Where can I buy custom furniture in San Francisco?

December 12, 2005 4:40 PM

I'm looking for someone in San Francisco who can custom-make a desk for me out of wood.

A friend and I both separately moved to San Francisco from Boston. He has a really nice work desk that he had custom made by a furniture place called the Door Store in Cambridge, MA. They don't have a web site, and anyway I don't really think I need to have them make this. I'd just like to find a place I can go to with some measurements and a simple design, and have them make it for me out of wood that I choose.

I took some pictures of my friend's desk. They're camera-phone shots, so not the greatest quality, but you can see what I have in mind. Something that will fit in a corner, with good tabletop space, minimal legs (I dislike the huge slabs of wood that most computer desks use for support), and maybe a shelf at one or both ends for "stuff."

If anyone knows of a place like this in SF, or maybe in Palo Alto where I work, I'd love to hear about it!

posted by autojack to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

I had a piece of furniture custom-made for me by a guy who is somewhere on the peninsula. In my case it was a stand for an aquarium, but he made it exactly the way I wanted, and stained it exactly the shade I wanted, and since he happened to be going to the East Bay anyway he actually delivered the thing for free, so it was a thumbs-up experience all around. I can't remember how much he charged but it seemed perfectly reasonable to me. All I have is a name and phone number, if you email me (in profile) I'll send it on to you.
posted by ambrosia at 5:11 PM on December 12, 2005

the door store does have a website btw.
posted by alkupe at 5:38 PM on December 12, 2005

That's not the right Door Store. This is the right Door Store.
posted by nev at 7:10 PM on December 12, 2005

I have almost the exact same setup. Fortunately for me the cost was almost nil, as I found an enormous corner desktop in a dumpster near my work. It had no legs, but it did have a moveable keyboard tray, and was in pretty good condition.

I mounted beams along the wall, screwed to the wall studs, and then screwed the benchtop to those. For support at the sides, I put a filing cabinet under each end, however it will actually sit quite happily without them. As a corner desk it has a massive amount of space both on top and underneath.

You probably won't get lucky with the dumpster diving, so what I recommend is looking for a second hand office furniture store, and seeing what they have. A nice piece of second hand furniture could be substantially cheaper than something similar but custom built.
posted by tomble at 7:12 PM on December 12, 2005

I had a very similar desk made as a student in Chicago. Big Fish Furniture. They could ship you one for sure (legs or shelves come apart and can be made flat)... I'm sitting at it right now. And it's maybe the best $90 I ever spent. They made me a "seconds" desk (using not quite good enough parts -- but definitely good enough for me. And handmade and all). Call 'em and ask.
posted by zpousman at 7:54 PM on December 12, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I don't know why I couldn't find the Door Store web site, but I almost wonder if I could just call them and give them some specs and go from there. I'm going to check out these local places first, though, and see how they might work out.
posted by autojack at 10:09 AM on December 13, 2005