Portfolio · Ferrante Construction

Featured project

A backyard brought home from Bali.

The brief was simple and specific: bring a piece of Bali home. We delivered a fully equipped outdoor kitchen clad in wood-look porcelain tile, a custom cedar pergola with bamboo canopy, dining bar with rope-swing seating, fire-pit lounge, and full deck, built from scratch on bare concrete in about four weeks.

LocationMenifee, CA

Year2025

Duration~4 weeks

BriefBali-inspired backyard

Outdoor kitchen and pergola, Menifee, CA, completed view

Custom bar with rope swings, pergola structure, Menifee

Pergola and outdoor kitchen at golden hour, Menifee

Bali in the materials, California in the build.

The references the homeowner brought us, open thatched canopies, rope details, warm cedar tones, a low horizontal feel, pointed clearly to Bali. Our job was to translate that aesthetic into a structure that holds up to California sun, wind, and outdoor cooking.

The frame is full cedar, finished with a UV-resistant marine sealant. The shade is woven bamboo over a structural pergola, lit through with string lights for evenings. The outdoor kitchen base is clad in wood-look porcelain tile rather than real wood, a deliberate choice for California: it gives the same warm wood texture, but stands up to the UV, splashes, and heat from the cooking surface that would degrade real cladding within a few seasons. The countertop is large-format porcelain, heat resistant, no sealing, minimal maintenance. Below: structure going up at blue hour, before the canopy and finishes were installed.

Pergola structure under construction at blue hour

Empty backyard patio, before construction began — Before · Day 1

Outdoor kitchen frame mid-construction — In progress · Framing & structure

02Next project

Featured project

A 3-car garage, reborn as a second master.

A full conversion of a 3-car garage into a complete second master suite, bedroom, full bathroom, and adjacent living area. Structural reframing, new plumbing, electrical, HVAC, insulation, finishes. Built to permit, completed in under four weeks.

LocationMenifee, CA

Year2023

Duration~4 weeks

BriefSecond master bedroom

Finished master bedroom with rattan headboard and boho-coastal styling, Menifee, CA

Finished bathroom with neo-angle shower and shiplap ceiling, Menifee

Living area with sliding door overlooking the pool, Menifee

Structural work, hidden under a calm finish.

The hardest part of a garage conversion isn't the styling, it's everything you don't see in the final photos. We reframed the slab edge, brought new plumbing from the main house for the bathroom, ran full electrical and HVAC, insulated to California Title 24, and replaced the garage door opening with a structural wall and sliding door to the pool deck.

Permits pulled, inspections passed, signed off. Then, and only then, the calm boho-coastal palette the homeowner wanted: rattan headboard, jute textiles, warm-tone LVP flooring, white shiplap ceiling, neo-angle glass shower.

Overall view of the converted garage, bedroom, living, and adjacent rooms

Original garage interior before conversion — Before · Existing garage

New bathroom framing with PEX plumbing in progress — In progress · Bathroom framing & rough plumbing

03Weekend project

Featured project

The detail most contractors skip.

A weekend build to hide pool equipment and twin AC condensers behind a cedar slat enclosure, designed for unrestricted airflow, easy service access, and to disappear into the backyard. This was the first project we did for the homeowner. A year later, they came back for the full Bali backyard build above.

LocationMenifee, CA

Year2024

Duration~2 days

BriefAesthetic equipment cover

Finished cedar slat enclosure hiding pool equipment and AC units, Menifee, CA

Cedar enclosure in context with backyard, Menifee

Cedar enclosure framing in progress, Menifee

Engineered to disappear, not just decorate.

The challenge with covering HVAC and pool equipment isn't aesthetic, it's technical. AC condensers need real airflow on all four sides to operate efficiently. Pool filters and pumps need to be reached for service. Both run hot and noisy, so the cover can't trap heat or amplify sound.

We designed the enclosure with horizontal cedar slats spaced for ventilation (matching the manufacturer's clearance specs), built lift-off panels for service access, and used a stepped form to follow the height of each piece of equipment underneath. The result: from the lawn, you see a piece of architecture. From the inside, full access to every valve, filter, and condenser.

Twin Carrier AC units with cedar framing in progress

Pool equipment exposed against the house wall, before — Before · Exposed equipment

Finished cedar slat cover — After · Two days later

04Kitchen face-lift

Featured project

A kitchen, made modern and warm.

A two-day kitchen face-lift in Menifee, keeping the existing cabinetry intact while replacing the dated speckled granite with warm butcher-block counters, swapping the plain backsplash for a graphic patterned tile, and adding under-cabinet lighting throughout. A modest budget, a major transformation.

LocationMenifee, CA

Year2022

Duration~2 days

BriefModern & cosy look

Kitchen after renovation, butcher block counters and patterned cement tile backsplash, Menifee

Kitchen corner view with new countertops and backsplash, Menifee

Close-up of butcher block counter and cement-tile backsplash, Menifee

Three changes. The whole room transformed.

Most kitchen renovations cost $30,000 and up because they tear everything out. That isn't always necessary. When the existing cabinets are sound, the bones of the kitchen are good, and the layout works, a targeted face-lift can deliver 80% of the visual impact at a fraction of the cost and timeline.

For this Menifee homeowner, three coordinated changes did the work: butcher-block counters in place of the speckled granite, a graphic black-and-white cement-tile backsplash in place of the original tile, and a continuous strip of warm under-cabinet LED lighting. Two days of work. A complete shift in mood.

Counters removed, butcher block being fitted, backsplash demoed, Menifee

Original kitchen with granite counters and plain backsplash — Before · Speckled granite, dated finishes

Kitchen after renovation — After · Butcher block, cement tile, warm light

05Laundry transformation

Featured project

A laundry room, made to actually use.

Most laundry rooms in California tract homes are an afterthought, bare walls, a hookup, and a tile floor. We turned this one into a real working space: stacked appliances, full butcher-block counter with utility sink, open shelving with woven storage, patterned cement-tile floor. Four days of work.

LocationMenifee, CA

Year2021

Duration~4 days

BriefModern laundry room

Finished laundry room with butcher block counter, stacked appliances, and patterned tile, Menifee, CA

Butcher block counter with utility sink and open shelving, Menifee

Close-up of the butcher block counter and farmhouse-style utility sink, Menifee

A small room, planned like a real one.

The trick with a small space isn't styling, it's planning. We started by stacking the washer and dryer to free up the entire opposite wall for a continuous run of cabinetry, butcher-block counter, and a deep utility sink. The shelving above uses woven baskets to keep visual noise low while doubling storage capacity.

The patterned cement-tile floor (the same family used in the kitchen face-lift project above) ties the laundry to the rest of the home, instead of feeling like a forgotten utility closet, it now reads as part of the architecture.