Rivendell provides complete woodworking solutions for your home and business. As a one-stop shop, we offer superior services for every stage of your project. Whether you’re starting with design or finishing off with installation, our inspired team of experienced professionals can take your vision from concept to complete.
We specialize in high-end residential custom casework and millwork, including kitchens, baths, home offices and game rooms, as well as media cabinets, bookcases, paneling and moldings. We both build and install our creations, working closely with owners, designers, architects, and contractors to create spaces that turn houses into exquisite homes.
We also do commercial work. From the juice bar at TruFusion Walnut Creek to Antioch City Hall’s Chamber Room Dais, we bring beauty to business.
Family owned and operated since 1975, Rivendell has built a trusted reputation based on the quality and integrity of our work.
“It was in the mists of the bygone ages of Middle Earth that there existed a magical valley at the foot of the Misty Mountains, known as Rivendell, where elves lived and worked crafting beautiful creations from wood.”
So was the description given in the epic story, Lord of the Rings, that inspired our founder, Kanda Alahan, to give his fledgling wooden toy company its name.
That was back in 1975, when Kanda Alahan was recently married, starting a family and seeking a way to make a living on his own. From his woodworking hobby in the garage grew a collection of whimsical wooden toys, including rocking horses, giraffes and dragons. He sold his creations at arts and crafts shows in the west, as well as boutiques and toy stores across the country. His sons were always a part of the company, first as rocking horse “test pilots” and later as junior helpers in his wood shop.
Kanda built his first kitchen in 1982. It was for his brother, a General Contractor, who was constructing his first house. That set Kanda on a career path which gradually evolved over the next decade from making wooden toys to designing, building and installing fine cabinetry.
In 1991, after moving from Southern California to the San Francisco Bay Area, Kanda rented his first commercial space to focus strictly on developing and refining his cabinetmaking skills. Kanda moved his shop to Concord in 1995.
As his sons grew older and graduated high school, they became a bigger part of the business, which was now serving the greater Bay Area, from Sea Ranch on the Sonoma Coast in the north to Carmel-by-the-Sea near Monterey in the south. In 2005, Rivendell transitioned from a sole-proprietorship to a family-owned corporation when Kanda officially partnered with his three sons.
When a fire swept through the shop in 2012, the four of them decided to turn lemons into lemonade by diverting some of the insurance money to buy a CNC (computer-numerical-control) wood processing router, which helped catapult the company into 21st century automation, refining the systems and processes immeasurably.
The challenges of the Covid pandemic, from lockdown to gradual reopening, provided Rivendell another opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade. After 45 years in the business, Kanda found the ideal opportunity to retire, knowing that sons Nandi, Jeremy and Kendiah had expertly taken the reins and were carrying the business forward with ever greater success. At the end of 2021, Rivendell moved across town to a much bigger and better location.