habitat creative design does full remodeling projects from design to finish for porch’s + decks, room additions, kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, home offices, to new construction for detached garages and backyard home studio spaces.

We design + build custom heirloom furniture and home decor to work with your spaces as stand alone pieces and part of your remodeling projects.

follow us on Instagram for updates + inspiration

Ferlinghetti Book Shelf Collection

These are some snazzy bespoke built-in book shelves built for an avid book collector in the village of Granville, Ohio. These were designed to fit seamlessly into the recently remodeled historic home.

As a reminder to continue to read and promote banned books the shelves are named after Lawrence Ferlinghetti, an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers.

City Lights Bookstore was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights is one of the few truly great independent bookstores in the United States, a place where booklovers from across the country and around the world come to browse, read, and just soak in the ambiance of alternative culture’s only “Literary Landmark.” Although it has been more than sixty years since tour buses with passengers eager to sight “beatniks” began pulling up in front of City Lights, the Beats’ legacy of anti-authoritarian politics and unconstrained intellectual curiosity continues to be a strong influence in the store, most evident in the selection of titles.

Mishepishu Banquette Bench of Bryn Du

this is a bespoke built-in banquette bench i created for a family in the Bryn Du neighborhood of Granville, Ohio. There will be a custom cushions added later.

the name Mishepishu is inspired by the earthwork, Alligator Mound, which is a 200 foot effigy mound that sits on a hilltop in the Bryn Du neighborhood. The bench details loosely represent alligator scales.

“The work of curator of archaeology Brad Lepper  has shown the likelihood that the name connects back to a creature from Eastern Woodland American Indian traditions, the Underwater Panther known as Mishepishu to the Ojibwe: a creature whose jaws are strong and don’t let go, living in the pools and slackwater eddies of the rivers and creeks where American Indians fished and gathered, but with connections to whirlpools stirred up by the long curling tail it brandished, and to the lower world beneath the surfaces of our everyday lands. This creature, this Underwater Panther, described to early European settlers, would have evoked a creature never seen in these northern waters, and not really well outlined in our mounds shape, but the common mythic description might have sounded like an alligator to pioneer people, and the native interlocutors would have likely shrugged and said sure, an alligator if asked if that was what they had described.”

Yoko Tatami Table

a bespoke Tatami/Chabudai table made from the wood of locally sourced Cherry Trees. It is a low-profile table designed for sitting on the floor and drinking tea, meditating, or eating pickles. Cherry blossoms connect with mindfulness and encourage living in the present moment, appreciating the beauty and fragility of life.

The Gustav

a craftsman-style built-in made from locally-sourced solid red oak, including the cabinet boxes + drawers. It was made for a craftsman style home in the village of Granville, Ohio.

the Odin

a bespoke floating bathroom vanity made from solid locally-sourced Ash wood. The doors and drawer fronts were done in a shaker-style and the drawer boxes built with dovetail joinery. It named after Odin, the foremost god of the Vikings. Both he and Thor, the god of thunder, had magical spears made of Ash wood.

the Walnut Bench

this is one of two handcrafted solid walnut benches i was commissioned to build.
Featuring a continuous, richly figured top with flowing grain patterns and warm tonal variation. Supported by sculptural, angled trestle legs and a low stretcher, the piece balances strength with elegance. The hand-finished surface enhances the natural depth and chatoyance of the wood, creating a timeless, architectural presence.

Bespoke Granville built-in cabinets + shelves with mini-split cover
This is a snazzy bespoke built-in, roughly 20’ wide, that we completed for an amazing family’s new room addition. This build included shelves, soft-close cabinets, and custom-made locally-sourced walnut countertops. We also created a super-cool, opening walnut grate to conceal the mini-split.

the Clarence Palmer Jive Bomber Bespoke Cherry Desk

This desk was built as part of a complete office transformation: solid cherry, quietly grounded with walnut accents, and shaped into a contemporary minimalist form.
.
Its spirit draws from mid-century executive offices—an era when desks were not just furniture, but stages where ideas were argued, letters were written, and decisions that shaped lives were made.
.
Cherry carries a deeper poetry as well. In Japanese thought there is the idea of Mono no Aware—the gentle, bittersweet awareness that everything is fleeting. The bloom fades, the seasons turn, the moment passes.
Perhaps that’s the perfect mindset for a desk like this: a place to sit with the temporary nature of things… and get to work solving a few of the universe’s mysteries before the day slips away.

the Persephone

a bespoke mantel + wood art piece for some awesome clients in the village of Granville, Ohio.
This was made from a local cherry tree and the timing for the spring cherry blossoms seemed like the workings of fate, Clotho, Lachesis, + Atropos.

Bespoke Wicked-Good Closet Storage Solution
Granville, Ohio closet reimagined for better storage.

Bespoke German Village Water Feature Project
This is a bespoke water feature we designed + built for the reception area of Blue Sky Med Spa located in German Village, Columbus, Ohio. The water feature is roughly 7’x7’ in size. The base was constructed with locally sourced Hickory that we milled down and book-matched the miters with. The rock wall is a black quartzite ledger stone, and also black river rocks in the base that the water runs over. We added small spotlights under the hood for some drama. The back side was done with a stained shiplap wall.

Granville, Ohio “Muddy Room” custom built-in project
this was designed to tidy up an existing mud room. It was built with baltic birch, poplar and a locally-sourced walnut for the bench tops that were hand-rubbed with mineral oil for the finish.

Mount Vernon, Ohio Corner Shelves
these bespoke shelves are part of a full kitchen remodel we did. They are made from locally-sourced ambrosia maple wood. The brackets were custom-made by a metal artisan trade partner of ours.