Custom Home Interiors

Your selections are the plan

Owners who come to us for this work usually know what they want inside. Some have a designer and a binder of finish schedules. Others have spent a year collecting tile samples, hardware and paint colors and know exactly which sconce goes where. Either way, our job is to build it as chosen, not to substitute something easier or more familiar.

We start by turning the selections into a single schedule organized by room. Every tile is listed with its size, layout and grout color, every millwork piece with its profile and finish, every light with its location and mounting height, every knob, pull and hinge with its finish, every paint color with its sheen. Gaps are flagged and answered before the work begins. Discovering on installation day that nobody picked a grout color is how jobs drift away from the plan.

Steve reviews that schedule with you before anything is ordered, and the written scope refers to it by name, so there is never a question about which version of the plan is the real one.

Where a selection will not work as specified, like a tile that is not rated for a shower floor or a fixture that needs more depth than the wall has, we tell you and the designer before it is ordered, with the reason and an alternative to consider.

Lighting locations get fixed before drywall

Lighting is where a finished interior most often goes wrong, because its locations are decided long before the fixtures arrive. A pendant over an island has to center on the island, not the room. Sconces flanking a mirror have to land at the height the designer drew and the same distance off the mirror on both sides. Recessed lights in a hallway should line up with each other and with the doors.

During framing we mark every fixture, switch and outlet location on the studs with you or your designer, and the licensed electrician roughs to those marks. Blocking for heavy fixtures and sconces goes in at the same time. Once drywall is up, moving a sconce three inches means opening and patching a wall, so we would rather spend an extra hour walking the marks before the walls close.

Switches deserve the same thought. They should sit at a consistent height on the latch side of doors, grouped sensibly so you are not facing a row of six unlabeled toggles at the entry. If your designer has chosen specific plates or dimmers, we confirm box sizes before rough-in so the plates fit.

Outlets in paneled walls, backsplashes and built-ins need the same care, placed so they land within a panel or a tile rather than across a joint.

Before we hand over a room, we walk it with you under its own lighting and list anything that is not right.

Tile and millwork that line up with each other

In a coordinated interior, the trades have to agree on lines. The top of a tile wainscot should meet the cap rail at the height the millwork drawing shows. Grout lines in a shower should line up with the niche and the valve. Baseboard should die into a door casing cleanly rather than running into it at an awkward depth.

We work those intersections out on paper first, then check them on site with a laser before tile or trim is cut. Tile layouts are planned so cuts land at the edges where they are least visible and full tiles sit at the focal points, and we show you the layout before setting begins. Custom tile work is one of the things the company is known for, and the layout is most of what makes tile look custom.

Millwork gets the same treatment, with casing reveals, panel heights and crown sizes kept consistent room to room unless the selections call for a change.

Grout and caulk colors are tested against the actual tile and stone before setting, because they change the look of a surface more than most people expect.

Hardware and paint at the end of the job

The finishing stage is short and easy to rush. Hardware goes on after paint, at consistent heights through the house, with hinges and pulls in one finish where the selections call for it. Doors are adjusted so their reveals are even before anyone calls them done.

Paint goes on in the colors and sheens on the schedule, with samples on the actual walls before the full coat, because a color chosen under showroom lights rarely looks the same in a north-facing New England room in February. Trim and doors get their own finish standard. Before we hand over a room, we walk it with you under its own lighting and list anything that is not right. Then we fix it.

Before paint we check every wall and ceiling under raking light, the low angle that shows ridges and patches. Anything that shows gets another coat of compound and a sanding before the finish coat goes on, and punch work like caulk lines, touch-ups and door adjustments is scheduled as real work rather than squeezed into the last afternoon.

One list, room by room

Finishing a house to someone else's selections involves hundreds of small decisions, and the way to keep them straight is one list everyone works from. Changes to the selections are written down, priced and dated before they are ordered, so the schedule in the binder always matches the house going up.

You hear from us about deliveries, back orders and anything that does not match its sample when it arrives. If a tile lot comes in a shade off, you know before it goes on the wall. Steve started the company after working for guys that lacked communication, and on a job made of this many selections, keeping you informed is the part he will not let slip.

We also keep track of what is left over. Spare tile from the same lot, touch-up paint labeled by room and sheen, extra hardware and the finish schedule itself are handed over at the end, so a repair years from now can match what is there.

See the rest of our luxury work, or browse the gallery for rooms we have finished.