custom home ++ cabinets day 1 10/23/2003
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Oh I've been waiting for this. The custom kitchen cabinets, utility room cabinets, and vanities got delivered a couple weeks ago and have been sitting in the garage. To protect the finish they stacked them with the cabinet doors facing in, so I haven't even got much of a look at them. So I'm unbelievably excited to see my kitchen cabinets come in out of the garage. These are custom cabinets, made by Shamrock Cabinets here in the Kansas City area. They did a terrific job from working with us on the design to executing and installing the cabinets. Particularly the construction of thes cabinets, even the utility ones are really well-made cabinetry.
We did a "kitchen design" with the people in the Home Depot and at Lowe's and got a bid on thir mid-grade, semi-custom cabinets. The custom cabinets from Shamrock were more cost-effective and definitely better constructed in my opinion. Plus they were installed by Shamrock, not a third-party contractor. I'm very high on craftsmanship, and I have to say from that perspective, I'm really pleased with our cabinets from Shamrock.
I have taken hundreds of pictures of our cabinets, but I'll try to refrain from overwhelming you, and we'll just hit the highlights here. Not everything is done yet (no trim is on) but you can see the door style we picked. I really liked the fact that you will not see end grain in the cabinets doors, because they are mitered. There's a gentle roundover to the rails that is very subtle, and unlike any cabinet doors I've seen. These kitchen cabinets are made of Alder, and I plan to finish them natural.
Shamrock also made our vanities and utility room cabinets. Other than the guest bath vanity, we got paint grade, so we used MDF doors. What's real impressive is that the face frames are still hardwood, and the cabinets are really well made. Our utility room will be positively filled with cabinets--two pantry cabinets, plus a spot to tuck a fridge in, with cabinets running above all those, and we can even stack baskets on top of those for more storage. On the opposite wall, there will be cabinets over the washer and dryer. I'm told you can't have too much cabinet storage.
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