Traditional Gallery

Rustic Cherry Showroom Set

Rustic can be as rough or as refined as you prefer

Cherry cabinets

• European style but traditional looking
• Rustic cherry
• Soft close undermount slides
• Stacked 5″ crown and dentil molding

Rustic Cherry isn’t that expensive except for the plywood sheets needed for a job.  Builders have been pushing alder as a premium cabinet wood when in fact it is just a cheap wood that saves the builder money.  And Alder is soft, too soft to make cabinets out of as the fasteners will wallow out the wood around the fasteners and lead to failure.

Cherry cabinets like this are going to run around $500 per linear foot depending upon the amount of bells and whistles and the amount of detail.  That is a lot of money but also cheaper than the big box stores are charging for mass produced cabinets and you have a local shop ready and willing to repair any damage done years down the road.  Plus no shipping costs, no waiting six weeks for the cabinets to arrive and hoping for no damage.

Affordable elegance, this set will start at around $375.00 per linear foot depending on options and configuration.  That price is finished and installed.  We quote all jobs as basic cabinets, optional items priced separately, finishing and installation are all quoted as line items.

Painted Finish European Style Cabinets

This one of our showroom sets and  is made with maple and MDF for the raised panels and carcasses.  Simple, classical lines accented with carved corbels and intricate stacked crown.

• European style but traditional looking
• Paint grade maple and MDF
• Mullion doors
• Recessed valance, 3.25″ crown over stacked molding

     Finishing generally runs between 25% and 35% of the cost of the cabinets, Habersham finish excluded, and deliver & installation will run around $50.00 per linear foot here in the Metro Oklahoma City area.

Painted White Cabinets on a Budget, an Oxymoron

Customers worry about the wrong things sometimes and don’t worry about the things you do warn them about.  On this job the customer was on a very tight budget for a home in Oak Tree  addition in Edmond and she chose to have their house painter paint the cabinets because a friend of hers did that in a nearby addition. 

White Cabinets on a Budget, Never a Good Idea

• Maple five part doors, slab fronts, MDF carcasses
  
• Vent hood was purchased online by the homeowner
  
• Cabinets were nearly ten feet tall, trim carpenter ran crown molding to match the rest of the room after our installation was compllete
  
• Farmhouse sink embedded in island
  

We always tell people that if your budget s tight it is best to do the install, not the finishing, as it is easy to mess up some nice cabinets or hire the wrong guy to do the painting.

But the painter was probably a thousand dollars cheaper than we were and it wasn’t because Mexicans work cheaper these days, it was because Mexicans don’t understand the level of quality needed and what it will take to achieve that when pain ting this type of cabinet.

So we got the cabinets installed and everyone is happy till the painter…who we will call “Jorge”… got to work.   No drying racks, painting the small parts outside in the back yard oblivious to bugs and dirt and leaves sticking to the paint.   At least he listened to us and stripped the hardware so that paint wasn’t sprayed over the hinges and drawer slides.   And he assured us he understood our instructions to mark the doors so they went back in the right spot in the right orientation.  The cabinets stacked so the doors were out of system, meaning they weren’t the normal sizes so that the gaps between the stacked cabinets were uniform and neat.   When we turned the job over the reveals were perfect and the homeowner knew it.

Right… if the Mexican understood his two helpers who we will call “Juan” and “Ricardo” certainly didn’t get the memo because once they re installed all the doors and drawer fronts they were turned every which way and no longer fit.  I had spent time with the homeowner warning her that they would likely do this and if they did they were responsible for  putting things back the way they were.  So I point out the problems to the homeowner and she agrees that the painter needs to sort things back out and fix some paint defects before we do our final part.

So we get the call that the painters are done and I go out to drill the hardware holes and install the knobs and pulls.  Nothing had been fixed.  Even worse they had neglected to spray the edges on most of the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, nearly raw wood showing, drips in some cases, so we had to put off the completion again and give the “painter” time to clean up his mess.  Suddenly their English was much worse … “No comprendo!”

We wound up having re set all the doors to minimize the damage and there were still doors and drawer fronts with horribly painted edges and paint flaws.  Worse,  one of the appliance garage doors needed a bit of shaving down but the painter refused to repaint the door when it was done so there it sets, less than perfect, less than acceptable because the painter refused to match the paint so the homeowner didn’t want to shave the door down to fit properly.

