custom built-ins - little wolf and who else?

Love little wolf if you dont want your custom pieces finished, by finish I mean, lacquered or painted. What do you need fabricated?

Yes, I have a great person. They are in NJ but they have done work in NYC. If you give me an e-mail address, I will send you their info and some pictures of what they did for me.

lil wolf primed and first-coated for me--ive used him 3 times--never wanted lacquer, so i cant say on that--last coat has to be on site after install, regardless--had my painters do that (did it myself the first time)

Agreed with the above posters- heard great things about Little Wolf

Theres also a lebanese guy- i think assad (first name tony i think) is his last name- hes more expensive but if you want it perfect hes your guy

Wbottom,

I never have heard of them doing that, was it recent?

Primer, why would you engage in discussion with a guy who isn't allowed to be around children?

I have used Little Wolf twice. They do very nice work for the price and I would recommend them if you plan on using a cheaper wood and having the pieces painted. If you are planning on having them stained and lacquered, do not use Little Wolf. I had them make a bookcase in Cherry and they used multiple different quality woods throughout so the stain took to each quality level differently. It was incredibly difficult to get all of the sections of the bookcase to look the same. I ended up paying the finisher to make it look right - better to go with a more expensive craftman who uses the correct woods.

I don't have another suggestion, sadly, but I will be watching to see if anyone else does. I am sure I will need/want more bookcases in the future and I will NOT be using Little Wolf again.

Have an email you can share? Got an NJ-based carpenter.

Huntersburg,

I did not know that was true, thanks

Gvillagegrrl,

I have a millshop that does great finish work and compared to most custom shops are very reasonably priced. Look through my website under portfolio at www.primerenovationsnyc.com

I've used Little Wolf for years. Excellent product, excellent service. Not sure what GVillage's issue was but I am surprised that Little Wolf didn't take care of it. I've had them change drawers, etc years later for me. They never charged me. It is a PIA that they don't finish or paint and you need to use someone else, but their product for me has always been top notch.

As a contractor I would not hestate to use them but I do find the finishing to be a problem. If someone is on a budget and wanted custom pieces thats who I would use and then find a good painter to finish it

OldWest, I'll try to clarify for you. Little Wolf made three cherry bookcases for me that were all supposed to be stained and lacquered. I used a very high-quality finisher who came highly recommended by a top-notch designer and who I have used to refinish other pieces with excellent results. The wood Little Wolf used varied so much in terms of quality (sapwood vs heartwood, pore sizes, age, etc) that my finisher could not get the sections within each bookcase to match. He hand stained each individual wood piece to get as close a match to the other as possible and you can still see the difference where one piece of wood meets up with another piece. I have never seen such an extreme level of variation.

I dd bring the variation to Little Wolf's attention. Their response was that I requested Cherry wood, and that is what I got. It was all "furniture grade" and it was not their responsibility to match the wood pieces. I do not know this is Little Wolf's attitude because they do not do the finishing or if it is because most people paint their pieces. Regardless, I would not pay for a high quality wood from them. I would use a less expensive wood like poplar and have it painted. Their expertise is in wood working - the craftsmanship of the pieces is lovely. They either do not know or do not care about wood matching, so if that is important to you, (as it was to me) do not use them.

Gvilliage,

I have only known people to paint the products that Little Wolf makes. Thats the problem, if you want a great finish you have to use one person as they are responsible for the whole piece.

However, the finisher should have been able to tell you this before he worked on it as well.