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Why buy custom made Kitchen Cabinets from a small producer?
There are a lot of good reasons to buy custom made cabinets. The best being to get what’s current in design or as most often the case with the smaller cabinet shops, what’s on the leading edge of design. Large cabinet manufacturers crank out cabinets at a rate of 3 to 10 kitchens per week by using a large production work force of semi skilled workers. As tooling up for production is expensive they like to go with designs that will sell repeatedly. They will most often wait and see what shows up on a regular basis in the design magazines & journals. Small shops with a small but very skilled workforce can easily satisfy someone looking for a unique expression in their kitchen. They thrive on individual designs as tooling up costs are not as relevant and it gives them something to offer that others don’t. There are many more reasons to buy from a small producer and I speak from my own shops example.
1- My shop employs myself and one other skilled tradesman who has worked with me in excess of 20 years. The same two people are responsible for each & every kitchen that leaves my shop.
2- A small shop that mimics what the big boys do is in my opinion a disastrous business plan and one doomed to fail. In order to have an edge in a very competitive world you have to be totally flexible to the customer or designers ideas, be very creative and forthcoming with your own and perhaps most importantly communicate those ideas back and forth which means listening as much or more than speaking.
3- We work on one job at a time in my shop. This allows better direct communication with the customer (as my communications are not confused with 100 different details from 10 different kitchens). Regular emailed progress reports including photos of works in progress are part of every Kitchen contract I embark upon.
4- In my case as with many small shops working on the edge of design we build every element of our kitchens including cabinet doors & drawer fronts. This is not the case with most of the large cabinet manufacturers. They only build the boxes and buy the doors from a specialty manufacturer that just produces doors. We can build exactly what you want in kitchen design with ease by using a small very skilled workforce. This does not necessarily compute to high costs as lower overhead costs can offset the increased cost of very skilled workers.
5- With 27 years of design build experience I have developed some very reliable designs skills around cabinets but also work well with designers and do so on a regular basis.
6- Attention to detail is an item that is very difficult to control in any large manufacturing operation where as in a small shop it is not difficult at all. Little things that only an experienced design eye would catch like cutting a run of drawer fronts from one board so the grain continues from one front to the next are easily accomplished in a small shop setting. Gluing together boards to form panels in a fashion that conceals glue lines is another example of where skilled tradesmen excel. It takes little effort to match grain and colour when gluing panels up. It is the single biggest item that has kept me from using the specialty door manufacturers, as colour matching seems seldom to be in their how to book.
This photo demonstrates both color matching and continuous grain in drawers.
Having said the above it is important to note that not all small shops produce better work and not all large shops produce generic work. If you like individual works that stand clear of that “off the shelf look” you can generally do well in the small environment of cabinetmakers.
Two of the most important traits for a tradesman to keep in balance are modesty & confidence, especially since the above may sound like a bunch of self-fulfilling, chest thumping rants from a megalomaniac. While it is very easy to become confident after years of working designs through to finished product it is always wise to pepper that confidence with modesty. A humble approach helps you to keep your eyes & ears open to what your customers are asking of you and most important keeps your business transactions to a pleasant experience for all involved. The way it should be. If your opinion of yourself is too great what do you have left to strive for?
Small shop settings are never easy. There is a very slim formula for success. There is always a trade off of less money for greater satisfaction. At the end of the day you have to be proud to put your name on your brand of cabinets. I feel this is where I have got it right over my 27 years in the cabinets business. I am still here & I still love it. I will see that you love it to.
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