Built-Ins
Fitted to the roomAlcove cabinetry, window seats, media walls, whole library walls. Scribed to your plaster, not caulked to it.
Custom Carpentry · Metro Detroit
Dovetail & Grain
Measured twice. Built for good.
The Craft
Wood remembers how it was worked.
Every board has a history: how it grew, how it dried, how it wants to move. We build with that, not against it. Joinery that holds because of how it fits, not how much glue is hiding in the seam.
Dovetail & Grain is a small custom carpentry studio serving Metro Detroit. Built-ins, mantels, stair rails, shelving, trim, and the occasional one-off piece. No shortcuts, no filler strips where a proper scribe belongs, no callbacks.
If it is worth building, it is worth building square.
What We Build
Made to fit. Made to stay.
Mantels & Surrounds
The center of the roomSolid wood mantels and fireplace surrounds sized to the space, from clean and modern to full traditional.
Stair Rails
Right under your handHandrails, newels, and balusters shaped to feel right on the first step and stay tight for decades.
Shelving & Storage
Room for real lifeFloating shelves, pantry systems, closets, mudroom lockers. Storage planned around how you actually live.
Trim & Doors
The quiet detailsCasing, base, crown, wainscot, and interior doors. Tight miters, straight reveals, no gaps to catch the light.
One-Off Pieces
The piece you sketchedTables, benches, consoles, the idea you have been carrying around for years. Bring it in. We will draw it with you.
The Process
Four steps. No surprises.
01
Walk the space
We come out, look at the room, take measurements, and listen. You will know on the spot whether the idea is buildable and roughly what it takes.
02
Draw it
You get a clear drawing with dimensions and materials before anything is cut. Changes are cheap on paper. We keep them there.
03
Build it
The piece is built and finished in our shop, dry-fitted and checked against the drawing, so install day holds no surprises.
04
Install clean
Drop cloths down, tight scribes, floors vacuumed on the way out. We leave the room better than we found it.
Materials
Four woods we keep coming back to.
Black Walnut
Deep chocolate heartwood and a calm, straight grain. The dress suit of American hardwoods.
White Oak
Tight grain, takes finish evenly, nearly indestructible. Quartersawn for ray fleck when the design calls for it.
Hard Maple
Pale, clean, and consistent. Disappears into painted work, glows under a clear coat.
Cherry
Starts modest, deepens to auburn with every year of sunlight. The wood that improves with age.
SiteClaw Signature
Want your business to feel like this?
Dovetail & Grain is a fictional studio, built as a SiteClaw Signature concept. Everything on this page, the motion, the type, the words, can be crafted around a real business. Yours, for instance.
Get a site like thisSignature builds are made one at a time, like everything else in this shop.