Custom cabinetry is typically priced as part of a full kitchen remodel. Kitchen size isn’t the variable that moves that number the most. Wood species and door style drive it more, since those two decisions set both material cost and the hours my shop spends building and finishing each piece. This article is part of… Read the Full Guide: How Much Do Custom Cabinets Cost? →
Shaker is a door style my shop builds often, but it isn’t automatically the right choice for your kitchen. The variable that should drive your decision is the architecture of the house, not what’s trending. A Hudson Valley farmhouse, a mid-century ranch, and a new-construction contemporary all call for a different door profile if you… Read the Full Guide: Cabinet Door Styles, Explained →
Inset doors sit flush inside the cabinet’s face frame, flush with the wood around them, like a picture in a mat. Overlay doors sit on top of the frame and cover it. The variable that decides which one you should pick isn’t looks. It’s tolerance for gaps. Inset doors need a gap of about 1/8… Read the Full Guide: Inset vs. Overlay Cabinet Doors: What’s the Real Difference? →
Face-frame cabinets have a solid wood border fastened to the front of the box; frameless cabinets have none, so the door covers the full face edge to edge. That single structural decision determines which door styles work, how much of the interior you can access, and what hardware the entire job gets built around. This… Read the Full Guide: Frameless vs. Face-Frame Cabinets →
Open a drawer and press down on the box floor. If it flexes, that cabinet is built on particleboard, and it will not last a decade in a working kitchen. Box construction is the single variable that separates a cabinet built to last from one that looks fine on delivery day but starts failing at… Read the Full Guide: How to Tell if Cabinets Are Well Built →
The right answer is both. Solid wood and MDF each belong in a well-built cabinet, just in different places — and the shops that build cabinets worth owning have been combining the two for decades. This article is part of our custom cabinets guide. Where a material sits inside the cabinet determines which one is… Read the Full Guide: Solid Wood vs. MDF Cabinets: Which One Belongs Where? →
By Jeff Wiegmann, Licensed General Contractor & Co-Founder, Timber Design + Build This article is part of our custom cabinets guide. Painted cabinets and stained cabinets both hold up in a working kitchen. The finish you choose should follow the wood species and how the space is used — not the trend cycle. In our… Read the Full Guide: Painted vs. Stained Cabinets →
By Jeff Wiegmann, Licensed General Contractor & Co-Founder, Timber Design + Build This article is part of our custom cabinets guide. For cabinetry built for your home, see custom cabinetry and millwork in the Hudson Valley. White oak holds grain, maple holds paint, and cherry holds patina. Which one belongs in your kitchen comes down… Read the Full Guide: White Oak vs. Maple vs. Cherry Cabinets →
For most kitchens, hard maple is the best all-around wood for custom cabinets: it takes paint cleanly, holds fine profile detail, and machines without tearout. The finish you are planning changes that answer. If you want a stained cabinet that shows grain, white oak or cherry will outperform maple every time. This article is part… Read the Full Guide: Best Wood for Kitchen Cabinets →
By Jeff Wiegmann, Licensed General Contractor & Co-Founder, Timber Design + Build Custom cabinets are built to your exact space, from the dimensions of every box to the wood species, door profile, and finish system you choose. What determines whether they last 40 years or fall apart in 10 is not the door style —… Read the Full Guide: Custom Cabinets: A Complete Guide →