Customer had Quartz Countertops, and Didn’t Want it Again

When we showed up for the site measurements for the new cabinets there was a quartz countertop in place that was about four years old.  Every single seam had broken, not covered by quartz manufacturer’s warranty either.  The customer didn’t hesitate to go back with solid surface.

Understated refinement and grace

• European style
  
• Paint grade maple and MDF
• A doctors home we did in Edmond
  
• Customer had ripped out quartz tops with broken seams installed just four years earlier and we installed solid surface on our new cabinets
  

Nothing pretentious about this kitchen.   But it is stylish, clean, refined, and will last as long as the customer wants it to last.   The couple was a doctor and nurse in Edmond and she had a great sense of style. 

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That hanging lamp over the sink was changed out about three times before she found the right one and it added a much needed splash of color and wound up being the focal point of the kitchen.

Restrained good taste will always be in fashion.  Sometimes in kitchen design less is more and this grand house didn’t need a flashy kitchen to stand out in the neighbor hood. 

This was the kitchen in a houseful of cabinets including an entertainment center, master bath cabinets, linen closets, and a re worked wet bar area.  The design blended the customer’s modern tastes with their very traditional and conservative house. 

The simple and light colored solid surface top is perfect for a working couple who have better things to do in life than take care of a countertop  A kitchen is supposed to work for you, not the other way around!  Hiring the right cabinet maker is the first step in getting your dream kitchen accomplished

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Small budget but nice cabinets

We do a lot of lower price point kitchens

• This job was under $10,000, way under
  
• Red oak five part doors and drawers, plain end panels, and a custom made crown molding trim to match the existing trim in the century old home in Oklahoma City
  
• Craftsman look more than shaker look but fit well in the craftsman style home
  
• Just because you have a small space doesn’t mean you can’t have a nice kitchen
  

We get to do some really nice sets of cabinets in Oklahoma City and across the state but the average job is more like this.  A small galley kitchen in an older area of NW Oklahoma City that has gone through the cycle of elderly retirees moving out and younger families moving in as the homes decline in prices.  You probably shouldn’t put a $20,000 kitchen in this home and as smaller sets are way more affordable you don’t need to spend that kind of money

  This is a full European style kitchen yet few people would think anything other than turn of the century craftsman or Stickley style.  You can duplicate almost any look using European style construction, even inset face frame look if you use thicker end panels.

Lighted upper cabinets with glass doors is a great way to combine some color in a kitchen without relying on hard to swap out things like back splashes or countertops.  Plus that upper storage is harder to get to so it serves best as display area.  These cabinets went all the way to the ceiling and that can be tricky if the ceiling is out of level and most are and bowed or crowned to boot.  Just because you have a smaller budget doesn’t mean you have to compromise on cabinets.  We work with anyone that comes in and wants  good cabinetry to see of we can work with the budget.

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Arched door pair over vent hood

Lyptus raised panel kitchen

Lyptus wood is hard and dense, reddish color that will always show through the finish unless you knock it down with green dye stain.   Remember art classes in school?  Red and green make brown.

Lyptus cabinets in Shawnee Oklahoma

• Lyptus is a South American plantation grown wood
  
• Closer to the red color in some of the pictures than the darker brown in the main photo, light will fool the camera lense at times
  
• A very dense hardwood but very fast growing
  
• This sort of traditional look is getting very close to a modern look
  

Lyptus cabinets in Shawnee Oklahoma

Another Lyptus raised panel kitchen

Lyptus cabinets in Woodward Oklahoma

• Great combination of backsplash and Lyptus
  
• These pictures are fairly true to the actual color of a finished Lyptus cabinet
  
• The panels flanking the cooktop are actually pullout organizers
  
• Aesthetically this is probably the best kitchen we ever built.  Except for that damned electrician that can’t read cabinet drawings
  

Another Lyptus raised panel kitchen

This has always been one of my favorite kitchens we have ever built.  Everything just works, simple but elegant, rich looking while still remaining practical, it would be hard to have a bad day cooking in this kitchen.

