Custom Millwork

When we talk about custom millwork, we don’t just mean the ability to replicate designs found in photographs. Getting Brunsell’s custom cabinetry, stairs, mantels, shelves, furniture, and more does not necessarily require an image grabbed from Pinterest, Houzz, or architectural magazines. In fact, some of our best custom work comes from our designers’ own imaginations. Even better, custom designs can come from client’s imaginations, too.

Custom Millwork

Look at familiar architectural details—fleur de lis finials, for example, or ball-top newel posts on staircases—and consider that there was a time when these designs didn’t exist yet. Because such elements have persisted for generations, it’s easy to forget that they were the product of human creativity. Moreover, it’s easy to forget that new, exciting, and totally unique designs or combinations of designs are still possible.

As much as it’s about exceptional skill and craftsmanship, Brunsell custom millwork is about letting the imagination run wild. It’s about considering what things are possible, maybe even drawing on inspiration from unlikely places like nature or a favorite song, and creating something truly unique for your home. Truly, it’s an art!

Brunsell woodworkers are able to produce custom orders both from hand drawings and CAD, or computer-aided design. We wouldn’t recommend bringing in a drawing on a cocktail napkin, but hey, that could be a start. We do recommend giving from-scratch custom millwork a shot, especially if you’re constructing a home or business from the ground up. (In older structures, it’s often wise to do with designs that honor the architectural style or period original to the home. And we can customize solutions for that, too.)

So, what’s the next big thing? Maybe it’s something from your imagination!

Heavenly Doors: Why Custom Doors Are Worth It

High-quality doors add value and beauty to a home, last longer, and can reduce sound-seepage. They look good, feel good. As long as you’re going to invest in them, you might want to consider customization. A custom door can be made to fit not only any size opening but also so many shapes—while incorporating pleasing touches like arches, angles, and glass inserts.

One Size Does Not Fit All

One hang-up people tend to have when considering the doors for their home is the assumption they have to stick with a standard size, especially for interior doors. But you’re bound to those dimensions only when you buy off-the-shelf doors. With handmade doors you can go big, really big. You can also opt for doors that slide open, barn-door style, rather than swing open. Or you can go for the arched look that adds height and drama. A door that colors outside the lines in these ways adds instant drama.

The Devil Is in the Details

With custom doors, you also get select hinges, decorative nails (aka, clavos), knobs, and pulls. You’d be surprised what a difference this hardware makes. Basically, you treat the door like a canvas, and the result is a work of art.

Durability by Design

We handcraft the rails and stiles for our doors with materials and techniques that prevent warping. The jambs are just as important, framing and complementing the door and taking a lot of wear and tear, so we put just as much energy into crafting them with style and durability.

Changing the Tone of Your Home or Room

You can select from single-species or multiple-species wood design as well as a variety of hand-applied finishes. Working with these variables, you can easily warm up or cool down a room. (Note that not all wood species work well together, but our designers offer great guidance in selecting combos.)

A Touch of Glass

Adding clear glass adds sophistication, imparting a sense of space, openness, and accessibility. If preferred, textured/art glass can be used to allow in light and create warmth without sacrificing privacy. Again, think of the door as a canvas.

Brunsell Lumber - Custom Doors

The doors to your home, and to the rooms in your home, set the tone for what lies beyond them. They are the perfect opportunity to make a style statement. Whether from scratch or from inspirational photos/drawings you bring to us, we can design a just-right door for you that has both a pleasing look and pleasing feel. Forget run-of-the-mill doors and try custom milled doors instead!

Hole in the Wall: Our Little Place that’s Not So Little

You’ve heard the phrase hole in the wall, right? Maybe you’ve used it to describe your favorite tucked-away bar with the best Old Fashioned. Or the little fabric store in your hometown that sells vintage designs by the yard. Or the breakfast café with twelve tables and two waitresses that bring extra bacon, just because. At any rate, you know what is: a small, usually modest place—often one that’s way better on than inside than one might expect from the outside.

