Do You Build the Cabinets On Site or in a Shop?

• Cabinet cases. Plywood boxes are cut, assembled, and squared on flat benches. A square case is what lets inset doors sit flush with even gaps.
• Doors and drawers. Slab, Shaker, beaded inset, and reeded or fluted doors are built and fitted in the shop, where tolerances are tight.
• Finishing. Doors, drawer fronts, and cases get a sprayed finish in the shop. Sprayed coatings are smoother and harder than brushed wall paint.
• Furniture-grade pieces. Desks, buffets, and freestanding units that match the built-ins come from our shop too. See our woodworking services.

Shop-built pieces take two to four weeks in the shop, then install in one to three days. See the full built-in project timeline.

• Scribe stiles, fillers, and sub-bases. These are cut to your actual walls, ceiling, and floor so there are no gaps. On a sloped floor, a shimmed, level sub-base keeps the doors aligned.
• Trim tie-ins. Crown, base, and casing are returned into the room trim so the built-in looks original to the house.
• Odd-shaped alcoves and bump-outs. A window seat wrapped around a bay, or shelving filling a bump-out that is not quite square, is often easier to build in place.
• Long shelving runs. Some wall-to-wall open shelving is built in place so it fits the room exactly.
• Pieces that cannot get through the door. Access in older homes and upstairs rooms sometimes decides it for us.

Jacksonville has two very different kinds of housing. New builds in Nocatee, Bartram Park, and St. Johns usually have square walls, so shop-built cases install fast with little scribing. Older homes in Riverside, Avondale, and San Marco have walls that lean and floors that slope, so more of the fitting happens on site. Learn more on our page about built-ins in older homes with crooked walls.

Climate plays a part as well. Jacksonville averages about 89 percent relative humidity in the morning, and wood moves with moisture. Building and finishing cases in a controlled shop, then installing them into conditioned space, gives the wood the most stable start.

The right method for each part

We do not force every project into one approach. Cases, doors, and drawers get shop precision and a sprayed finish. The parts that meet your walls get fitted on site. That combination gives you furniture-grade quality and a fit that looks original to the house, whether it is a new build in Nocatee or a 1920s home in Avondale.

Less time and dust in your home

When most of the building happens in our shop, install takes one to three days instead of weeks of sawdust. Clients notice. One reviewer wrote that Ray kept "the working area tidy at all times," and another noted the crew set up a plastic wall to exhaust dust outside during an installation.

One team from shop to install

The same team that measures your wall builds the cabinets and installs them. We only install cabinetry we build, so nothing is lost between a supplier and an installer. That accountability shows in a 4.8-star rating from 51 Google reviews.