Andrew Mueller has always enjoyed working with his hands and building things, which is how he knew that he needed to be in the trades.
“I did go to George Brown College, but it didn’t last. I did one semester, but I knew that ‘no’, this isn’t going to work, so I started working for a company in the trades.
“It was for a builder and I worked there as a carpenter for two or three years and then I started my own company in 2012.” That company was Kustom Contracting Inc. and Se7en Interiors was the design side of it. They did major renovations and operated as a design-build shop with an office and showroom.
Mueller says they did major renovations and a few new builds in the GTA.
“We served the residential construction industry mainly executing major renovations. Struggling to find reliable cabinetmakers, we also took millwork in house at our Aurora, Ontario shop.”
Initially, the work came from word of mouth and referrals and slowly they build up a client list.
“We started out very small, we built some decks and then people said they need their basements done, or a bathroom renovation and it just kept growing from there. But it took a few years to get established,” Mueller says. “No one gives a 20-year-old contracts for major projects, so it took time to gain a foothold in the industry.”
But the hard work paid off and eventually they were doing multi-million dollars of work annually.
“We did a couple of new builds, as I said, but we didn’t really like it - it was less profitable and more headaches - so we focused on major renovations instead. Renovations and the accompanying millwork was more in our wheelhouse and it made more sense from the business side.”
Initially, Mueller worked by himself, and he remembers those early days and building kitchens in his parents’ basement.
“In fact there is still stain all over the tiles down there,” he says with a laugh.
“I built the cabinets in the garage and then I would bring them into the basement - a finished basement no less – for finishing. So I made a bit of a mess down there and quickly realized that I needed a shop, but of course I didn’t have any money at the time. So I did the best I could.”
It took a few years, but once he got into the higher tier projects and started to earn some money, Mueller got his first shop and showroom. He started with a small edgebander and a table saw and a couple of track saws.
And as aforementioned, at first he had to hire millworkers to do that part for him, but it wasn’t long until he decided to get a bigger shop and “do more of the millwork ourselves and started a second company. This one focused more on doing our own manufacturing in support of our renovation business. It meant we would do the work rather than continue to farm it out.
“And once we got started, we quickly realized that millwork was what we really wanted to do, so we focused all of our efforts on that and the renovation and construction portion of the business ended fairly quickly.”
Moving time
Mueller moved to Bracebridge in 2020, he said he had retired his tool belt a couple of years earlier and was doing most of his work remotely by this time. So he didn’t need to live in the GTA, or Aurora (where their shop was) specifically.
He was still going into the shop to check on the work, but his main focus was project management and dealing with clients, so when they were looking for a new shop, they were looking north of the GTA, anywhere from Bracebridge to Barrie.
In the end, they found what they were looking for in Orillia.
“I wanted to get out of Aurora and move north and Orillia was sort of in the middle. Also, a couple of our guys moved north so it was a good fit for everyone,” he says.
Mueller says it was actually quite difficult to find a nice shop space south of Barrie unless you want to spend $10 million.
“But Orillia and surrounding area was where we wanted to be anyway and this is where we wanted to focus our work, so it met all our needs and goals.”
It took some time to finish all their Toronto-area projects and commitments and about a year to find the new shop, but they finally made the move to Orillia in 2023.
Since then, Mueller has also stopped working remotely and returned to the shop and offices.
“It’s different work now,” he says. ”I can do my work in the shop.”
K7 Millwork has a dedicated team of nine people focused on doing millwork projects. Everything from kitchen cabinetry, to built-ins and some furniture as well as intricate projects other shops don’t want to or can’t do, including faux beams, hidden doors with concealed hinges, and some wall paneling/cladding.
“We try not to do too much of that because it involves a lot more onsite work and we’d rather fabricate in the shop. But some of the builders want us to do that, so that everything in a build is from the same supplier,” he says.
“We mainly work with designers and builders, so we won’t touch any kind of renovation or construction work anymore.
We do boutique and high-end work, not production stuff, and everything is made here.”
K7 Millwork Group is open to the public, by appointment, but Mueller says that it just a very small part of their business.
“Most of our projects start at $100,000 and up, because we are geared towards whole-house millwork packages not individual kitchens.
“We also rebranded when we moved to Orillia. It’s not a new industry, but definitely a new market we are moving into. We are still doing about 50 per cent of our work in the GTA because that’s where I was for 15 years and that’s where most of our connections are, but the plan is to eventually do most of our work in the Muskoka and Orillia area.
Landing on their feet
And although K7 Millwork is still getting established in this area, Mueller says they are already very busy and are in fact looking at other properties already.
“We are being proactive, this won’t happen next year, but we can already see that if our success continues at this rate, we will need more space.
“We have 8,000 sq. ft. right now, but we can already see that we are approaching the limits of what we can do here. So future expansion is a discussion being had.”
Mueller acknowledges this is a nice problem to have, “there really is a demand for what we do, because we do the actual building. There are a lot of other shops that are middlemen, they don’t build anything, they just order it from the large manufacturers and they are limited in what they can do. “Whereas with us, it’s completely custom. If you need an odd size, no problem, we will build it to fit the particular space.
They may have five door styles and limited colours, but with us you get exactly what you want.
“And on a contract level that is an issue because we have designers and contractors asking for certain things. There is nothing wrong with those products; they just can’t do what we do. So that’s what we do, that’s our niche.”
Mueller says some homeowners are turned off by their pricing, and say they can get it cheaper elsewhere, “so we tell them to go there then. We do custom work and we want to be in the market where that is appreciated and where people see the value of having us make something just for them. This is not mass-manufactured, this is made for a specific customer to their very specific needs.”
Most of K7 Millwork’s cabinets are frameless, but they will do some face frame if people ask for it. It’s more expensive because it requires a lot more labour, but there are some people who really want it so they will build it for them. And there are not a lot of shops who can or will do it, which is good for us, because we can.
“As far as the styles we do, again, it’s really up to the customer. I personally like more traditional, but it’s what the customer wants so we do a lot of modern styles with slab doors etc. And we work with many repeat customers and designers and they often have a certain style and when customers see a certain designer’s portfolio online, they will get in touch and say they want that.”
In the family
Also, as part of the move north, Mueller’s brother Chris joined the company as a partner and is now looking after all the finishing along with a couple other guys.
We’re happy with the move and how everything went. Obviously it was a lot of work, but we can see there is a strong demand for what we do and as I said, we can already see that there will be a need for expansion in a few years.
“In the meantime, we continue to build the business and focus on providing completely custom cabinetry solutions for the residential and commercial sectors and to transform our customers’ spaces into extraordinary environments by delivering woodworking solutions that are tailored to their vision,” Mueller says.