Good aesthetic design is a play between colors, textures, and geometry.  You play with balance too, offsetting a massive collection of cabinets and appliances with a light and airy open bookcase or a set of glass doors.  The color wheel is useful in setting out the aesthetic design of a kitchen.   In this example the red of the cabinets and the green of the countertop and backsplash are on opposite sides of the color wheel.  Then you can turn 90 degrees on the color wheel and pick up the yellowish/tan color in the floor which they did whether by accident or by design.  The opposite 90 degree would be blue or purple and viewed from a distance the entire set of cabinets does have a vague purple hue.  Imagine throwing in some display pieces in blue, perhaps bright blue ceramic items or even a set of canisters for the countertop… that would pop

Lyptus cabinets in Woodward Oklahoma

Moore Doctor’s Kitchen

This pediatrician needed a low maintenance kitchen as she worked a lot of hours at the local hospital.  The original dark cabinets had made the kitchen look like a cave, depressing and dank.  Light cabinets and a shiny countertop will reflect a lot of light in a room like this, bouncing the light around instead of absorbing it.

Paint grade cabinets in Moore Oklahoma

• Perfect choice for this mid range home
  
• A busy doctor needed a low maintenance kitchen
  
• Avonite Copper Canyon polyester countertops
  
• Light cabinet color and good spot lighting offset the limited natural light
  

 Well…that is a practical description of what happens, really what happens with color is that white cabinets actually reflect white light and absorb the darker spectrum colors of light.  In effect a white cabinet is anything but white, it just reflects white light or more accurately, all spectrum more equally.

• Perfect choice for this mid range home
  
• A busy doctor needed a low maintenance kitchen
  
• Avonite Copper Canyon polyester countertops
  
• Light cabinet color and good spot lighting offset the limited natural light
  

A Mustang Oklahoma Red Oak Job

Just an everyday Joe and Jane’s kitchen.   Smaller jobs like this are actually more profitable than the huge jobs because they can be made in about a week.  A week for construction, a week for finishing, less if the weather is warm, and a week for installation and countertops.   The camera is playing tricks with colors again, the kitchen cabinets are actually between these two colors and match perfectly on both sides.

Red Oak cabinets  in Mustang Oklahoma

• Lovely red oak and dark finish
  
• Just an average Jack and Jill household
  
• Fridge is balanced by the large pantry on the stove side
  
• Note the mixed doors and drawer fronts, raised panel doors and five part drawer fronts, looks fine
  

The color in the picture above is the actual look of the red oak set.  It looks golden in other pictures

These sort of kitchens are the mainstay of our shop and take about three weeks from start to finish.  The old kitchen can stay in place in most cases although if you have the budget to eat out it is good to rip the old cabinets out and check for mold or termites.  If you are going to redo the floor please wait until the cabinets are in.

Red Oak  with Whitewash Finish

• European style
  
• 6″ crown on a stacked molding plith which is the way to go if you want to push the crown molding up to touch the ceilings
  
• Countertop is Avonite River Moss, actually recycled from a large L shaped countertop we made for a home and garden show the year before
  
• Oven and microwave space built in
  

One of our Showroom Kitchen sets

Red oak and MDF construction, raised panel, with some custom made pullouts for spices or cleaning supplies.   White glaze is applied after the staining and pre cat sealing has been done, then after drying for 24 hours the pre cat lacquer top coat is applied.

A color like this would need to go in a room with lots of natural light to look good.  The raised paneled bar back has plain red oak corbels to preserve the simple lines of the design. 

These are pictures of a Ten Year Old Set of our Cabinets in South Bethany

If we do our job right we never get to see a finished set after the customer moves in and decorates so getting to take pictures of this cabinet set in Bethany that we did in 2007 was a treat.  

We had been called back to make cabinets for the two bathrooms and had a chance to inspect and photograph the ten year old Carpenter Shop cabinets.

 The finish was perfect, even around the sink, the only thing it needed was five minutes re heating two small strips of edgebanding that the customer hadn’t even noticed had become loose.  This is why we don’t skimp on materials and quality finishing products, it pays off for many years to come and in the internet age it safeguards our reputation for quality.

