Grand Rapids, MI · Built-Ins Only · Since 2013
Your walls
are not straight.
That is the job.
Alcove bookcases, window seats, mudroom lockers, pantries, media walls and under-stair storage, for Grand Rapids houses built between 1900 and 1930. A factory carcase is a rectangular prism. Your 1918 alcove is not, and that gap is the entire commercial reason this trade exists.
Currently quoting installs eight to ten weeks out.
- Michigan M&A Contractor
- Built-Ins Only
- Sprayed In The Shop
- Price Fixed At Sign-Off
- 5-Year Joinery Warranty
Recent Built-Ins
Six built-ins, and what was out of square in each.
Every carpenter's website is a lightbox of finished woodwork. It is beautiful and it is useless, because you cannot see the hard part in a photograph — the hard part was that the wall leaned, the floor fell away an inch and the radiator could not move. So each of these names the defect in the room and the joinery decision that absorbed it.
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Heritage Hill · 1908 foursquare · Paired alcove bookcases, 8'2" tall
Two alcoves either side of a chimney breast, neither the same width
- Room
- The two alcoves differed by 3⁄8" in width and the east wall was out of plumb 5⁄8" top to bottom. The plaster bellied out at picture-rail height on one side only.
- Species & stock
- Paint-grade poplar face frames, birch ply carcases, Michigan hard maple for the adjustable shelves.
- Joint
- Face frames dominoed and built 3⁄8" narrow, then scribed to the plaster on site with a compass and a block plane. Carcases set plumb and independent of the frames; nothing nailed through the front.
- Finish
- Sprayed in the shop — two coats of pigmented conversion varnish over a bonding primer. Site work was scribe stock and caulk only.
Built for $9,400
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Eastown · 1921 bungalow · Window seat with three drawers and a hinged lid
A window seat over a floor that fell away an inch to the bay
- Room
- The floor dropped a full 1" from the room side to the bay over 62 inches, and the bay itself was 3⁄4" out of square corner to corner. Both original casings had to stay.
- Species & stock
- Quartersawn white oak, solid for the lid and the front rail, rift-sawn ply for the ends.
- Joint
- Levelled off the high corner and the plinth scribed down to the floor, so the lid reads level and the taper hides in the base shadow line. Drawer boxes are half-blind dovetailed and hung on undermount slides that tolerate the racking.
- Finish
- Hardwax oil, three coats, rubbed back between. Repairable in place by the owner, which matters on a lid people sit on.
Built for $6,800
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East Hills · 1913 Craftsman · Four-bay lockers with a bench, hooks and a boot tray
Mudroom lockers on a wall that leaned into the room
- Room
- The back wall leaned 7⁄8" into the room over 84 inches, and the return wall was 2° off ninety. An unmovable dryer vent came through 11 inches above the bench height.
- Species & stock
- Paint-grade poplar, birch ply carcases, solid hard maple bench top and hook rail.
- Joint
- Built as four independent bays with 1" scribe stock on both stiles and a filler at the return, so the lean is absorbed across the run rather than dumped in one gap. The vent got a removable panel rather than a hole cut in a finished side.
- Finish
- Conversion varnish on the casework; the maple bench top in hardwax oil so it can be sanded and re-oiled when the boots have had their way with it.
Built for $7,900
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Ottawa Hills · 1926 foursquare · Full-height pantry with pull-outs and a counter run
A pantry in a room that had been three rooms
- Room
- Three different plaster thicknesses along one 11-foot wall where two doorways had been closed up at different dates. Nothing was coplanar; the worst step was 1⁄2".
- Species & stock
- Cherry face frames and doors, birch ply carcases with cherry veneer where the interiors show.
- Joint
- A shadow-gap reveal down the whole run instead of a scribed edge — when a wall changes plane three times, a scribe just chases the mess. The reveal is a deliberate 3⁄8" line and reads as design.
- Finish
- Clear conversion varnish, satin. Cherry darkens for about eighteen months and then holds; the doors were kept out of the sun in the shop so it darkens evenly.
