custom furniture, kitchens, and baths by fineartistmade

blog : design ideas

Spring Sale

March 21, 2012

We are kicking off the change of season with a Spring Sale! All of our furniture, accessories, gift boxes and more are 10% off.

Queen Anne Simplified (part 2)

March 20, 2012

The director of Campobello International Park kindly emailed photos of the Cottage's butler's pantry and kitchen. Elements like brass cupboard latches, bead board doors and soapstone countertops felt just right for our Queen Anne's Victorian kitchen.

Queen Anne Simplified (part 1)

March 7, 2012

Designing a kitchen starts the minute we see the space; wheels are in motion - ideas begin to percolate. Even as the renovation continues to take shape we commit where we have to but keep our options open till that last stroke of paint.

Boxes

October 25, 2011

We are pleased to announce the addition of a new line of gift boxes to our The Tradition of the New collection.

The Summer Me

October 15, 2011

On the heels of finishing the ‘in-home’ phase of our current kitchen renovation and with Labor Day approaching - we headed down the coast for one last summer adventure. Old friends from my days at Syracuse University had invited us for a visit.

Hot off the press

July 31, 2011

On the heels of the Down East magazine article, ‘Every Mainer’s Kitchen” comes a feature story about our bath renovations in Old House Journal magazine’s Special Fall Issue: Creating beautiful vintage baths.

And Finally, Cabinets

May 29, 2011

Building new cabinets is one part creative thinking and one part problem solving. There are many practical questions to work through.

Some Light on the Matter

May 20, 2011

Peeling back the layers of our significantly altered kitchen, unearthed just one original feature that had actually survived intact - the 4 inch wide, clear pine, strip floor.

Blog Mentions

April 26, 2011

This month, fineartistmade was mentioned by design bloggers: Ill Seen, Ill Said, KB Culture and Frolic. The posts feature everything from bath renovations, our home's restoration to our furniture.

Spring News

March 19, 2011

A fineartistmade kitchen is included in the April issue of Down East magazine.

The Devil's in the Details

August 18, 2010

We never build the same kitchen twice, but the challenge is always the same - to create a space that is both elegant and functional. Serving not only the user's culinary and domestic needs, but reflecting sensitive and thoughtful values that elevate the spirit. Heady goals for a humble kitchen? Why not? We allowed this home to guide us; from trim to cabinets to finishing touches.

Whats New

August 9, 2010

Our latest furniture and gifts news: learn the history of our Tradition of the New line, see our new gift items that are now 'live', learn about our 'item of the month' - the Golding Gourmet. Visit our new online fineartistmade etsy store - or locally at The Red Sleigh, in Perry. Shop handmade and local!

Nuts and Bolts

July 28, 2010

There is a warmth and authenticity in custom handmade cabinets you just can’t get from the store-bought variety. With painting done, it was time to start building the cabinets for the Eastport kitchen. We could do the job in our shop, but establishing a workspace onsite has its advantages; one being a more fluid design process, another, the economy of convenience.

Trim

June 19, 2010

Beneath two subsequent kitchen renovations, the original hand-planed baseboard and chair rail had survived. It was difficult to remove them from the positions they had occupied for so many years, but this was not a museum restoration - this was somebody's summer home. The goal was to create a comfortable modern kitchen that preserved the 'spirit' of the old room.

The Roof

June 9, 2010

Sometimes necessity is the mother of unexpected and happy results. When we purchased our Perry, Maine home it came with a new roof. One less thing to worry about for say - thirty years? Not long after moving in though, shingles started to fly. The wind off Boyden Lake can be fierce.

A New Workshop (Part 2)

May 22, 2010

We have always been restoration purists at heart, so the first major decision in our workshop renovation, was a tough one - to reposition the original location of the exterior door from the center to the side (where a window had once been), to make the space more functional.

A New Workshop (Part I)

May 19, 2010

An expanding business made it time to attack a project long overdue - a properly fitted workshop. The space that workplace now occupies, began its life seventy-five years ago as a woodshed in the back end of the 1935 ‘ell’ (‘Maine-speak’ for addition) to our circa 1893 home.

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