Bethany Area Soft Maple Set is now Ten Years Old

• We built this set in 2007 so it is ten years old but it still looks like brand new.  Craftmade claims that a pre cat lacquer finish is a 40 year finish and I am beginning to believe that is true
  
• The eight foot ceiling called for a 3.25″ tall crown so as not to overwhelm the space
  
• The customers had us back in late this year to build cabinets for their two bathrooms and we got to inspect and take pictures
  
• This small kitchen has a lot of organizers and plenty of display space to bring in some color that is easily changed out as the customer’s tastes shift
  

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Weatherford Painted Kitchen Cabinet Sets

• You really have to watch the wall colors around white or off white cabinets.  Reflected light from those walls will make the cabinets look tinged
  
• If in doubt buy a quart of the paint and paint some big sections and check the results under normal lighting conditions
  
• On both of these jobs we had to take a door outside to show the customer before they would believe the paint wasn’t tinted
  
  

Not a lot of Stickley Style Cabinets in Oklahoma

The Stickley brothers were a pair of cabinetmakers/designers that were famous in the Arts and Crafts period of the 1900’s.  Properly called  The American Craftsman movement, an extension of the British Arts and Crafts movement, it was an attempt to get away from factory produced goods and back to the Jeffersonian ideal of small artisans working on their own.

White Oak Stickley Style Cabinets in Yukon, OK

• The doors have the square pegged joints on each rail and stile joint, using a contrasting wood color
  
• True quarter sawn white oak exterior
  
• We made the soapstone countertops as well
  
  

Stickley style called for unadorned, plain surfaces finished o as not to obscure the grain of the wood, with the furniture joints exposed to show off the joinery of the wood work. Hammered metal hardware, in armor-bright polished iron or patina ed copper was the choice of hardware, all echoing the idea of blending handmade craftsmanship with modern machinery.

 Stickley was a dreamer and dreamed big so he eventually wound up in bankruptcy and his company dissolved but he left a lasting impression on design.  A couple of brothers continued the style and there is a Stickley Furniture Company to this very day.

If you want Brown Cabinets Consider White Oak

We had built a maple version of this set for a customer and used it at a Home and Garden show in Oklahoma City and liked the design so much that we made a white oak version of the exact same kitchen cabinet set for the showroom.

 Usually on showroom cabinets we are going to use what surplus materials we might have sitting around so we used a dark cherry colored melamine MDF board and left the contrasting color showing on the open cabinets like the microwave area to the upper left (if you are on a desktop or laptop computer).   For a customer we would use matching veneered MDF or plywood for these visible areas unless they just like the two tone look.  Most people don’t notice such things anyway.

White Oak Craftsman Style Cabinets

• White oak, five part doors,, slab drawer fronts
  
• Plain sawn white oak exterior
  
• We had made a maple version of this exact kitchen and liked it so much we made a white oak set for the showroom
  
  

Another White Oak Set
 

This set is a rustic white oak set of cabinets up in a gated community in Edmond.   

It has a painted finish, a very transparent beige color then a glaze to bring out the few pores that white oak usually has.

The base cabinets are much taller than usual, about four inches taller than a standard base cabinet for the very tall lady that built the home.

The upper cabinets had a crown molding and plith that allowed the cabinets to get pretty close to the ceiling over on that china cabinet.  The rest of the cabinets were about three inches shy of the ceiling..

The drawer fronts were all slab drawer fronts and we think that using five part drawer fronts is overkill, a little plain is needed in some of these complicated designs to avoid a look that is too busy looking.

The picture is dark and difficult to make out but there is a 2″ thick shelve going over that window.  The oven has a downdraft vent hood hidden under the stove cabinet that runs out to the left to the outside.  We used a 5″ tall toe kick to accomplish this.

This tall china cabinet has tempered glass shelves, around $150.00 per shelf.  The span was too long for a regular 1/4″ float glass shelf, tempered glass is very stiff and strong.  In the back is a mirror.

The drawers are all Grass Nova Pro undermount slides, soft close on 5/8″ soft maple side boxes.  To get that glass side we had to split the cabinet into two sections.

Seeing the lady standing next to the island, you wouldn’t know that the island is about 40″ tall with the countertop, 4″ taller than normal.

This job was made in about six weeks but we had to store it for about three months before the contractor was ready for us to install the cabinets.  The solid surface countertops are Livingstone Volcanic Ash, done with only one extra layer for the edge to keep the height down and provide a modern look to the countertop.  The installed cost was around $21,000 for the cabinets and $6900 for the countertops including four vanity sinks and two sheets of materials for the bathroom vanity tops throughout the house.