A private gated community in Martis Valley with a rigorous, staged design review
A Cabinet Shop for Martis Camp’s Custom Second Homes
Martis Camp is the most private of the Martis Valley communities, a gated enclave between Truckee and Northstar where every home is custom, architect-drawn, and reviewed in stages before it is built. PineWood Cabinets designs and builds the kitchen and whole-house millwork for those homes in our Rocklin workshop and installs it with our own crew, coordinated with the architect and the builder.
- Crafting custom cabinetry since 2006
- Licensed California contractor · CSLB #1095293
- Based in Rocklin, CA
- Design, build & install under one roof
Architect-Drawn Homes, Reviewed Before They Are Built
Martis Camp occupies the forested slopes on the east side of Martis Valley, between Truckee and Northstar, reached from Highway 267 through a staffed gate. It has been developing since the mid-2000s around a private club, a golf course, a family recreation barn, trails, and a lift that connects the community directly to the Northstar ski area. Nearly every home is a second home, and nearly every one was drawn by an architect for a single owner.
What sets the community apart from its neighbors is the rigor of its design review. Every new house passes through the design review committee in stages, from concept through construction documents, against guidelines that govern how the house sits on its lot, its massing and roof forms, its materials, and how it reads from the street and neighboring lots. The result is a consistent but not uniform architecture: mountain-modern and refined-rustic homes of stone, heavy timber, dark steel, glass, and natural wood, with tall great rooms, deep covered terraces, and kitchens open to all of it.
Those kitchens are planned as part of a larger program. The same millwork is expected to run from the range wall through the pantry, the bar, the wine storage, the mudroom bench and lockers, the bunk room, the office, and the bath vanities, On a new home we produce that package from the architect's drawings; on one of the community's earlier homes, now in its second decade, we remodel the kitchen or extend the millwork into rooms the original build left plain.
All of it has to live in a house that is heated hard through a ski week and then left to sit, on a valley slope that is cold and dry at roughly 6,000 feet. That cycle drives the construction choices described below.
Design Review, Placer County, and the Gate
Martis Camp's design review committee administers the community's design guidelines and reviews every new home in stages before construction. The review concerns the architecture, the site, and the exterior. Interior cabinetry is normally the owner's decision; on a new home it is drawn as part of the architect's plan set rather than reviewed on its own, and on a remodel of an existing home only the elements that touch the envelope, a new window, a range vent through an exterior wall, are likely to need a submittal. We ask every owner to confirm the current guidelines with the committee before drawings are finalized.
The building permit is a Placer County matter. Martis Camp carries a Truckee mailing address but sits south of the town line in unincorporated Placer County, so permits go through the county rather than the Town of Truckee or Nevada County. Martis Valley drains to the Truckee River, which keeps the community outside the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency boundary that applies on the lake side of Brockway Summit.
The gate adds contractor registration, access hours, and a check-in process, which we build into the schedule; we sort every layer at the first visit.
Martis Camp at a Glance
- Design review — design review committee; staged review of every new home; confirm current guidelines
- Permits — unincorporated Placer County; Truckee mailing address; no TRPA layer
- Housing — mid-2000s-onward architect-drawn custom second homes
- Setting — east side of Martis Valley at roughly 6,000 feet, off Highway 267
- Occupancy — second homes used in bursts; staffed gate and contractor access rules
Millwork Built to the Level of the Architecture
The Martis Camp brief is usually restrained: rift-sawn or wire-brushed white oak, walnut, or a fumed or ebonized oak, in flat-panel or narrow-frame full-overlay doors, with integrated and panel-ready appliances, recessed or minimal hardware, and a pantry wall that reads as a single plane of wood. Grain is matched across doors and drawer fronts and carried through the bar, wine wall, and mudroom so the house holds one tone. Where the architecture leans rustic, we bring in reclaimed fir or stained alder and a heavier edge.
The construction underneath is chosen for a dry heated winter and an unheated shoulder season. Wide surfaces are veneer-core plywood, which is far more dimensionally stable than solid lumber; solid-wood doors are frame-and-panel with the panel free to move; long solid parts are quartersawn or rift-sawn so they move less across their width; and finish systems are specified to flex through the cycle rather than craze at the joints. Our guide to wood movement in cabinetry explains why a wide flat-panel door at 6,000 feet needs more care than the same door in the valley.
Storage is planned for a house that goes from empty to full in an afternoon: a deep pantry, a beverage and bar run for entertaining, mudroom lockers for a houseful of ski gear, and a kitchen layout that lets a caterer or several family cooks work at once.
How We Work at Martis Camp
On a new home we usually come in through the architect or the general contractor. We take their drawings, produce shop drawings for the full cabinetry package, and coordinate appliance specifications, panel integration, and delivery timing with the builder's schedule. On a remodel we start with a site visit through the gate, measure the room, and work with the owner or their interior designer. In either case the cabinetry is built and finished in our Rocklin workshop in Placer County, below the snow line, and installed by our own crew.
Delivery is scheduled around chain controls on Interstate 80 and Highway 267, the community's contractor-access rules, and the builder's readiness. A custom kitchen is a multi-month process from first drawing to final install, and a whole-house program longer. Projects start at $25,000; a Martis Camp program sits well above that, and we price it as one scope from the drawings once the design is agreed.
Martis Camp Kitchen & Millwork FAQs
Questions Martis Camp owners, architects, and builders ask before a cabinetry package is drawn.
How does Martis Camp design review affect the cabinetry?
Martis Camp’s design review committee reviews every new home in stages, from concept to construction documents, against the community’s design guidelines. The review concerns the architecture, the site, and the exterior; interior cabinetry is normally the owner’s decision and is drawn as part of the architect’s plan set rather than reviewed on its own. On a remodel, confirm the current guidelines with the committee for anything that touches the envelope.
Is Martis Camp in the Town of Truckee for permits?
No. Martis Camp carries a Truckee mailing address but sits in Martis Valley south of the town line, in unincorporated Placer County, so building permits go through Placer County rather than the Town of Truckee or Nevada County. The valley drains to the Truckee River, which keeps the community outside the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency boundary. We confirm the jurisdiction for your parcel at the first visit.
Do you work with the architect and builder, or directly with the owner?
Both, depending on the project. On a new Martis Camp home we usually come in through the architect or the general contractor, take their drawings, produce shop drawings for the full cabinetry package, and coordinate appliances, panel integration, and delivery with the builder. On a remodel we often work directly with the owner or their interior designer. Either way, one team designs, builds, and installs.
Can you carry one millwork design through the whole house?
That is the usual request at Martis Camp. The kitchen sets the species, the door, and the detailing, and the same program continues into the pantry, bar, wine storage, mudroom bench and lockers, bunk-room built-ins, office, and bath vanities, so the house reads as one intention. We draw and build the whole program in Rocklin so the finish matches from room to room.
What does a Martis Camp cabinetry program cost?
Projects start at $25,000, and a Martis Camp kitchen alone, with a pantry wall, an island, integrated appliances, and a bar in the same millwork, sits well above that. A whole-house program is priced as one scope from the architect’s drawings once the design is agreed.
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Trusted resources: National Kitchen & Bath Association · Architectural Woodwork Institute · CA Contractors State License Board
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Planning the Millwork for a Martis Camp Home?
Send us the architect’s drawings, or tell us about the rooms the original build left plain. We will design a cabinetry program that matches the architecture and survives the winter, build it in our Rocklin, CA workshop, and deliver and install it through the gate on the builder’s schedule. Call +1-650-855-2231 or schedule a consultation to begin.