Our Madison mill and lumber yard aren’t particularly small, but they do appear that way to drivers passing by us. We’re tucked behind the Verona Road Home Depot and its neighboring stores and it’s sometimes difficult to see going 55 mph on the Beltline. In that regard, we might look like a little hole in the wall. But here are some of the things you’ll find inside:

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We work hard to craft and carry beautiful things—pieces with gorgeous curves, lines, and other details. Not only are our finished pieces eye candy but so also are the architectural “ingredients” we carry. These include a vast array of cabinets, countertop surfaces, cabinet hardware, decking, railings, stair parts and more. If you’re renovating or constructing a room or home, you’ll feel like a kid in a candy store here.

Our place is also a nice sensory experience, rich with colors and the smell of wood. But that fragrance isn’t all from the stuff in the showroom. It’s carried over from our expansive mill located just behind the showroom.

“I had no idea all of this was back here!”

We hear that a lot, even from people who’ve made a million runs to the Home Depot that neighbors us. Yet our mill is actually an impressively big and elaborate operation, where wood varieties of all kinds, fresh from the forest, are artfully crafted into stunning pieces and parts of a home. We are well known for our high-end work, which comes as the result of having the best tools and equipment wielded in the best hands in the biz. From our door shop to our cabinet shop, from custom closet-making to custom moldings, beautiful things are forged here by talented craftsmen who genuinely love their work:

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If you haven’t visited our showroom and mill, consider this your invite. Now that the worst of the construction on Verona Road at the beltline is complete, it’s a lot easier to get to us again. And we’re confident you’ll learn we’re the kind of “hole in the wall” you’re glad you found.

Stairway to Heaven: Custom Stairways from Brunsell

Lucky you, if you have a home with more than one story. You get to have a stairway. And a stairway is one of very few large architectural elements in a home’s interior that adds as much beauty as it does functionality. It’s much more than a way to get from floor A to floor B.

Brunsell Lumber - Custom Stairways

A home’s stairway is kind of like a stage. It’s where the wedding-day photos are taken. It’s where the teenager descends, decked out in prom attire, against the backdrop of sweet portraits going back to kindergarten. It’s where little pajama-clad bodies appear way too early on Christmas morning, eager to check their stockings. Yes, there’s a lot of sentiment wrapped up in a good stairway.

So, what makes for a good stairway?

  • It’s safe and functional. Stairways designs can get pretty wild, often downright impractical. That quirky, gorgeous stairway you spotted on the Internet may make your heart go pitter-pat, but would it pass– with the building inspector? A good stairway is one that balances aesthetics with physical safety and functionality. But it’s not just the building inspector you need to consider. You must also think about the people that will be using the stairs in your home. Young children? Pets? Seniors? Some designs, such as those with open risers, might not be the best choice for these users.
  • It fits the style of the house. Some homeowners like the idea of mixing up styles: a little roaring ‘20s mixed with a little 1890s farmhouse, for example, can simply mean a crystal chandelier against a backdrop of reclaimed barn wood. Nice! Just don’t monkey around with a new style when it comes to a stairway. Stairways are an integral part of a home’s architecture, so they should be the same style as the rest of the architecture.
  • It adds character and interest. Keep in mind that it’s not just the stairs themselves that add interest. It’s also the space created around them. You can turn the space under the actual stairs into a manner of things. Cabinetry and shelving are both popular choices for this space. Or you could use it as a reading nook, a little bar, closet space, or…

Custom Stairways are one of the things our designers most enjoy designing. That’s because stairs offer seemingly endless ways to add pizzazz to a home while often presenting some mind-bending design challenges. We like a challenge! It’s gratifying to meet with a client and find the perfect intersection between aesthetics, home style, city building codes, geometry, and the laws of physics. When you work with us to create your home’s staircase, you can select from our large inventory of standard stair parts, or let us design a custom stairway that reflects your personal style. Check out some of our custom stairways here, and let us know when you’re ready to talk about the perfect stairs for your home!