TM Custom

ixteen years. I started my career when I was fifteen years old refinishing furniture. The skills I began building at that job grew my passion for creativity & custom work. I moved from Rhode Island to Florida & worked in high volume production shops until I was twenty-three years old building kitchens for large builders such as Pulte Homes. I didnít enjoy the atmosphere & projects that would come through the shop. It was all very cookie-cutter style kitchens & vanities with no personal style or flair. I wanted to interact with the customer and CREATE something different. Nothing makes me happier than seeing a beautifully completed job & satisfied customer. So, I began my search for a more suitable shop & found myself in a full custom shop where I began to learn from the best & perfect my growing skills. This shop specialized in wall units & similar special projects. Our projects were highly decorative with unique custom applied mouldings, concave shapes, corbels, & columns. I learned to copy styles & would get many requests to duplicate something in a magazine or to match antiques in a room. I thoroughly enjoyed this new challenge & found myself very skilled at it. The opportunity was presented to me to run a full custom shop, so I left & changed companies. This company specialized in custom high end kitchens & finishing techniques. I learned many new skills for finishing while working for this company as well as more of the business end of the company & customer relations. Designs & room plans are an essential part of kitchen design & I learned to use EVERY ounce of space in a room while maintaining the integrity of a design or the aesthetics of a room. Soon the economy crashed & I could see the business slowing down. I decided with the skills I learned from my past employers (as well as their mistakes) that it was time for me to move back to RI & open my own shop.