Built for $14,200
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Cherry Hill · 1917 four-square · Media wall with flanking cabinets and floating shelves
A media wall around a chimney that was not centred on the room
- Room
- The chimney breast sat 4 1⁄2" off the room centreline, which nobody notices until something symmetrical is built against it. Ceiling dropped 5⁄8" left to right.
- Species & stock
- Walnut floating shelves; paint-grade poplar and birch ply for the cabinetry below.
- Joint
- Cabinets built to different widths so the openings match rather than the boxes — the eye reads the openings. Crown scribed to the falling ceiling and stopped short at both ends so the drop never meets a wall.
- Finish
- Cabinets sprayed in conversion varnish; the walnut shelves in hardwax oil. Walnut was kept off the window wall on purpose — it fades in direct sun and nobody wants that surprise.
Built for $11,600
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Baxter · 1911 worker cottage · Three pull-out drawers and a hinged access door
Under-stair storage where the stringer was the only straight line
- Room
- A raking triangle with a 33.5° stringer, a wall that bowed 1⁄2" at mid-height and a stair carriage nobody was allowed to touch. Headroom ran out before the third drawer did.
- Species & stock
- Birch ply throughout, paint-grade poplar face frame, hard maple drawer runners.
- Joint
- The face frame is a single scribed template taken off the actual rake with a profile gauge, not off a measurement. Drawers hang from the top so the bowed wall carries no load and the third one is deliberately shallower.
- Finish
- Two coats of pigmented conversion varnish. Interiors left in clear-coated birch so the space reads bigger than it is.
Built for $4,300
Pieces & Prices
What we build, and what it costs.
“Call for pricing” is the single biggest bounce on a custom-work site. You do not know whether an alcove bookcase is $1,200 or $12,000, and rather than guess you leave. So here are the real ranges, with the two or three things that actually move them. Ranges are supplied-and-installed, in Kent and Ottawa counties, at 2026 prices.
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Alcove bookcases
$3,800 – $11,000
per alcove, supplied and installed
The classic pre-war built-in: floor-to-ceiling or capped at the picture rail, in the recess beside a chimney breast. Almost always a pair, and almost never a matching pair, because the two recesses are rarely the same width.
What moves the number
- Paint-grade or stain-grade — the single biggest fork, two to three times over
- Doors or drawers in the base, versus an open plinth
- Height: stopping at the picture rail is materially cheaper than running to a coved ceiling
- How far out of plumb the alcove is — beyond about 3⁄4" the scribe stock has to be built in from the drawing
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Window seats
$4,200 – $9,500
per bay, supplied and installed
A bay or dormer converted into seating with storage under. Bays are the least square part of any old house — three walls, none of them at the angle the plan says — so this is a template job rather than a measurement job.
What moves the number
- Hinged lid versus drawers: drawers roughly double the box work
- Whether the existing casings, apron and stool stay
- Solid timber lid versus veneered ply
- How far the floor falls to the bay — an inch is common and it all has to hide in the plinth
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Mudroom lockers
$5,500 – $13,000
for a typical three to five bay run
Open lockers with a bench, hooks, a shelf over and something to put wet boots in. The most-used built-in in a Michigan house and the one that takes the most abuse, so the bench top and the finish schedule matter more than the joinery.
What moves the number
- Number of bays, and whether the run turns a corner
- Bench top: painted ply, solid maple, or stone
- Doors over the top cubbies, or left open
- Drawers or a boot tray in the base
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Pantries and larder units
$7,000 – $18,000
per unit, supplied and installed
A full-height pantry, freestanding-looking or built in, with pull-outs, a worktop inside and doors that close on the whole thing. Usually the piece that makes a small pre-war kitchen work without moving a single wall.
What moves the number
- Pull-out hardware — good runners are a real line, not a rounding error
- Stain-grade hardwood versus paint-grade
- Interior worktop material
- Whether power has to come into the unit, which brings an electrician onto the job
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Media walls
$8,500 – $22,000
per wall, supplied and installed
Cabinetry and shelving around a fireplace or a television, usually the full width of a room. The largest thing we make and the one where being out of square shows most, because the eye reads a long horizontal line against the ceiling.
