Atelier · Vancouver & Whistler
+1 604 555 0144
Maison Hartwell
Cabinetmakers & Interior Designers · Est. 2011
 Book Consultation
Vol. 14 · Custom Vanities & Bespoke Kitchens

The vanity,
considered.

We are a small atelier of cabinetmakers, joiners and interior designers based in Vancouver. We do one thing slowly and exceedingly well: we draw, build, and install custom vanities and kitchen interiors for clients who notice the dovetails before the door pull. Each piece is commissioned, milled, and signed in our Mount Pleasant workshop.

Begin a Commission View Portfolio
Custom marble vanity
№ 042 · The Shaughnessy Vanity 2025
Lifetime joinery guarantee
Hand-signed by the maker
FSC-certified hardwoods
North American milled
12–16 week commissions
From drawing to install
14 years · 230 commissions
Featured in Western Living
Custom vanities ✦ Bespoke kitchens ✦ Hand-rubbed finishes ✦ Quarried stone ✦ Custom vanities ✦ Bespoke kitchens ✦ Hand-rubbed finishes ✦ Quarried stone ✦

Chapter I · The Atelier

A workshop
on the corner of
Main & 7th.

Maison Hartwell was founded in 2011 by Alma Hartwell, a third-generation cabinetmaker who left a quiet career in architecture to return to her grandfather's workshop on East 7th Avenue. Today, our atelier numbers nine — joiners, finishers, designers, and a single, much-loved shop dog named Linden — and we accept no more than fourteen commissions a year.

We work in solid oak, walnut, anigre, and quarter-sawn ash. We rub our finishes by hand. We source stone from quarries we have visited. We answer the studio phone ourselves. There are faster ways to build a vanity. There are not, in our considered opinion, better ones.

14
Years in the trade
230
Commissions completed
9
Hands on the bench
— Alma Hartwell
Founder & Principal Designer
Meet the team →
Atelier — workshop detail
Marble vanity detail
Hand-rubbed finish detail

Chapter II · The Difference

Four things
we refuse to skip.

A vanity made in five days is a vanity made in five days. Ours take twelve weeks. This is what those extra weeks buy.

Hand-cut dovetail joinery
Quarried stone selection
Brass hardware made to size
Final hand-rubbed finish
01 / 04
Hand-cut joinery
Difference 01

Hand-cut dovetail joinery.

Every drawer in a Maison Hartwell vanity opens on hand-cut dovetail joinery — no biscuits, no dowels, no stapled corners hidden under veneer. We use through-dovetails for the front, lapped dovetails for the back, and we cut them with a marking knife and a tenon saw. Properly executed dovetails outlast hardware, finishes, and most often the homes they sit inside.

  • Method
    Through & half-blind
  • Timber
    Quarter-sawn white oak
Difference 02

Stone we have seen quarried.

We do not order stone from photographs. Twice a year we travel to the quarry — Carrara for the marbles, the Salish coast for our soapstones, a small operation in Quebec for the limestones we trust. We select each slab in person, mark the cuts in chalk, and bring it home on the same truck. If we wouldn't put it in our own kitchen we will not put it in yours.

  • Material library
    38 quarry-selected slabs
  • Studio visits
    By appointment
Difference 03

Brass hardware, made to size.

Off-the-shelf hardware almost works. It is the wrong centre-to-centre, the wrong finish, the wrong proportion against the rail. We design our own pulls, knobs, and edge-pulls in unlacquered brass and aged bronze, cast by a small foundry in Coquitlam to dimensions agreed with you. Over time the brass develops a patina, the patina develops a memory, and the memory belongs to your family.

  • Foundry
    Local · 12 km from studio
  • Finishes
    7 · Living & sealed
Difference 04

Finishes rubbed by hand.

Spray-finishing is faster, cheaper, and reads on the surface as exactly that. We finish by hand — Osmo oils on the oaks, hard-wax on the walnuts, the occasional shellac on the show pieces — applied in thin layers, sanded between each, and burnished with a soft cloth. The finish does not sit on top of the wood. It becomes part of it.

  • Coats
    6 · Sanded between
  • Lifetime care
    Annual recoat included

Chapter III · Selected Works

A small catalogue
of finished rooms.

01 / 06
Vanity · Shaughnessy

The Hawthorn Suite

Quartered white oak · honed Carrara · unlacquered brass

№ 042
Kitchen · West Vancouver

The Sentinel Kitchen

Rift-sawn walnut · Belgian bluestone · aged bronze

№ 041
Vanity · Point Grey

The Spanish Banks Bath

Quarter-sawn ash · Calacatta Viola · living brass

№ 040
Vanity · Kitsilano

The Trafalgar Powder

Anigre figured · honed soapstone · oil-rubbed bronze

№ 039
Kitchen · Whistler

The Alta Lake House

Reclaimed Douglas fir · soapstone · matte black

№ 038
Kitchen · Mount Pleasant

The Heather Street Loft

White oak · Cambrian black · unlacquered brass

№ 037

Chapter IV · The Method

From first sketch
to final fitting.

Every commission moves through the same five quiet stages. We do not rush this rhythm. We do not skip the meeting in the workshop where you smell the wood. We do not subcontract the install. The pace is the point.

01

Studio consultation

90 minutes at the atelier. We listen, sketch, smell the timber together, settle a feasibility brief.

Week 01 · Complimentary
02

Design & material selection

Detailed drawings, hand-coloured elevations, stone slabs viewed in person, brass samples held in hand.

Weeks 02 – 04
03

Bench work in the atelier

Timber milled, joinery cut, panels glued up. You are welcome in the workshop, weekly photographs always sent.

Weeks 05 – 12
04

Finishing & hardware

Six coats of hand-rubbed oil. Brass cast, fitted, refined. The piece rests in the atelier for a final week.

Weeks 13 – 15
05

White-glove installation

Our team installs and signs the piece. We return at twelve months for a complimentary recoat and inspection.

Week 16 & beyond

In their own words

"Alma drew our kitchen on the back of a napkin during our first meeting, and what she handed us five months later was identical in spirit and considerably better in every detail. It is the most beautiful room we have ever lived in."
Eleanor & James Whitaker
Shaughnessy · Kitchen & Vanity · 2024
Western Living · 2024 Azure Magazine House & Home Editor's Pick BC Wood Design Award

Begin a commission

Let's begin
with a conversation.

Studio consultations are complimentary and held in our Mount Pleasant atelier, by appointment, Tuesday through Saturday. Bring a sketch, a swatch, a photograph from a magazine, or nothing at all — we will work from any beginning.

Studio
+1 604 555 0144
Atelier
atelier@maisonhartwell.ca
Workshop
218 East 7th Ave, Vancouver BC
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