Lancaster, PA -- The Pennsylvania Dutch Country is an area long revered for its craftsmanship and attention to detail in cabinetry. Steve Cherry owns a boutique cabinet shop in its very heart, Cherry Style, and he brings a little more to the table: inspired design. Here is our interview with him to discover what goes into making those elaborate fireplaces, sculpted closets, and chiseled doorways

Question: What is the most challenging part of millwork?
Steve Cherry: Making it fit (laughs). You spend countless hours carefully crafting these elaborate pieces, and by the end you are praying that all your measurements in the beginning were right.

Practically, it can be a challenge to bring people’s vision for their house to life. Unless you work from scratch, spaces don’t always lay out conveniently. The room is already divided by walls, windows, and doorways - and defined by the exiting casing and trim. Trying to make a piece look symmetrical when the window on one side is larger than the other is very tricky.

Because it is so important that everything ties together with the existing house, we draw everything full size in the shop. Then the actual construction is a known quantity, you don’t have to worry about it, you just make what you’ve drawn

The Devils in the Details

It can take as many as 500 cuts to create the desired architectural detail.

Question: Full size drawings? Where do you do them?
Cherry: We do a life-size floor plan on the floor, and then full size elevations on the walls. We literally recreate the room inside our shop, so we can see how the design elements are balancing. Laying out a library can take four days of prep work before a single piece of wood is touched.

Styles of Millwork

Arts & Crafts Georgian French Country Victorian Contemporary Modern

Question: That’s a lot of work!
Cherry: It is, but the goal in the end for most millwork is to make it look like it has always been there – like it grew out of the house naturally. That takes exacting detail and a fine touch.

Question: How long does it take to finish once the design is done?
Cherry: If it is possible, we get the work done at the convenience of our clients. Realistically, a big walnut library takes 2-3 weeks planning, 4-5 weeks of construction, and a least another month installing. Finally, a finisher has to come in and complete the look. For a simple built in bookshelf it can be done in 3 days: I build it, Kim paints it, and it is installed the next day. The complexity of the project dictates everything.

Question: What inspired you to do millwork?
Cherry: We started in furniture, and millwork and furniture aren’t too far apart. Some of our customers wanted millwork done, we did it, they liked it, and we have ended up doing more.

One of the things you can say about millwork is, if you are thinking about "dressing up" your living room, you can get as much drama from millwork as you could with an expensive painting. For $5,000-$10,000 you can turn that fireplace into something that is architecturally "Wow!" Many people don't think of architecture for giving a room its presence, but that's really what sets a room a part, not just the Italian sofa with the grey furniture.

Glorious Design

Historical blue prints serve as inspiration.

Question: So millwork is the undiscovered art of home improvement?
Cherry: Absolutely. A French library we did in Philadelphia was installed in a very nice room of an expensive home on the Mainline. It had plaster walls, wood floors, everything. We installed the library with fake beams along the ceiling. By the time we were done it looked like an expensive home had been imported directly from Southern France. Sometimes millwork can create a whole world inside a house, a special feel, a space that has its own magic.

Question: I never realized you could do that with millwork.
Cherry: Most people don’t. In the 70s and 80s there really wasn’t much architectural millwork, people just forgot what it could do. The 90s was all about large pieces, but not very sophisticated. With the recent resurgence of architectural design, we’ve looked for ways to innovate and bring a fresh look. We are one of the few places that will do unusual things with millwork, like incorporating died woods, geometric shapes, and a modern look. That tends to be a rarity amongst millwork designers.

Question: Where can you use millwork for dramatic effect?
Cherry: Doorways, entertainment centers, built in pantries, bathrooms, kitchens, hoods over corbels, pediments over range hoods, ceiling beams, moldings that blend into ceiling panels, cofferd ceilings. There are so many possibilities.

The key to remember is, the design really decides whether the piece looks high-end or not. If you are doing a stair case with stock balusters, it could be perfectly carved, but without a heavier baluster it’s not going to have that majestic look, that presence. We’ve applied our experience as furniture designers to millwork so you can get that old world elegance and grandeur with a contemporary twist.

(For more advice on a custom millwork for your home, contact Steve or Kim Cherry at 877-522-5887)

about the authors
	Steve & Kim Cherry are a husband and wife design team providing creative and logical solutions to improve people's lives in the orbit of their homes. They craft beautiful woodwork by integrating their clients' personal tastes into unique expression of art. 877-522-5887   |   Learn More...