The studio

A small studio at Heriot Bay

We design, cut and raise timber frames on Quadra Island, a few at a time, and let the joinery do the talking.

What we believe

Joinery is the ornament
We don’t add decoration to a frame. The braces, pegs and housed joints are the detail, so we lay them out to be looked at for a hundred years.
The site draws first
Rock, wind, sun and view decide more of a house than any plan book. We walk the land before we draw a line.
A frame is a relationship
A build runs for many months. We would rather take on fewer homes and know every client well than run a schedule full of strangers.
Build for the next owner
Honest materials, assemblies that can dry and be repaired, timber that will outlast all of us. Sustainability starts with not having to build twice.

One crew, start to finish
The same small crew draws the frame, cuts the joinery and raises it. Nothing is handed off to strangers between the sketch and the keys.
Cut by hand
Every mortise, tenon and brace is marked and cut in the shop, so the frame goes together on site the way it was drawn.
Rooted on Quadra
Ferries, barges, island trades, well water and winter rain: the logistics that stall off-island builders are our everyday.
Built for the coast
Deep overhangs, protected timber and assemblies that dry out: details chosen for salt air and sideways rain, not a catalogue.

Custom homes
Full homes, designed around a site, a family and the way light moves across both.
Timber frames
Hand-cut frames for houses, great rooms, pavilions and saunas, raised on your foundation.
Renovations & additions
Timber additions and reworked spaces that sit naturally against what is already there.
Quadra Island
Building where we live, with island suppliers, trades and the ferry schedule in hand.
Coastal construction
Waterfront and rocky sites, exposure to wind and salt, and access by land or water.
Design-build
One team from first sketch through permits and construction to the day we hand you the keys.

Where it is, what the light does, and what you imagine there. We’ll write back and find a time to walk it.