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!

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!

Replacing Your Kitchen Cabinets

Do you walk into your kitchen and look around and let out a loud sigh? Are you thinking, this just doesn’t work for us, and it’s time to do something about it! We understand that feeling and want to offer you a way to make some changes to the kitchen starting with what is probably the biggest part of your kitchen, the cabinets. Any kitchen remodel should start here and Brunsell Lumber and Millwork can help with custom designs or with one of our many quality cabinet lines. We can also help with quick fixes such as just replacing your kitchen cabinet doors and the hardware. Continue reading