AMN Construction · Finish carpentry · Custom furniture and pieces

Custom furniture, made for one room.

Custom pieces are one-off furniture made for a specific room. We build tables, benches, desks, bed frames and storage in our small boutique shop in Carpinteria, to the space we measured and the wood and finish you chose.

Email photographs and measurements 805 886 0988

In short

Solid wood swells and shrinks with the seasons. Good furniture is built to let it.
The piece is made to a measured space, including the doorways it has to pass through.
You or your designer choose the look. We build it, and show wood and finish samples first.

Solid topWood swells and shrinks across its width with the seasons. The top is fixed so it can.
JointA tenon fitted into a mortise: wood locked into wood, not held by screws alone.
ApronThe rail under the top. It keeps the legs square and the top flat.
LegsCut from straight-grained stock so they stay straight.
StretcherTies the legs together low down, where a table takes its knocks.

A table in elevation: the parts, and the joint that holds them.

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.

Dining tables and console tables, sized to the room and the number of chairs.
Benches for entries, windows and dining nooks.
Desks and work tables, with a route for cables where needed.
Bed frames and headboards.
Bar cabinets and wine storage.
Radiator covers and appliance covers, with the airflow the equipment needs.

How it goes

Step 1
You send photographs of the room, rough measurements, and any drawing or reference from you or your designer.
Step 2
We measure the space and the route in: doors, stairs and corners.
Step 3
You approve the dimensions, the wood and a finish sample.
Step 4
The piece is built and finished in our small boutique shop in Carpinteria.
Step 5
We deliver it, set it in place, level it, and fasten it to the wall if it needs that.

Yours to decide

Decide these first.

Wood species. Hardness, color and grain all differ. A soft wood dents on a dining table. A hard one costs more and wears better.
Solid wood or veneer. Solid wood can be refinished many times. Veneer, a thin layer of wood over a stable panel, stays flat on wide surfaces.
Finish. Oil is easy to repair and shows wear sooner. A hard film finish resists spills and is harder to touch up.
Size. Tape the outline on the floor and live with it for a while. A table needs room for chairs to pull out.
Edges and legs. Small choices, like a softened edge, decide how the piece feels in daily use.

How to tell good work

Joints are tight with no filler, and the piece does not rock or creak when you push on a corner.
A solid wood top is fastened so it can move, and shows no cracks along its boards.
Grain and color are matched across a top, so it reads as one surface.
The underside and back are finished too. Finishing one face only invites warping.
Drawers slide smoothly and sit in their openings with an even gap.

What moves the price

Wood species and the amount of solid wood. Wide, thick tops use a great deal of it.
Joinery and moving parts. Drawers, doors and table leaves take more time than a plain frame.
Finish. Stains, color matching and built-up finishes add steps.
Size and access, where a piece has to be built in sections to get into the room.

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

Custom furniture and pieces, built and fitted.

Santa Barbara South Coast

A maple dining table with a chevron top

A dining table built in the shop. The top is laid in a chevron pattern: angled boards that meet along the center line and at one point in the middle, inside a mitered border. Every board is cut, numbered and dry-fitted before any glue.

Custom furniture and pieces

A large maple dining table with a chevron-pattern top on square legs — The finished table

The corner of a maple table showing the mitered border around a chevron top, the apron and a square leg — The corner: border, apron and leg

A maple tabletop with boards laid in a chevron pattern meeting along the center line — The top, along its length

Maple boards laid out in a chevron pattern on a workbench — Laid out in the shop, before glue

Angled maple boards meeting at a single center point, each numbered in pencil — Where the boards meet, numbered in pencil

The underside of a table showing a leg fixed to the aprons with wooden corner blocks — Underneath: the leg and its corner blocks

Santa Barbara South Coast

A maple window seat and entry bench

A window seat built wall to wall under a picture window, with deep drawers and a divided tray, and a bench with a shelf fitted into the alcove by the front door. Photographed in bare maple, before finishing.

Built-ins · Custom furniture and pieces · Custom shelving

A maple window seat under a large window, with a deep drawer and a divided tray pulled open — The window seat, drawers open

A long maple window seat with frame-and-panel drawer fronts fitted between two walls — Fitted wall to wall

A maple storage bench with two panel doors and a shelf above, fitted into an alcove beside a front door — The entry alcove: bench and shelf

The entry bench with its doors open, showing a shelf and concealed hinges — The bench open: a shelf inside

Santa Barbara South Coast

A hardwood surround for a steel spa

A stainless steel spa wrapped in hardwood: vertical boards on the sides and a wide cap with mitered corners, where four boards meet at an angle and every gap shows.

Exterior trim · Custom furniture and pieces

A square stainless steel spa clad in vertical hardwood boards with a wide mitered hardwood cap, beside stone steps — The surround, from the stone steps

Close view of vertical hardwood cladding and the hardwood cap around a stainless steel spa — Cladding and cap

A long level lying across the hardwood cap of the spa surround — Checked with a level

Santa Barbara South Coast

Oak pedestal tables

Square dining tables with solid oak tops on painted pedestal bases, built as a set and delivered finished.

Custom furniture and pieces

A square oak-topped table on a white pedestal base with six chairs — In the dining room

A square solid oak tabletop made of matched boards on a white pedestal — The oak top

All finish carpentry projects

Questions

Custom furniture and pieces: what owners ask.

Why does a solid wood table top crack?

Usually because it was fastened so it could not move. Wood swells across its width in damp air and shrinks in dry air. A top glued or screwed rigidly to its base has nowhere to go, so it splits. We fasten tops with fittings that hold them down and let them slide.

What kind of joints should good furniture have?

Joints where wood locks into wood. A mortise and tenon, a tongue fitted into a matching pocket, holds legs to rails. Dovetails, interlocking wedge-shaped fingers, hold drawer corners. Screws and glue alone can work for a while. A fitted joint keeps working after the glue ages.

Can you build furniture from a designer’s drawing?

Yes. That is the usual arrangement. The designer or the homeowner decides how the piece looks. We work out how it goes together, check that it fits the room and the way in, and make it. We build and fit. We do not design the piece.

Who makes custom furniture near Carpinteria?

AMN Construction builds custom pieces in our small boutique shop in Carpinteria, for homes from Goleta to Carpinteria. Send photographs of the room and rough measurements by email. We will tell you whether it is a piece we should build, and what will move the price.

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