About Us

Little Fish Woodworks was founded in 2004 by brother-in-laws Steve Berg, of Lake Leelanau and Matt Hale of Traverse City. With a combined 27 years experience in woodworking and different expertise and backgrounds Little Fish is well suited for a variety of custom woodworking projects.

Steve Berg was born in Grand Rapids and studied classical music and computer science at the University of Michigan. After a couple of years as a starving musician and partime carpenter, he moved up north and started working in the log home industery, learning from several respected craftsman and eventually building his own log homes as Berg Log Builders. He created a signature look with his unique rustic stairways and railings and was an early leader in the green building movement in Leelanau county.

Matt Hale was born in Traverse City where he grew up in the central neighborhood until heading for the mountains of Colorado to become a professional snowboarder and pursue and education in woodworking. His woodworking experienced in Colorado ranged from building rustic log furniture to working 5 years at a high end custom cabinet and millwork shop. When he left Colorado he was teaching canoe building classes at Red Rock Community College.

When Matt & Steve met and started working together in 2003 they soon realized they could benefit from eachothers expertise and experience and formed Little Fish Woodworks. After building an energy efficient hybrid post & beam home for their mother-in-law in 2004, complete with floor to ceiling custom woodwork, they started focusing on cabinetry, stairways, and interior custom woodworking. They moved into their 5000 square foot shop on the 3 miles South of Leland at the former location of Lake Michigan Hardwoods sawmill in 2005.