Custom Joinery in Adelaide: Made to Fit Your Home

• What it is: joinery is timber and board work built in a workshop to fit one room, then fitted on site. Bespoke joinery is drawn to your measurements instead of picked from a fixed range.
• What this page covers: the custom joinery Adelaide homes ask for most, including built-in wardrobes, panelling and feature walls, shelving and bookcases, entertainment and display units, desks, bars, window seats and mudroom storage.
• What has its own page: kitchens, laundries, bathroom vanities and built-in storage each have a page of their own, because plumbing, appliances and benchtops change the design.
• How it differs from carpentry: a joiner mostly works in a workshop and a carpenter mostly on site. The difference is explained below.
• How a job starts: send photos, rough sizes and a budget range. A check measure on site follows, then a design with drawings for your approval and a written quote. The joiner installs the finished pieces.
• Price: set by the written quote. This page publishes no prices, so read what moves the cost of custom cabinets before you compare quotes.

Joinery, carpentry and cabinet making overlap, and the words are used differently from one country to the next. In some places joinery counts as a branch of carpentry, and in others it is a separate trade. In practice the split looks like this:

• Carpentry is timber work carried out on site: framing, floors, decks, rafters and fixing things in place.
• Joinery is timber and board work made in a workshop, then fitted on site. The word comes from joining pieces of timber with cut joints. Traditional joinery covers doors, windows, stairs, panelling and fitted storage.
• Cabinet making is the workshop trade for cabinets and fine furniture: kitchens, wardrobes, vanities, bookcases and tables.

In Adelaide the lines blur further. Businesses that call themselves joiners build kitchens, wardrobes and vanities, cabinet makers build panelling and shelving, and search listings for Adelaide joinery businesses mostly classify them as cabinet makers. Whatever the trade is called, Adelaide custom joinery starts the same way, with a measured design drawn for your approval. Bespoke, custom and custom made are used interchangeably for joinery designed for one room and built to your specification, though bespoke joinery tends to suggest higher-end, design-led work. For a fitted wardrobe, a panelled wall or a built-in desk, a joiner or a cabinet maker is the right first call. A carpenter is the right call when the job is structural timber on site.

Some joiners also make doors, windows and staircases. This page covers fitted interior joinery: wardrobes, panelling, shelving, units and desks. For how a cabinet job runs from measure to fit, see custom built cabinet makers in Adelaide.

Joinery takes its name from the joints that hold timber together. Modern bespoke joinery mixes traditional joints with board construction, and a joiner should design the joints to suit the load and be able to say which is used where.

• Dowel and biscuit joints align board edges and strengthen glued corners, using round pins or oval wafers set into matching holes or slots.
• Housing and rebate joints cut a groove or a step into one piece so that another sits inside it. A shelf housed into the side panel carries its load through the timber itself, not only through the fixings.
• Mortise and tenon joints push a shaped tongue into a matching slot. They are the classic joint for frames, door rails and panelled walls.
• Dovetail joints lock drawer corners with interlocking wedge shapes that resist the pull of a loaded drawer.
• Mitre joints meet two pieces at an angle, so a corner shows clean edges and continuous grain.

Hidden fixings and shadow gaps finish the work. A shadow gap is a small deliberate recess between panels, or between a panel and the ceiling, which keeps a straight line even when the building is not straight. Good questions for any joiner are which joints hold the shelves and drawers, how panel joins will be hidden, and who installs it and how it is fixed to the wall.

Material choice sets the look of bespoke joinery and how it behaves over time. For joinery Adelaide homeowners commission, the design starts with four groups of material:

• Solid timber has real grain and can be sanded and refinished, but it moves with humidity, swelling slightly across the grain in damp weather and shrinking in dry. Good joinery allows for that movement.
• Veneer is a thin slice of timber glued to a stable board. It gives the look of timber on large panels, such as wardrobe doors and wall panelling, with less movement than solid timber.
• Painted board is board sprayed with a painted finish. It suits smooth modern looks and traditional painted panelling, and it is common for doors and panelled walls.
• Laminate and melamine are hard-wearing printed surfaces that suit the inside of wardrobes, shelving and utility storage.

Finish matters as much as material in any joinery design. Clear oil keeps timber looking natural and can be refreshed, while sprayed polyurethane or lacquer gives a harder, more uniform surface. Ask for a sample of the exact timber or veneer and finish, because a photo or a showroom piece rarely matches the grain and colour of the board your joinery is cut from. Hardware such as hinges, runners, lift-up stays and lighting should be named in the quote, as set out in comparing quotes line by line.

Older Adelaide homes often have original joinery: skirting boards, architraves, picture rails, built-in cupboards, and timber-framed windows and doors. New bespoke joinery in the same house raises three questions.

• Profile. A joiner can often match a skirting or architrave profile from a sample, so new work sits properly beside the old.
• Colour and grain. Aged timber darkens and changes with light, so new timber stained to match on day one rarely stays matched. A painted finish, or a deliberate contrast, is often more dependable than an exact match.
• Repair or replace. Ask whether the maker will repair or alter an existing cupboard or panelled wall as well as design and build new work, because some businesses only take on new builds.

Photograph the existing woodwork close up and from across the room, and send the images with your enquiry. If the original has a finish you like, ask for a sample board in that finish before you approve the drawings.

A joiner quotes bespoke joinery from design drawings, not from a description. Four things settle most of the price and the programme:

1. Plans or photos with sizes. Builders, architects and designers can send plans, and a joiner can usually give a first response from them, then confirm every size at a check measure on site. Homeowners without plans can send photographs and rough dimensions.
2. Design drawings and renders. Plans and elevations, sometimes with a rendered view, show every panel, door and shelf before anything is cut. Check each dimension against the room before you sign the design.
3. Samples. Timber, veneer, paint and hardware samples settle the look. Ask to see them in your own light.
4. Other trades and suppliers. Lighting and power points need an electrician, a bar sink needs a plumber, and stone, glass or mirror usually comes from a supplier. Ask who books each one and in what order.

The quote should name the timber or board, the finish, the hardware and who installs the work, and say what it leaves out. For how the numbers move, see what drives custom cabinet cost.

• If you want a fitted wardrobe, shelving or a panelled wall, ask a joiner or cabinet maker, because the pieces are made in a workshop and fitted to your walls.
• If the work is structural, such as framing, decks or rafters, a carpenter is the right call.
• If you want doors, windows or a staircase, ask whether the maker designs and installs that work at all. Some joiners do, and many cabinet makers do not.
• If you are renovating with a builder, send the builder's plans to the joiner early, so sizes, wall framing and power points are settled before the walls are lined.
• If you are matching old woodwork, photograph it and ask for a sample before you approve the drawings.
• If the work is in a townhouse or flat, the Adelaide areas guide explains how access and shared walls change a joinery job.
• If you are still deciding between trades, read our overview of custom cabinetry in Adelaide first, then tell us what you want built.