Cabinetry, specified and set as part of the build

By the time most people are looking at door samples, half the decisions that determine whether the cabinetry fits are already made: where the range vent duct runs, whether the window centers on the sink wall, how thick the finished floor will be, because that sets the dishwasher opening height, and whether the wall you want gone is carrying load. Handled inside the larger project, the framer, the plumber, the electrician and the installer all work off the same layout, and when the layout changes, one person pushes the change to all of them.

The cabinet order also goes in early, because cabinetry is the longest lead item in a typical renovation. Ordering in week two of a twelve-week job is normal; ordering when the drywall is done leaves a job sitting finished-except-for-the-kitchen for two months.

Framed cabinets carry a hardwood face frame, which is stiff, gives the installer something to scribe and fasten through, and tolerates the out-of-square conditions in an old house, at the cost of opening width. Frameless hangs the doors directly on the box, buying more usable interior and wider drawers for the same footprint, and it demands precise shimming because the reveals between doors show every error.

The box is where the real quality difference sits: a plywood box with a captured back holds a screw, survives a leak under the sink, and stays square up a staircase, where a particleboard deck swells from a slow drip and does not come back. Dovetailed solid-wood drawer boxes on full-extension undermount glides outlast stapled boxes on side-mount slides by a wide margin, and we spec soft-close as the default.

A painted white door reads as three different colors under showroom lighting, under your kitchen fixture, and next to a south-facing window in January, so the Dover showroom is set up to compare doors, finishes and samples side by side, run drawers on different glides, and send a sample door home with you for a week. Nova Kitchens & Designs, our cabinetry and design arm, shares the showroom and handles cabinetry-only projects directly.

Nothing in a house built in Dover in 1890 is square, level or plumb, so we measure the room in several places, set the bases level off the high point of the floor, and design in fillers and scribe moulding so the discrepancy hides in the toe kick and behind the crown. Lead times run a couple of months for semi-custom from a released order and longer for full custom, and a finish or door change after release restarts the clock, which is why selections get locked early.