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John Walker is at the helm of two distinct and frequently collaborative local businesses. A valley resident since 1987, he learned fine furniture craftsmanship at a young age before diversifying his skills as a general contractor. Today, Walker and his team at Mill Iron Timberworks build custom homes, and he also operates Kavanaugh Custom Furniture & Millworks, where he crafts the finest cabinets, furniture, and doors for his contracting projects, as well as for other clients and builders.
What’s the quick “snapshot” of your brand?
Mill Iron Timberworks is a high-end custom homebuilder that works with a broad range of clients, architects, and designers. What helps make MIT singularly unique while bringing projects to life is my personal, hands-on collaboration with all parties from start to finish. I find my work inspiring. Whether I’m crafting a piece of furniture or a home, to me, it’s a work of art and I’m honored to have a hand in creating it.
How did Kavanaugh come to be?
I began years ago as a furniture maker and still love designing and building pieces for my homeowners. I’m a stickler for function and craftsmanship, finding that the traditional route of sourcing furniture often falls short of options and desired quality. This frustration with the industry, paired with the desire to design and build cabinetry and millwork, is what motivated me to open Kavanaugh Custom Furniture and Millworks.
What kinds of projects bring you the most satisfaction and why?
I really enjoy helping clients design custom pieces of furniture at Kavanaugh that fit their lifestyles and complement the architectural design of their homes. For example, if we’re building a table for clients, we spend a lot of time with them working through designs that incorporate their ideas, creating a one-of-a-kind piece. This is part of the fun. For the homes we build at Mill Iron Timberworks, our focus is on quality and maintaining a good working relationship with the client, which makes it all worthwhile for us, whether the home is 1,200 or 8,000 square feet.
How do you work with architects, interior designers, and clients to reach project goals? Tell us about your approach to collaboration.
We range from single custom furnishings to large custom homes, and our ability to craft custom cabinetry, doors, and furnishings is what sets us apart. We can offer a lot of breadth that way, staying involved in every phase of carpentry and construction while ensuring quality control from start to finish. It’s much simpler to offer more possibilities in-house and it also cuts down on the potential for mistakes. We’re able to bring all these elements together to perfection in a very streamlined process.