What moves the number
- Wall width, and whether it returns onto a second wall
- Floating shelves in a hardwood versus painted fixed shelves
- Cable management, venting and access panels
- Ceiling drop across the run — anything over 1⁄2" changes how the crown is detailed
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Under-stair storage
$2,800 – $7,500
per staircase
Pull-out drawers, a hinged access door, or a combination, in the raking triangle under a flight. The most-wasted space in a pre-war house and, per dollar, the built-in that changes daily life most.
What moves the number
- Pull-outs versus a simple door — pull-outs are most of the cost
- Whether the stair carriage can be touched at all
- How the rake is picked up: a scribed template rather than a measurement
- Finish inside, which people underestimate wanting until they see it
Nothing on this page is a fixed quote. The range comes with the drawing and the number is fixed when you sign the specification — see step four. Questions? Call (616) 555-0148 or email hello@foursquarejoinery.example.
The Honest Comparison
Built-in, or bought-in.
For most jobs the real rival is not another carpenter, it is a stock cabinet run plus trim at a third of the price. Pretending that does not exist is what makes a joinery site read as evasive. Here is where each one wins, including the three cases where you should keep your money.
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Build it
A recess that is out of plumb or out of square
This is the whole commercial reason the trade exists. A factory carcase is a rectangular prism; the recess is not. Stock boxes plus scribe trim in a leaning alcove give you a 1" wedge of painted filler at eye height and it is the only thing anyone will see.
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Buy the boxes
A straight run against a square wall
Buy the boxes. If the wall is flat and plumb and the run is uninterrupted, a stock carcase run with a decent face frame and good trim gets you 90% of the look for about a third of the money. We will tell you this on the survey rather than after the quote.
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Build it
A bay window or a dormer
Three walls, none of them at the angle on the plan, plus a floor that has usually settled toward the bay. There is no stock product for this shape and there never has been.
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Buy the boxes
A rental or a flip
A built-in is a fixture; you cannot take it with you and the next owner may not want it. On a property you are selling inside two years the money is better spent almost anywhere else.
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Build it
Non-standard heights: coved ceilings, picture rails, deep skirting
Stock carcases come in a few heights and none of them land on a 1918 picture rail. The filler panel above a stock run with a nine-foot-two ceiling is the tell that makes a whole kitchen look bought.
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Buy the boxes
A room you will re-do within five years
Custom joinery is priced on the assumption it stays. If the layout is provisional, keep it provisional and spend the difference when the layout is not.
If your job is one of the bought-in three, we will tell you at the survey rather than after you have paid for drawings, and we will give you the name of a fitter who does that work well. We would rather lose the job than build you something you did not need.
Materials
Wood, joints, and a Michigan winter.
Paint-grade versus stain-grade is the fork that moves a quote two to three times over, and most people have never heard the words. Wood movement is the other one: it is a real constraint, not a flourish, and it is the reason a gap that opens in February is a design decision rather than a defect.
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Paint-grade or stain-grade
The fork that moves the number two to three times over.
Paint-grade means poplar, birch ply and MDF: stable, cheap, sprays beautifully, and the grain is nobody’s business because it is under two coats of pigment. Stain-grade means the timber is the finish — every board is selected for figure and colour, offcuts you would happily use in paint-grade become firewood, and the yield drops. That yield is the cost. It is not a markup for prettiness.
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Michigan hardwood, because it is a day’s drive away
Hard maple, cherry, white oak and walnut, in that order of use.
Hard maple for shelving and bench tops because it takes a beating. Cherry when someone wants warmth and will accept that it darkens for eighteen months before it settles. Quartersawn white oak for anything in a Craftsman house, because it is what is already in the room. Walnut for a shelf or a lid, and never on a sunny window wall, because it fades toward grey in direct light and that surprise is not one we hand out.
