When a woman wants a one-of-a-kind dress she won't see on anyone else, she goes to a fashion designer. When she wants a unique accent piece in her home that's not mass-produced on an assembly line, she goes to a custom furniture maker like Ray Bergeron.

As soon as Beverly Russell saw some of Bergeron's work in a friend's home, she knew she wanted to do business with him. The television in her family room was on the blink; when she replaced it, she wanted a new entertainment center in which to display the TV that blended with the decor and architecture in her south Fulton home.

Ben Gray/Staff (ENLARGE)

'He's a well-kept secret,' Beverly Russell, pictured with her husband John, says of Bergeron. 'I'm just glad I got mine before his prices go up!'

Photos More home design stories [an error occurred while processing this directive] Ray Bergeron's Web site

"I wanted something that really made a statement. The old one wasn't doing that," Russell recalls.

When the TV faded to black for the last time on Thanksgiving Day, Russell celebrated. Then she and her husband, John, purchased a 62-inch Samsung high-definition television and commissioned Bergeron to design a cabinet to showcase it.

Russell didn't have any particular cabinet style in mind. She told Bergeron she just wanted it to be stunning and to incorporate two yellow and black stained glass windows on either side of the longest wall in the room.

"I wanted a wow," she explains. "Something that's unique and makes you say wow."

After studying the room and checking out the Russells' extensive collection of art, Bergeron created a head-turner: a 16-foot-long wall unit crafted from maple and figured anigre, an exotic African wood, with cabinets that conceal such things as CDs, DVDs and electrical cords. The furniture blends perfectly with the stained glass windows and complements the couple's new TV, hardwood floors and contemporary furnishings.

"I can't tell you how pleased I am with it," says Russell. "It's just absolutely beautiful."

The unit, which took nearly two months to build and about two weeks to install, is valued around $12,000, according to Bergeron.

Not bad for a self-taught furniture maker from Madison who has watched his business expand from making desks and dressers to building kitchens, home theaters and libraries.

Growing up, Bergeron, 36, tinkered in his mother's garage, taking apart toys and rebuilding bicycles for neighborhood friends. After high school, he attended the University of Georgia and majored in risk management, but he never ventured far from his first love, which was making furniture.

"It's a natural gift for me. This is what I was meant to do," says Bergeron.

His first major break in custom furniture design came at the age of 28, when Bergeron opened a studio in southwest Atlanta using $15,000 of his own savings to buy drills, lumber and other materials.

Today he's on the same side of town but in a larger office/workshop, where he employs three skilled woodworkers and builds several custom items for clients each month.

"We could do six or seven pieces one month, and then one piece the next month. It really depends on the complexity and the scope of the project," says Bergeron.

Although custom-made furnishings are costlier than merchandise that's already built, you get what you pay for.

"When you buy off the shelf, you try to arrange your space around what you buy," Bergeron explains. "But we make the piece around what you have. It's a different way of achieving the same thing."

Tailor-made

Consider custom-made furniture when:

• You want an heirloom or a unique piece designed to your specifications.

• Built-ins are needed for a designated space.

• The custom additions increase the market value of the home.