Studio
Eleven people, one shop on Chestnut Street, and a deliberate ceiling of fourteen projects a year.
We have turned down more work than we have taken since about 2017. That is a business decision, and it is the one everything else on this site depends on.
Miter & Mason started in 2009 with one van, one table saw, and a lease on half a garage. Rafael Ibarra had been framing houses in Passaic County since 1998 and setting cabinetry since 2004, and had watched enough jobs go sideways to have firm opinions about why.
The opinion that became the company is this: what separates a remodel that finishes from one that drags is almost never the carpentry. It is whether somebody owned the schedule in the eight weeks before anyone picked up a hammer. Cabinets arrive late because nobody confirmed the order. Slabs get substituted because nobody tagged the one they saw. Inspections slip because a permit was filed a fortnight after it should have been.
So we built the business around the boring half. Shop drawings for every run. A procurement log with a name against every line. Nothing demolished until everything is in the building. It is not a romantic pitch and it does not photograph well, and it is the reason the photographs further up this site exist at all.
What we will not take on
A short list, and we would rather you read it now than in week four.
- Additions, new construction, and anything that needs a foundation poured. We are a remodeling shop.
- Whole-house flips on a resale timeline. The schedule pressure is the opposite of how we work.
- Installing another firm’s design without producing our own shop drawings first. If we are responsible for the tolerances we draw them.
- Work outside Bergen, Essex, Passaic and Morris. Past about twenty-five miles the crew spends more of your money on the Parkway than on your kitchen.
Who turns up
- 01
Rafael Ibarra
Principal, Lead Carpenter
Started framing in Paterson in 1998 and has been setting cabinetry since 2004. Runs the shop and is on at least one site every day.
- 02
Nora Whitfield
Design Director
Draws every plan and elevation that leaves this office. Trained in interior architecture, spent six years in commercial millwork before coming over to residential.
- 03
Devin Oyelaran
Project Manager
Owns the schedule, the procurement log, and the inspection calendar. If a slab is late, Devin knew about it two weeks ago.
- 04
Petra Kowalczyk
Millwork Lead
Runs the shop floor and the finish booth. Every door, drawer and panel is cut, sanded and sprayed under Petra’s eye before it ships.
Materials and paperwork
Materials we keep going back to
- Rift-sawn white oak Dried properly before milling, so it does not move later
- Honed Vermont soapstone Softens and darkens with use, oiled when we hand over
- Calacatta and Taj Mahal You pick the actual slab at the yard, we tag it
- Hand-glazed zellige Hand-made in Morocco, ordered from one batch so it matches
- Unlacquered brass Left bare so it darkens over the years
- Benjamin Moore Advance Three sprayed coats in a clean booth, not a brush finish
Licensed, insured, inspected
- NJ Home Improvement Contractor
- 13VH09428700
- EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm
- NAT-F203914-1
- General liability
- $2,000,000 per occurrence
- Umbrella
- $1,000,000
- Workers compensation
- Carried on all employees
- NKBA member
- Since 2012
Certificates of insurance are issued to your name before we start, not after you ask. Every structural, plumbing and electrical change is permitted and inspected by your municipality. Unpermitted work becomes your problem at closing, and we will not hand you that.
Where we work
Bergen, Essex, Passaic, Morris.
Roughly 25 miles from the Ridgewood shop. Past that the crew spends more of your money on the Garden State Parkway than on your kitchen.
114 Chestnut Street, Shop 2B
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
Open in maps
- Ridgewood
- Ho-Ho-Kus
- Glen Rock
- Wyckoff
- Franklin Lakes
- Saddle River
- Ramsey
- Allendale
- Midland Park
- Waldwick
- Montclair
- Glen Ridge
- Upper Montclair
- Verona
- Caldwell
- Millburn
- Short Hills
- Summit
- Chatham
- Madison
- Morristown
- Wayne
What owners say
We interviewed four builders. Miter & Mason was the only one who came back with a drawing of the header and a note about the footing. The other three came back with a number.
Homeowner · Ridgewood, NJ · Kitchen, 2025
Fifteen weeks, and we knew at the start of each one what was happening in it. I have renovated three houses. This does not normally happen.
Homeowner · Saddle River, NJ · Kitchen and mudroom, 2023
My final list was eleven items and nine of them were me being fussy. They fixed all eleven in six days and did not sigh once.
Homeowner · Montclair, NJ · Primary bath, 2025
Tell us about your project
Tell us the room and the number. We will tell you if they meet.
Most of a remodel is decided before anyone picks up a tool. Forty-five minutes on the phone is usually enough to know whether the brief and the budget are in the same building, and it costs you nothing to find out.
- 01
You call or send the form. We answer within one business day.
- 02
Forty-five minutes on the phone: the room, the house, the timeline, and an honest range.
- 03
If it fits, we come and measure. If it does not, we tell you who does this kind of work well.