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What a Michigan winter does to a panel
~65% relative humidity in August, ~25% in a heated house in January.
Across that swing a 12" solid panel moves about 1⁄8" across the grain, and nothing you do stops it. So panels float in their grooves rather than being glued in, face frames are engineered to take the movement at the joints, and a built-in installed in July gets scribed differently from one installed in January. This is ordinary shop knowledge; we state it because a gap that appears in February is a design decision, not a defect, and you should know which one you are looking at.
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Solid, veneer and ply in the same piece
A good built-in usually uses all three, deliberately.
Solid timber where it is seen edge-on and takes wear: face frames, lids, bench tops, shelf fronts. Veneered ply for wide flat panels, because a 24"-wide solid panel wants to move a quarter of an inch and ply does not. Plain birch ply for carcase backs and interiors nobody will see. A shop that uses solid everywhere is not being generous, it is building something that will crack.
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The finish is a schedule, not a colour
Conversion varnish, hardwax oil, and which one you can repair yourself.
Conversion varnish is sprayed in the shop, cures hard, and is what makes painted casework look factory rather than brushed. It cannot be spot-repaired at home. Hardwax oil is softer, feels like timber rather than plastic, and can be sanded and re-oiled in place by the owner with a rag — which is why bench tops and lids get it and cabinet doors do not. We spray in the shop rather than on site, so your house does not become a spray booth.
How It Goes
From template to install day.
Six steps, and the one that matters most is the fourth: the point at which the number stops moving. Custom work has a reputation for open-ended invoices and it is earned, so this page says exactly where that line sits.
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A visit, and a straightedge
An hour at the house. We measure, but more usefully we find out how far out the room is: a long level on the walls, a profile gauge on the rake, diagonals across the bay. That is the survey that decides whether this is a custom job at all.
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A drawing and a range
A dimensioned elevation and a price range, not a number. If a stock run plus trim would serve you better, this is where we say so, and we would rather say it now than after you have paid for drawings.
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Species, finish and hardware chosen
Paint-grade or stain-grade, the species, the finish schedule and the runners. These are the four decisions that move the price, and they all get made here rather than halfway through the build.
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The number is fixed here
You sign the drawing and the specification, and the price stops moving. After this point a change is a variation with its own number, in writing. Nothing is cut before this and everything is cut after it, which is exactly why the line sits where it does.
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Built and finished in the shop
Four to seven weeks on the bench depending on the piece. It is sprayed or oiled here, not in your living room, so what arrives on install day is finished work with only scribe stock left proud.
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Install day, and the scribing
One to three days on site. This is where the leaning wall gets dealt with: compass, block plane, a lot of offering up. Then caulk, touch-up, and we take the packaging away with us.
And four things you can check, rather than take on trust
- where the price is fixed
The number stops moving when you sign the drawing
Custom work has a reputation for open-ended invoices, and it is earned. Here the range comes with the drawing, the fixed number comes with the specification, and after that a change is a variation with its own price, in writing.
- and one installer
Sprayed in the shop, not in your house
Conversion varnish goes on under extraction in the shop, which is both why it looks the way it does and why your living room is not a spray booth for three days. Site work is scribing, fixing and touch-up.
- carpentry classification
Licensed for the work, in the right category
Michigan Maintenance & Alteration Contractor with the carpentry classification — the licence that actually covers this work, not a general contractor registration used as a proxy for one.
- on the joinery itself
Five years on the joint
In writing, on the joinery and the fixings: a joint that opens, a door that drops, a drawer that stops running. Seasonal movement in a solid panel is not a defect and is explained on the wood guide rather than buried in a warranty exclusion.
Coverage
Grand Rapids, Kent and Ottawa counties.
The housing stock is the reason the specialty exists: 1900 to 1930 bungalows, foursquares and Craftsman homes, full of alcoves, inglenooks and bay windows that no factory carcase was ever going to fit.
