Custom Cabinetry

Cabinets Drawn to the Room They Sit In

In a Southwestern house the cabinets carry more of the architecture than in any other kind of kitchen. Walls are often plastered with soft, uneven corners. Ceilings may be beamed. Window openings can be eight or ten inches deep. A run of stock cabinets with a thin face frame and a crown molding pulled from a catalog tends to look light and temporary against all that mass. Custom cabinetry lets us build boxes and doors that hold their own in the room.

Starting With the House, Not the Door Catalog

Before any cabinet is drawn, we look at the rest of the house. Interior doors in many north Scottsdale territorial homes have a simple square stile and rail with a flat or slightly raised panel. Pueblo Revival houses tend toward rough sawn or knotty wood, plank doors and iron hardware. The fireplace surround, the stair rail and the window trim all give clues. A cabinet door that echoes a hallway door will look like it came with the house. One that fights it will look like a remodel, even if it was expensive.

We also measure the ceiling carefully. Vigas are rarely perfectly level or evenly spaced, and a latilla ceiling has its own rhythm. Upper cabinets that stop short of the beam line, with open plaster above, usually read better than cabinets that are scribed or notched to fit between beams.

Construction That Lasts in a Dry Climate

The desert is hard on wood. Indoor humidity in a Scottsdale summer can drop very low, and that makes solid wood panels shrink. We build doors with floating panels that are free to move, and we use plywood for cabinet boxes rather than particleboard, because plywood holds screws better over years of use and does not swell if a dishwasher or sink leaks.

The choices we walk through on every project:

• Framed or frameless. Framed cabinets suit these houses better in almost every case. The face frame gives the heavier look the architecture wants, and it lets us use inset doors.
• Inset or overlay. Inset doors sit flush inside the frame and look furniture built. They cost more and need careful installation, because the reveals show every error. Partial overlay is a sensible middle ground for a territorial house.
• Wood species and finish. Knotty alder takes a stain well and suits a rustic room. Rift sawn white oak is calmer and more modern. Paint grade maple in a warm white or a muted clay color works in almost any Southwestern kitchen and lets the plaster and tile carry the character.
• Drawers and hardware. Full extension, soft close drawer slides are standard in what we build. Deep drawers for pots usually beat lower cabinets with doors. Pulls in hand forged iron, oil rubbed bronze or unlacquered brass age well and do not show hard water spots the way polished chrome does.

Planning the Layout Around Real Use

Good cabinetry starts with a working layout. We keep the sink, cooktop and refrigerator in a comfortable triangle and hold aisles between 42 and 48 inches, wider where two people cook together. Islands in large foothills homes can easily grow too big to reach across, so we draw them at a size where the center can still be wiped from one side.

Many of these houses have a butler’s pantry or scullery, or room to add one. A second, simpler run of cabinets there can take the small appliances and clutter off the main counters, which makes the main kitchen feel calmer.

Refacing When the Boxes Are Sound

Not every kitchen needs new boxes. If your existing cabinets are solid plywood, sit square and the layout already works, refacing them with new doors, drawer fronts and a new face frame veneer can change the look at a fraction of the cost. We will open the cabinets and tell you plainly which way makes sense.

Lead Times and Installation

Custom cabinets typically take six to ten weeks to build after final drawings are signed. We do not start demolition until the delivery date is firm, so you are not living without a kitchen while waiting on a shop. Installation includes leveling and scribing to plaster walls that are rarely flat, which is slow careful work and a big part of why a finished kitchen looks right.

Call (480) 253-6664 to schedule a walkthrough and talk about cabinetry for your kitchen.