Base For Antique Oak Display Case

After seeing a beautiful but not quite perfect-for-what-I-was-looking-for walnut bed in a local showroom, I posted a project on custommade.com to see if there was anyone who could bring my vision to life. After communicating with several woodworkers, I commissioned Tom to build it. Here’s why I'm so glad I did….

1) Tom’s communication skills were far superior to everyone else. I’m a picky person – I admit that – but being detail oriented leads to no surprises and getting exactly what you want. Tom answered every single nit-picky question I had with incredible professionalism. He explained things in layman’s terms, indicated when he’d get back to you – and always did.

2) Professional. Tom not only interpreted my vision perfectly, meaning he listened to what I wanted - but he also offered suggestions and provided his perspective as well. This led to a beautifully built bed. He wants you to be happy with his product and he will stop at nothing to make sure you are.

3) Honest. Tom is upfront and a man of his words and did right by us. For example, we had a shipping issue (fault of the shipping company) and Tom rebuilt the bed no questions asked – and he did this before he was reimbursed by the shipping company.

We liked Tom so much, we had him build a couple nightstands for us as well…and I’d use him again in a heartbeat!

The custom-built table is exactly what I wanted, in the right dimensions and with a beautiful finish.

I'm very pleased with how the pet bed turned out. Tom was able to look at a picture and create it to my specific dimensions. He was easy to work with and communicated well with me throughout the project. Also, I thought he quoted the price fairly. I would recommend him for custom projects!

Looks beautiful.

Unfortunately, Tom at Starkwood Designs ended up not being able to create the bathroom mirror to the specs we had agreed upon, so in that sense this transaction was disappointing. That said, I have absolutely no doubt that Tom bent over backwards to try to meet my specifications -- from trying and retrying to create the desired result himself several times, to then taking the project to experts and specialists often as far as an hour away, the effort and his commitment to delivering the desired output couldn't have been more evident. It was clear that Tom truly cared about delivering what he said he would and when he ultimately wasn't able to, he was deeply disappointed and apologetic. Because of all of this, while the end result of this project wasn't exactly as I'd hoped, the mirror Tom produced was still very nice and, more importantly, I knew that he had tried everything he possibly could and went above and spent far more time on this project that its scope dictated, which I appreciated. So, in spite of the result, I would still recommend Tom and Starkwood Designs -- he is truly an upstanding professional.