Lighting · Lutron
HomeWorks
Lutron's flagship whole-home lighting and shade control platform, designed and programmed by a certified dealer.
Best for Large custom homes with many circuits, shades, and keypads
Curated by a custom home builder
Better products for your home, explained by a builder who uses them.
Ideas and plain-language guides for homeowners and DIYers: what a product is, what it looks like, and where to buy it. Picked by Barry Beck after 36 years of building custom homes in Central Florida, so builders will find something here too.
Builder's Picks
The short list
Standouts from every category: products worth having in a well-made home, each linked to its maker's own page.
Landscape · FX Luminaire
Landscape fixtures & Luxor control
Professional low-voltage landscape lighting, with Luxor controllers for zoning, dimming, and color.
Best for Estate-scale landscape and façade lighting
Hardware · Richelieu
Decorative handles & knobs
A deep catalog of decorative cabinet and furniture hardware, from a major North American hardware distributor.
Best for Coordinating pulls across kitchen, baths, and built-ins
Hardware · Rev-A-Shelf
Pull-out waste containers
Base-cabinet pull-outs for trash and recycling, in a range of widths and bin configurations.
Best for Every kitchen, and most scullery and bar cabinets
Hidden Doors · SOSS
Invisible hinges
Concealed hinges mortised into the door and jamb, so no hardware shows when the door is closed.
Best for Flush doors and panels that should read as wall
Tools · Bosch
GLM100-23 BLAZE 100 ft. Laser Measure
A pocket-size laser measure with two buttons and an easy-to-read screen. It measures distance only and is rated for indoor use.
Best for Anyone who wants the simplest way to measure rooms indoors
Browse
By category
Lighting & Controls
Whole-home control, keypads, and dimming done the way a finished house deserves.
ExploreLandscape & Exterior Lighting
Fixtures, transformers, and controls that hold up to Florida sun, sprinklers, and storms.
ExploreCabinet & Closet Hardware
Richelieu hardware and Rev-A-Shelf organizers: the details clients notice every day.
ExploreHidden Doors & Hinges
Bookcase doors, flush panels, and the concealed hinges that make them disappear.
ExploreTools
Easy-to-use tools that make home projects quicker, picked by a builder who uses them.
ExploreFrom the builder
Seen in our builds
Builder Buys is written by Barry Beck of Beck Custom Homes. The products here aren't just catalog picks. They're the kind that end up in finished homes and get lived with every day, so you can see what's worth it before you buy.
More about the builderGuides
Latest guides
Tools
Best laser tape measures: a builder's 3 picks
A quick guide: the easiest one to use (the one I own), a budget pick, and one for outdoors.
Read the guide-
Hidden Doors & Hinges
The best hidden door hinges for a custom home
SOSS, TECTUS, or a complete Murphy Door: how to make a door disappear, and what each option asks of the install.
Our standard
How we pick products
A short list is only useful if you can trust how it was made.
- 01
Real-world picks
Picks come from a working builder's experience with how products look, work, and hold up in real homes.
- 02
Built for Florida
Sun, salt air, humidity, irrigation, and storms are part of the brief. Products that can't handle them don't make the list.
- 03
No paid rankings
Affiliate commissions and future sponsorships never decide what is recommended or how it is ranked. Sponsored content will always be labeled.
- 04
Honest trade-offs
Every guide explains in plain language where a product falls short, what it takes to install, and when something simpler is the better call.
Builder Buys may earn a commission when you buy through links on this site, at no extra cost to you. Picks are never paid placements. How this works.