Excuse the modest production value–we filmed and recorded it with an iPhone. Regardless, we think it aptly illustrates the quality of our frame. This video probably won’t change your life. However, we do hope it changes the way you think about pocket doors–from something to be dreaded to just another aspect of the home-building/remodeling process.
Enjoy!
-Jason Bourget
Introducing our very own precision, homegrown, handcrafted, beyond sturdy pocket door frame. Over the years, our founder Michael Bourget has been consistently unimpressed by the pocket door frames mass produced by our larger competitors. So, he designed and built one. It’s far more rigid than anything else we’ve seen. Rigidity is very important in a pocket door frame, because if the frame isn’t rigid, the margins between the frame and the door bow, cave, and generally suffer. This particular model sells with soft-close hardware as well–a slick addition that prevents the door from slamming, basically pulling it completely closed automatically.
Really nice houses are expensive, right? The ones you see in magazines like Home & Design, Architectural Digest, and Colorado Homes and Lifestyles. They’re all so out of reach–the typical American can’t have anything that gorgeous, right?
Wrong! Well, at least partly wrong. One of the most beautiful features of any home is also one of the most affordable: the moulding, or trim. Casing your doors and windows with an ornate profile, choosing a large-but-not-overwhelming base moulding, and picking a crown that highlights your walls and ceiling are three simple ways to make your home shine.
And how much does it cost? Well, for a Knotty Alder, 3″ case, you’re looking at about $1.33/foot. That’s a steal. If you want something more exotic like Rift-sawn White Oak or Mahogany, the price goes up, but not by much.
We’re firm believers in trimming every possible corner, window, and door in a home. It lends an elegance and timelessness, captures the essence of ages past. We think you’ll agree–just give it a shot! Call us at (970) 257-0092 and we’ll give you a quote for any and all moulding you may require. Our only condition is that you let your creative genius run wild.
So, while you may never own a home that’s featured between a Rolex and Mercedes ad in Architectural Digest, you can have a home that takes people’s breath away.
The place of technology in woodworking, and in any craft, has always been a controversial issue. How much automation is too much automation? Can technology in the woodshop be dehumanizing? And as woodworking technology becomes more and more sophisticated, won’t woodworking talent, at least partially, disappear?
Wendell Berry, notable author, poet, and farmer, weighed in on the issue. He holds that we need criteria for evaluating good and bad technology. Good technology is serviceable by you or people who live around you. You or someone you know and trust should be able to fix it when it breaks. Good technology facilitates humanness. That is, good technology doesn’t turn us into machines, it allows us to focus on the work that makes us human, and the work that we do so well because we are human.
So, here’s an example of what we believe to be a good technology: A carpenter’s clamp. I can fix it, mostly because it’s so simple. It helps us create things, and creation is one of the purest human experiences. And, it doesn’t rob the enjoyment from the process of building, of creating. Conclusion: Clamp = Good technology. Our thanks to the good people who invented the screw and the lever, and the clever fellow who put them together.
At Bourget Design & Millwork, we make a concerted effort to keep the “man” (or woman) in “craftsmanship.” Admittedly, we do have a pretty nice CNC router (that’s a computerized router), but we haven’t used it to replace anyone, nor has it made our work less fulfilling. This shop is chock-full of chisels and handplanes; precision squares and calipers; and, of course, lots of clamps.
~ The Home Depot
~ Lowes
~ Sutherlands
~ Pro-Build
~ Bourget Design & Millwork
Chances are, you haven’t heard of the last company on this list. That’s because we’re small. We’re local. We’re family owned and operated. Honestly, we’d rather not spend the money and time mounting a huge advertising campaign, convincing you that we’re the best choice for all things woodwork. We’d love to be able to tell everyone that we can make better trim than Pro-Build, and we can usually make it for a better price. We’d love for everyone to know that they don’t have to go to The Home Depot to buy a kitchen–a kitchen that was made 10 thousand miles away with formaldehyde-soaked particle board. And we’d love for the entire Grand Valley to know that there are craftsmen, living here, whose work is excellent, and whose bread and butter is earned daily by virtue of their honest work.
We at Bourget Design & Millwork are encouraging you to shop local. Even if it means buying from one of our local competitors — like Timeless Millwork or Lincoln Cabinets (we’re friends with the owners of both companies, by the way)– please, whenever possible, buy your woodwork here in the Grand Valley, from companies whose owners and their families actually live here in the Grand Valley. It just makes for a healthier community.