Mission Statement

Our personal spaces are more than just where we eat, sleep or lay our heads at night. They are where we live. They are reflections of who we are and in many ways are extensions of ourselves. 

This ideology is at the root of our relationships with our clients. We approach each project, no matter the size by connecting with our clients on a personal basis by finding out who they are, how they live, how they see their personal spaces and by how they want it to feel, not just how they want it to look.

Through high design and empathy we hope to create spaces that have more meaning and feeling rather than just creating spaces that simply hold your belongings.

Who is Moulder & Craft?

Since I was I child my hands were the hands of an artist. I’ve explored so many different mediums in my life and the earliest of these was drawing. Whether it be drawing a lifelike portrait or drawing a comic book, my imagination completely overflowed when I had a pencil in hand. I guess you could say this was the foundation of my affinity for design. This was the groundwork so to speak.

It seems to me that my artistic mind has always been a curious one. Maybe that’s not as apt as saying that it has always been a fickle one. I find myself falling in love with a medium, working with it for a while, only to grow a little bored by it and move on to the next thing. With that said, the only two constant artistic outlets I’ve always had with me and always will are music, and carpentry. I especially can’t have the latter without the former.

My earliest inspiration in carpentry has come from my grandfather. He was also my biggest inspiration in life. He and my grandmother were missionaries and traveled around the US building churches and campgrounds. Grandpa Cherry had a tireless character and he always took the time to get whatever he was working on right. He also took the time to show how much he cared about whoever it was that he came in contact with, and this is something I sincerely hope that I am keeping up the pace with.

When I’m first moved to Portland in 2009 I was aimless in my approach at school. I was only taking classes that sounded good to me. I figured I would find that career that spoke to me at some point. In my free time I would raid the local cabinet shops wood bin and build something out of the scraps, or explore buildings around the area and eat at restaurants simply for the architecture. 

At some point, seeing my frustration with my figurative spinning tires at school, someone asked me, “why don’t you think about becoming a carpenter? That’s all you pay attention to during your free time anyway.” 
It was one of those obvious things that for whatever reason gets overlooked. It’s like looking for your car keys  while they are in your hand. 

The very next day I went in to see an advisor at PCC and dropped one of my classes. In our conversation he asked me why. I simply said “I just want to be a carpenter but I don’t know where to go with this”. His response was just this: “we have a program for this”. I didn’t really need to hear much more than that. I signed up. I dug in. I ate up everything in sight when it came to this subject.

In two years I walked away with a Design/Build/Remodel degree. I learned everything from architecture, to interior design, to cad drawings and rendering, to space planning, to building a house from the ground up. This went way beyond anything I could have ever expected. I didn’t learn just one avenue in the way of building, I learned them all. Even though I have narrowed down my direction with my carpentry, the education I got at PCC gave me such a broad view of the approach to design. I owe more to that education than I could ever express.

Now my life is eternally bound to design and building. I walk into a building and feel it more than I see it. My eye follows lines. I breath deeply when I walk into a space that commands a view or makes me feel small. I can’t help but to be drawn to architecture and open spaces. Or wood grain and orientation. This is what I’m all about and I feel at times I don’t have a choice in what I do now. I can’t ignore the way my mind opens up when I think about a project or an approach to it. It wakes up in the middle of the night picking apart designs in my dreams. I feel so often we get a choice in what we do in life, but this thing has swallowed me whole and I don’t really want to fight against it.

I care deeply about what I do. I care deeply for and appreciate the people who bring me into their homes and their lives and trust me with transforming their personal spaces. There is nothing in this world that brings me no greater joy than creating a personal relationship with someone based on a connection through design. If you are reading this, I hope I get that privilege to share these things with you.

Danny Moulder
Owner, designer, fabricator