Grand Rapids
- Heritage Hill
- Eastown
- East Hills
- Cherry Hill
- Ottawa Hills
- Baxter
Kent County
- East Grand Rapids
- Ada
- Cascade
- Lowell
- Rockford
- Grandville
Ottawa County
- Grand Haven
- Holland
- Hudsonville
- Jenison
- Zeeland
- Spring Lake
Beyond that
- Kalamazoo
- Muskegon
- Lansing
- Traverse City
- Detroit side
- Chicago side
Kent and Ottawa counties, no travel charge. Beyond that we will still talk, but honestly: a two-hour drive each way on install day is a real cost and it lands in your quote, so unless the piece is large enough to justify it you are better served by a shop closer to you. We will happily name one.
Customer Reviews
What Grand Rapids homeowners say.
Six jobs, six houses, and one of them is from somebody we talked out of hiring us.
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“Two carpenters told me the alcoves were "close enough" to build square. Ruth put a level on the wall, showed me five-eighths of an inch, and explained what would happen at the top of a nine-foot case. I have looked for that gap for three years and it is not there.”
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“She talked me out of the bigger version of what I asked for and the quote went down. That is not a sales technique I had encountered before.”
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“The number I signed in March was the number I paid in June. We made two changes and both came back as their own line with their own price before anything happened.”
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“Foursquare quoted the job and then told me that for a straight run against a flat wall I would be better off with stock cabinets and good trim. She did not get the work. She got this review and both my neighbours.”
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“The chimney is off-centre in that room and I never noticed until she pointed it out, then could not stop noticing. She built the boxes different widths so the openings line up. It reads dead symmetrical and it is not.”
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“A gap appeared under one drawer front in February and I assumed the worst. She had already written it down in the handover notes with the humidity numbers. It closed up again in May exactly as described.”
Cabinetmaker & Owner
Hi, I’m Ruth.
I served my time in a millwork shop on the west side making store fixtures, which is where you learn that nothing on a job site is the dimension the drawing says it is. Foursquare is two benches and an installer. I draw every piece, I cut most of it, and I am there on install day for anything that has to be scribed — which is all of it, because Grand Rapids housing stock is 1900 to 1930 and there is not a plumb wall in Heritage Hill. The work I like best is the alcove nobody thinks can be used: the one beside the chimney breast that runs out five-eighths of an inch over nine feet and has a radiator pipe coming through the floor at the wrong end.
Everything is drawn before it is cut and templated before it is drawn. On a wall that leans, a measurement is a guess: I take the actual line off the plaster with a profile gauge and a story stick, and the face frame is built to that rather than to a number on a pad. It is slower at the front of the job and it is the reason install day is one to three days instead of a fortnight of packers and caulk.
We build built-ins and nothing else. Not furniture, not whole kitchens, not trim carpentry for builders. Doing one thing is why the lead time is eight to ten weeks rather than six months, and why I can tell you within an hour of walking into your house whether this is a job worth doing at all.
What does an alcove bookcase actually cost?
What is your lead time?
Would stock cabinets do the same job for less?
How much deposit do you take?
Will the install damage my plaster?
A gap has appeared in a panel since the winter. Is that a fault?
Do you need my house empty, and for how long?
Can you match the existing trim in an old house?
Do you do kitchens, furniture, or trim carpentry?
What does the five-year warranty actually cover?
Get in Touch
Request a quote or ask a question.
Lead Time
Currently quoting installs eight to ten weeks out. Drawings and the fixed number come first — nothing is cut until you have signed a template.
hello@foursquarejoinery.example
Photographs of the room and a rough width help more than anything else you can send.
Workshop
1412 Wealthy St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
Visits by appointment — it is a working shop.
Hours
Shop: Mon–Fri 7.30am–4.30pm, Sat 9am–1pm
Surveys: evenings by arrangement
Tell us about the room
Before you measure anything
Put a level on the wall.
Then call us.
A four-foot level held against the alcove wall tells you in ten seconds whether this is a custom job or a stock one. If it is plumb, buy the boxes and we will say so. If it is not, that gap at the top is what you would have been looking at for the next twenty years.