Custom Cabinetry

Cabinets sized to the room, not to a catalog

Stock cabinets come in three-inch increments. Rooms do not. When a run of stock boxes meets a wall that is 117 and a quarter inches long, the difference goes into filler strips, and when the run meets a sloped ceiling or a window that sits off center, the cabinets end where the catalog says they end. Custom cabinetry starts the other way around. The room is measured first, and every box is made to fit it.

That matters most where the cabinets are meant to look built into the house: a full-height run of storage that meets the ceiling, a vanity wall that fills a bath end to end, a laundry room with uppers that stop exactly at the window casing, an office wall of drawers and doors around a desk. In those rooms a filler strip is the first thing you notice.

We plan and install custom cabinetry in any room of the house. Kitchens are only one of them, and often not the most interesting.

Custom also gives you control over the inside of each cabinet: drawer heights sized for what goes in them, pull-outs where they make sense, and shelves set where you need them rather than where a catalog drilled the holes.

Field measuring an old house

Measuring for custom cabinets is not running a tape along a wall once. In an older Massachusetts house we measure each wall at the floor, at counter height and at the ceiling, check every corner for square, find how far the floor runs out of level along the run and note where the ceiling dips. Windows, doors, radiators, registers, outlets and plumbing all get located.

Those numbers decide how the cabinets are built. A floor that drops three-quarters of an inch over ten feet means the toe kick is made with room to scribe. A ceiling that rises or falls along the run means the top of a full-height cabinet gets a scribe molding designed in on purpose, sized for the wall that is really there. Walls that bow get end panels with extra material to cut back.

If the cabinets are going into a room still being framed or opened up, we measure after the walls are built and before the cabinets are released for production, so the boxes match the finished room rather than the drawings.

We also check what is inside the walls where tall cabinets will hang, because heavy units need solid fastening, and old plaster over lath does not hold screws the way new framing does.

If a delivery is delayed or a box arrives damaged, you hear it from us that day.

Working the drawings with the cabinet maker

The cabinets themselves are built by a cabinet maker, and our job is to give them the right numbers and catch problems on paper. We go through the shop drawings line by line against our field measurements: box sizes, door and drawer layouts, panel and appliance openings, scribe allowances, toe kick heights, crown details and where the run meets trim or a window.

That review is where most mistakes get caught. A drawer that would hit a door casing, an upper that would cover half a window, a sink base without room for the trap the plumber needs. We bring each of those to you with what the options look like, and nothing goes into production until you have signed off on the drawings.

Materials and finishes are settled in the same review: box construction, door style, interior finish, hinges, drawer slides and the paint or stain. Seeing the finish on the actual door profile before production is worth the wait, especially for painted cabinets in a room with strong natural light.

Installing full-height and wall-to-wall runs

Installation starts from a level line, not from the floor. Base cabinets are shimmed to that line so countertops sit flat, and tall cabinets are set plumb even when the wall behind them is not, then scribed to the wall and ceiling so the gaps disappear. Runs that go wall to wall are dry-fit before they are fastened, because there is no room to slide a box over once the last one is in.

Cabinets are screwed into framing or blocking, never only into drywall or plaster, and in older houses that often means adding blocking where walls are open. Doors and drawers are adjusted so reveals are even across the whole run, and panels, crown and light rail are fit and fastened last. Plumbing and electrical connections inside the cabinets are made by licensed trades.

Installation in a finished house also means protection. Floors are covered along the delivery path, cabinets are stored somewhere dry and level until they are set, and the room is cleaned at the end of each day. If countertops are templated off the cabinets, we make sure the run is level, fastened and complete before the template visit.

Hardware goes on last, located from a template so every pull sits at the same height and distance from the edge across the whole run.

Rooms beyond the kitchen

Bathroom vanities and linen towers, laundry rooms with folding counters and hanging space, home offices, mudroom storage walls and dressing rooms all benefit from cabinets made to fit. Each room has its own concerns. Bath cabinets need finishes that stand up to moisture and a plan for the plumbing inside them. Laundry rooms need clearance for appliance doors and access for service. Offices need paths for cable and air for equipment.

Whatever the room, the process is the same: a measured walkthrough, shop drawings you approve, clear updates on production and delivery, and an installation that is not called finished until every door hangs true. If a delivery is delayed or a box arrives damaged, you hear it from us that day.

In a bath, vanity height and depth are worked out with the plumber and the faucet you have chosen, because a wall-mount faucet or a vessel sink changes both. In a laundry room, we check that the appliances can be pulled out for service without taking cabinets apart.

See the rest of our luxury work, or browse the gallery for rooms we have finished.