Studio Bianco

Impecable work! Excellent communication, understood what I wanted right away, the finishes are perfect, and it was ahead of schedule by 3 weeks! HIGHLY recommend. Can't recommend him enough.

Iain built the bench in three modules at his studio then brought them in to install.  Everything seemed to go fairly well and we were initially pretty pleased.  However, after a couple weeks, we realized the quality and workmanship left quite a bit to be desired.  It appeared that the bench had been hastily built, and that Iain had sacrificed attention to detail.  To summarize:

• Similar to, but not quite matching our cabinets - trim lacked the same details
• Nails protruding into the interior of the storage areas of the bench
• Iain caulked around where the bench met the wall, but within a couple weeks that caulk was cracking and in need of recaulking
• One of the modules' seats began to bow within a couple weeks of installation.  Upon closer inspection, one of the interior hinges/supports had never been screwed into place, leaving the center of the bench unsupported.  When we contacted Iain, he suggested we screw it in ourselves.
• When Iain did relent and come by to secure the seat, he claimed the bowing was probably caused by our children walking on the bench.  Our heaviest child weighs about 30 pounds.  In retrospect, I suspect Iain went on the cheap and built the seat portion with a board that was too thin to properly support a full grown adult properly.
• After Iain "fixed" the bench, it no longer closed properly.  The bowing must have thrown everything off because part of the bench overlapped with another part and the seat was out of square.  Iain's response was to tell us we'd have to sand that one part to make it fit right, and that the out of square problem shouldn't really be a problem because we were going to throw a cushion on top of it anyway.
• Iain stopped returning our emails after I complained of his shoddy repair attempt.

Looking back, it seems like Iain probably never really wanted to do the job because he thought we were underpaying him.  He was eager to take the job though, so I suspect he was just in need of some cash flow before the holidays.  And either he's not nearly as good a carpenter as we originally thought, or he worked down to his compensation and gave us what he considered adequate work for the money he was being paid.

Not having gotten other estimates, it's hard for me to tell whether or not we actually did get a low price for the product or not.  For what we ended up with, I still think we paid too much.  And regardless of any supposed discount in his price, if he accepted the job at the price he agreed to, he should have been prepared to provide a quality product.  If replacing the part of the bench that warped, instead of rushing through a slapdash "repair," would have eaten too far into his profit margin, well at least that may have earned him a slightly different review.

[UPDATE]

Eight months down the road, I have realized that he screwed many supports directly into the seam between two pieces of wood.  I learned this because a bench pretty much broke off in my wife's hands.  You just can't get anyone who cares about their work these days.

Iain is capable of much more ambitious projects, but I wanted someone who would respond quickly and had the requisite tools and skills of a fine craftsman. Iain responded immediately to my request to come over within a few days, pick up the legs, perform the work, and have them back within a day or two. I was surprised he was willing to do a quick turnaround. At the house he helped disassemble the massive table. While there, I asked him if he could also refinish the butcher block, which he was also willing to do in the same quick turnaround. All pieces came back 2 days later, as promised, on time, and done perfectly. I would not hesitate to hire him for more challenging projects.

Iain was prompt and able to complete the job in a few days. He pays attention to detail and it shows in the results. When he repaired the door, he was careful to match the different directions of the wood grain in the panels. The chair looks great and you can't even see where the wood was cracked. You have too look closely to tell the wood panel was repaired otherwise it looks seamless.