every bit of an alcove or wall, which matters most in awkward spaces where no store-bought piece will fit.

How deep should built-in bookshelves be?

Deep enough for your largest books and no deeper. Most novels need less depth than people expect, while art books and binders need more. Shelves that are too deep waste floor space and collect clutter in front of the books. Measure what you own first.

How do you keep electronics from overheating in a media built-in?

By giving the heat a way out. We plan openings low and high so air moves through, leave space behind the equipment, and avoid sealing a receiver or game console in a closed box. Cable paths and outlets are planned with the electrician before the piece is built.

Do built-ins add value to a house?

They add usefulness, which buyers notice. Well-fitted bookcases, a mudroom bench or a window seat make a room work better and look finished. We cannot promise a figure. Plain, well-proportioned built-ins that suit the house tend to age better than highly personal ones.

Where we do this

Built in our small boutique shop in Carpinteria where the piece is custom, and fitted on site in:

Carpinteria Summerland Montecito Santa Barbara Hope Ranch Goleta

All finish carpentry · see the projects

Inquiries

Have a room in mind? Send us the photographs.

Email photographs of the room and rough measurements to purchasing@amnbuild.com. Matt reads it himself. No forms.

Email Matt the photographs Or call Matt · 805 886 0988