SHIM is a design-obsessed, craft-driven, and client-focused collective based in Portland, Oregon. We design and build custom homes, remodels, ADUs, cottages, cabins and their interiors.
A shim is the humble, unseen piece in construction that ensures everything is level, aligned, and true. A tool used for precision and refinement. Small in scale, simple in form, quietly ensuring integrity in what follows.
SHIM Design Build Collective aligns client, design, and construction, solving the details that ensure the final result is beautiful, enduring, and exactly as intended.
Core Team
25 years ago, Wes and Matt met working together at an architecture firm. After both moved on, they built expertise in different worlds: Wes logged 20 years managing full project lifecycles at a design-build firm, Matt launched a boutique residential design practice in 2005.
When the opportunity arose to partner up, they merged the best of both. They brought in Angela, Matt’s design collaborator of over a decade, along with Susan, whose financial planning and organizational background keeps things running smoothly behind the scenes, launching SHIM, a collective built on complementary expertise across architecture, construction, and interior design, integrated from day one.
Wes Haas
Co-Founder
Director of Construction
Matthew Daby
Co-Founder
Director of Design
Angela Mechaley
Director of Interiors
Susan Haas
Director of Operations
We are casual people who take our work seriously, do work we're proud of & fight for our clients' best outcomes. We strive for the process to be efficient, engaging, & fun.
We are casual people who take our work seriously, do work we're proud of & fight for our clients' best outcomes. We believe the process should be efficient, engaging, & fun.
Angela Mechaley
Director of Interiors
Susan Haas
Director of Operations
Wes Haas
Co-Founder
Director of Construction
Matthew Daby
Co-Founder
Director of Design
25 years ago, Wes and Matt met working together at an architecture firm. After both moved on, they built expertise in different worlds: Wes managing full project lifecycles at a design-build firm, Matt launching a boutique residential design practice.
When the opportunity arose to partner up, they merged the best of both. They brought in Angela, Matt’s design collaborator of over a decade, along with Susan, whose financial planning and organizational background keeps things running smoothly behind the scenes, launching SHIM, a collective built on complementary expertise across architecture, construction, and interior design, integrated from day one.
Current Projects
BFF Victorian
A family of three found their dream location in Portland's walkable Hosford-Abernethy neighborhood: a charming 1895 Victorian with good bones but an awkward layout. Previous remodels had created an oversized utility room at the expense of the dining room, leaving a narrow hallway with little room to gather and entertain.
SHIM reconfigured the main floor to give the family what they needed: a proper dining room with space for their piano, a walk-in pantry for a client who loves to cook, and a sleek double-door washer/dryer closet that doesn't dominate the floor plan. We enlarged the openings between living, dining, and kitchen to create flow, introduced a 3/4-height cabinet wall at the entry for storage and definition, and replaced vinyl flooring with chevron oak throughout - elegant, timeless, and a modern nod to the home's era.
Small moves, big impact.
Gimme Moore MCM
A close-knit family of four wanted their 1953 Tabor midcentury ranch to feel more open, connected, and organized: a home where everything has a place and everyone has space to be together.
A few fun moves: redefining the entry with white oak slats and a floating bench, updating the fireplace with floor-to-ceiling tile, adding wallpaper to the dining room ceiling, and creating a pantry for better storage. The girls' bathroom gets a full MCM-appropriate overhaul with more storage and 4x4 tile in a playful color palette. Outside, we're giving the bland exterior some personality with green color-blocking, new siding, a metal awning, updated lighting, and a redefined entry that actually says "welcome home."
We're refinishing and extending the original oak floors, stripping out previously added (and inappropriate) crown molding and tray ceilings, and restoring simpler ranch trim to match the existing original details.
