11 & Twelve — Finished Carpentry & Custom Furniture, Toronto

Warm walnut worktop with a hand-built shelf detail catching afternoon light

Fig. 01 Solid walnut, hand-rubbed oil finish

The last five percent

Rough carpentry makes a building stand. Finished carpentry makes it worth standing in.

Everything we build is the part of a house you actually touch. The drawer that closes without a sound. The handrail your hand finds in the dark. The reveal line that runs true across nine metres of wall.

We work in solid hardwood and veneered panel, cut to shop drawings rather than to the nearest guess. Scribes get cut on site, not caulked. Grain is matched across a run before a single board is crosscut. It is slower, and that is the entire point.

Shop drawings before a board is cut
Grain-matched, sequence-numbered runs
Scribed to the wall, never filled to it
Finished in-shop under controlled dust and light

Scope of works

Six disciplines, one set of hands

01

Custom Cabinetry & Millwork

Kitchens, vanities, pantries and media walls built as furniture. Dovetailed drawer boxes, soft-close hardware, faces fitted to a consistent reveal.

6–10 wks

02

Staircases & Railings

Open-riser, closed-string and floating flights. Treads in solid oak or walnut, handrails shaped and joined so the run reads as one line.

5–9 wks

03

Wainscoting & Wall Panelling

Raised, flat and shaker panel; fluted and slat walls. Set out from the room's centrelines so every stile lands where the eye expects it.

3–6 wks

04

Crown, Casing & Trim

Built-up cornice and period profiles matched to existing stock. Coped inside corners, and mitres that stay closed through a Toronto winter.

2–4 wks

05

Built-ins & Libraries

Floor-to-ceiling shelving, window seats, mudrooms and inglenooks. Scribed into old plaster and out-of-square openings without a gap in sight.

4–8 wks

06

Commissioned Furniture

Free-standing pieces in solid hardwood, drawn to your dimensions. The collection below is the starting point, not the limit.

8–14 wks

Selected work

Rooms we have finished

Dark walnut kitchen with a fluted island, bronzed glass cabinet and brass fittings — CabinetryFluted Walnut KitchenRosedale

Open staircase with solid oak treads and a blackened steel balustrade — StairsFloating Oak FlightLeaside

Wall-hung oak cabinet with open and closed storage bays — Built-insCased Wall CabinetThe Annex

Bright kitchen with walnut floating shelves above a painted base run — CabinetryOpen Shelf GalleyRiverdale

Living room with a long timber-framed window and warm wood flooring — InteriorsTimber Window WallForest Hill

Room with painted vertical board panelling and a slim timber table — PanellingPainted Board PanellingThe Beaches

Handleless white slab kitchen with a dark tile backsplash — CabinetrySlab Front KitchenLiberty Village

Dark panelled door beside an oak plank floor and brass floor lamp — InteriorsBlackened Panel DoorYorkville

Live-edge solid wood low table on slim steel legs — Built-insLive-Edge Low TableShop commission

Modern house clad in vertical timber with a lit interior at dusk — PanellingCedar Soffit & CladdingDon Mills

The collection

Pieces you can commission

Every piece is made to order in our shop, in the species and dimensions you choose. Prices are a starting point for a standard specification; the drawing sets the final figure.

Sort

Simple wooden side chair lit by a single overhead spotlight

Vigil Side Chair

from $2,400

Steamed beech · wedged through-tenon

Antique-style wooden chair with turned legs and a carved crest rail

Heirloom Dining Chair

from $1,950

American cherry · hand-carved crest

Solid oak dining table with matching chairs beneath a ring pendant

Long Grain Dining Table

from $8,600

Rift white oak · drawbored base

Tan leather three-seat sofa on a slim hardwood frame

Tanner Three-Seat

from $6,200

Ash frame · hand-tied springs

Small solid wood bedside table with two open shelves holding books

Open Bay Bedside

from $3,100

Solid maple · hand-cut dovetails

Live-Edge Low Table

from $4,800

Black walnut · butterfly keys

Pale wooden bar stool with a hand-hold cut into the seat

Shopfloor Counter Stool

from $1,150

Hard maple · carried one-handed

Cased Wall Cabinet

from $7,400

Rift oak · concealed French cleat

Deep green velvet two-seat sofa on turned wooden legs

Verdant Two-Seat

from $5,400

Walnut legs · feather over foam

Black moulded dining chair on tapered wooden legs

Pitch Dining Chair

from $890

Beech legs · replaceable tenons

How it goes

Four steps, no surprises

I
Consultation & Measure
We walk the space, talk through how you actually use it, and take our own measurements. That includes how far out of square the room really is.
II
Drawing & Specification
You get elevations, sections and a fixed written quote. Species, finish, hardware and reveal sizes are named on paper before anything is ordered.
III
Shop Fabrication
Components are milled, assembled and finished in the shop, where dust, light and humidity are controlled. Not in your living room.
IV
Installation & Finish
We scribe, hang, adjust and touch up on site, then hand over with a snag list we have already walked and signed off ourselves.

Stock we keep

Six species, chosen for the room

Species decides how grain reads at two metres, how much a panel moves between a Toronto February and August, and how the piece ages once oil goes on.

Black Walnut

Straight, occasional curl 1010 Low

Feature cabinetry and stair treads, where depth of colour is doing the work.

White Oak

Rift, quiet and linear 1360 Medium

Long runs and anything fumed or limed. The most forgiving species we stock.

Hard Maple

Close, near featureless 1450 Medium

Painted work. Nothing telegraphs through a lacquer film the way open grain does.

American Cherry

Fine, satin lustre 950 Low

Period rooms. It arrives pink and settles into russet over about four years.

White Ash

Bold cathedral 1320 Medium

Handrails and long shelf spans, for the springiness as much as the figure.

Sapele Mahogany

Ribbon stripe 1410 Very low

Exterior doors and anything that has to hold a straight line through a season.

Hardness given as Janka, in pounds-force. Movement is tangential shrinkage, green to oven-dry, shown relative to the species we stock.

Carpenter at the bench fitting a turned wooden handle into a machine

Fig. 02 The bench, most weekday mornings

The studio

A small shop, on purpose

11 & Twelve works across Toronto and the GTA. We take a limited number of projects at a time so the person who drew your cabinetry is the person who mills it and the person who hangs it.

That does mean we are not the fastest quote you will get. It also means there is no handoff where a detail gets lost, and no subcontractor guessing at an intent they never heard explained.

At the bench since: 2008
Rooms finished: 240
Species in stock: Six
Workmanship warranty: Five years

They spent the first morning measuring, and the first afternoon telling us which of our ideas would not work. The kitchen has been flawless for three winters.

Marguerite L.Rosedale · kitchen & pantry

Our house is 1912 and nothing in it is square. The built-ins look like they were framed in with the house. I still cannot find the scribe line.

Devon & Ash R.The Annex · library built-ins

The stair was the whole reason we did the renovation, and it is the first thing every guest puts a hand on. Worth the wait.

Priya S.Leaside · floating oak stair

Start a project

Tell us about the room

Send the rough shape of it: what it is, roughly when, and roughly what you have in mind. We reply to every enquiry within two business days, and we will say plainly if it is not a fit for the shop.

Telephone647 677 6802
Email
Service areaToronto & the GTA
Shop hoursMon–Fri, 7:00 – 16:30