Our Vision
We believe in details... and in delivery. We aim to create highly usable, energy efficient and beautiful spaces. Designing to modern standards but building with an eye to traditional craftsmanship, we bring valuable spaces into the lives of our clients.
Our Approach
“Design for Living. Build for Life.”
At MelBarr Design Build Inc., we take our motto sentences seriously. Our entire company structure is based around these two apparently simple ideas.
“Design” is a term of art at MelBarr. When MelBarr visits with you in your home, we don’t start with pictures, drawings, fabric swatches, or material samples. We start with words.
Your words.
We want to hear the words that are in your mind as you verbally construct your anticipated living environment. We ask some of the following questions to get this process moving:
- Where do you go when you wake up in the morning?
- Where is your favourite place to sit after an enjoyable meal?
- Where do you go to get away in your home?
- What do you do to get away from the grind of the day?
- What words come to your mind when you imagine this new space you’re planning on creating?
The words that form the answers to these questions lay the foundation for a design that suits the way you live or want to live. When you hear words like “warm”, “quiet”, “entertaining space”, “old-world feel”, “big stones”, “water sounds”, “family gathering”, we get an idea for your unique lifestyle.
“Design for Living” is about reconciling the differences we experience in our built environment.
Words are the least restrictive way that we’ve encountered to lay the foundation for effective design that suits your lifestyle. Once a portfolio of words has been established and understood, we have a shared language to gather pictures, create drawings, and provide visual influence to our newly created design language. Once accepted by you, the customer, MelBarr begins the process of “Building for Life”. We seek out and advise you on the best materials and products that will allow your design to last a lifetime in reality. We take a great deal of care in researching and understanding what products are available to the consumer market today; we take our role seriously in assessing the merits of the products available so that we can assist you in having an informed dialogue during the decision making process. We mean it quite literally when we say, our end results “speak” for themselves
Our Team
The number of projects that MelBarr can realistically manage is purposely restricted by the size of our small, boutique-style firm. We dedicate our team of fulltime employees to the projects we take on. This means that we don’t subcontract out our carpentry work, and we don’t leave people with whom we are unfamiliar in your home. This also means that once we begin your project, we stay until it’s finished. We do not undertake simultaneous, multiple large-scale projects. MelBarr Design Build Inc. employees will be involved with each step of your project. These tradesmen will be the people you see daily, and they will be the gentlemen coordinating the licensed subtrades as the project moves forward. MelBarr does not deviate from its trusted list of trade partners. We use the same licensed electrician, licensed plumber, licensed HVAC contractor, roofer, material suppliers, and BCIN designers for every project we undertake. This dedication to our trade partners, and their quality commitment to us, is a factor in bringing about consistent results with our renovation projects. The consistency of working relationships develops a shared language of results driven performance. All of MelBarr’s employees and trade partners carry mandatory Workplace Safety and Insurance Board protection, and Melbarr Design Build Inc. carries two million dollars in liability coverage. The founders of the company, Andrew Barr and Jamie Melnick, are always active within each project, and both are dedicated to responding to customer’s by telephone, email or text message at all hours of the day.