Ferris Custom Furniture

Cabinets and built-ins

Cabinets and built-ins, fitted to the wall they live on.

Bar cabinets, media consoles, shelving and casework, built in San Diego and made to the millimetre for the room rather than to a catalogue size.

What to think about

  • The wall is not square. Plan for it.
  • Measure around what is already there: outlets, skirting, pipework, returns.
  • Decide early what has to be reachable and what can be sealed.
  • Appliances have fixed sizes and fixed clearances.
  • Solid stock where hands land, stable panels across broad faces.

A freestanding cabinet has to look right from every angle. A built-in only has to look right from one, but it has to fit a wall that was never built straight. Those are different problems, and the second one is why built-in work is measured on site rather than ordered from a specification.

What Bryan builds in this line

Bar cabinets, media consoles, credenzas, shelving, dressers and general casework, in solid hardwood with sustainable veneer and plywood used where each material does its job best. Work ranges from a single freestanding cabinet to a run of casework fitted along a wall.

Cabinets that have to house equipment are their own discipline. A wine refrigerator, a kegerator or an amplifier is a fixed size with fixed clearances, and it needs air behind it and room for the door to swing. That gets resolved on paper before a board is cut, because a cabinet built a quarter of an inch tight cannot be fixed later.

Solid wood, veneer, and knowing which is which

Wood moves. It takes on moisture in a humid month and gives it back in a dry one, and it does almost all of that movement across the grain rather than along it. A solid panel four feet wide will grow and shrink measurably through the year, which is fine if the construction allows for it and a problem if it does not.

So the material follows the job. Solid hardwood goes on edges, frames, doors and anywhere hands and knocks land. A well-made veneered panel goes across broad flat faces, where it stays flat for the life of the piece and lets one log run continuously across a surface that solid boards could never cover. Used that way, veneer is not the cheap option, it is the correct one.

Hardware, or the absence of it

Much of the work is quiet by design: pulls recessed into the door rather than applied to it, plinths shaped instead of decorated, and nothing on the case to catch the eye or a sleeve. Where hardware is wanted, it is chosen at the drawing stage rather than fitted at the end, because the size and action of a pull changes how the front of a cabinet has to be built.

What it costs

Cabinetry is priced per commission. The species, the finish, the amount of interior fitting and the timeline all move the number, so there is no useful price list. The process starts with a conversation about the wall and the room, then a design fee and a hand-drawn perspective sketch before any figure is committed to.

Recent work

Common questions

How long does a cabinet or built-in take?
Lead times vary with the size of the piece and what is already in the shop. Because each commission is built one at a time rather than batched, the honest answer only comes after Bryan has seen the drawings. Ask early if you are working to a date.
Do you install, or only build?
Bryan delivers the finished work himself wherever the distance allows, which for cabinets and built-ins usually means installing it too. Work going further afield is crated and shipped at the client’s cost.
Can you match cabinetry that is already in the house?
Often, yes. Bring photographs and, if you can, a small offcut or a drawer front. Matching an existing finish is a different job from matching a species, and it is much easier to judge with a physical sample in hand.
Is veneer a compromise?
Not when it is used deliberately. A broad panel in solid stock will move with the seasons and eventually show it, while a well-made veneered panel over a stable substrate stays flat for the life of the piece and lets a single log run continuously across a face that solid boards could never cover. Solid hardwood goes where hands and edges land.
Do you build kitchen cabinets?
Bryan builds cabinet casework, shelving, vanities, media consoles and bar cabinets. A full kitchen is a larger scope with trades to coordinate, so it is worth a conversation before you plan around it.

Start with the room.

Tell Bryan what you need and where it is going. Photographs of the space, a sketch on the back of an envelope, or a picture of something you saw once — all of it helps.

Request a quote

Or reach Bryan directly:
(760) 855-7701 bryan@ferriscustomfurniture.com