Custom Woodworks

I am very happy with my frameless, knotty alder cabinets. Byron is a pleasant and professional person to deal with. He worked well with my contractor, which is always a big plus. During the planning phase, he was able to take my changes and email new drawings back quickly because he uses a computer program which shows normal pictures of the cabinets, (not just elevations) and dimensions. Don't think for a minute that all cabinet makers use this - I interviewed a couple who still draw by hand only, and also will not do frameless cabinets. Not to say their cabinets wouldn't have been good - but it's nice in this day and age to have someone who is tech savy so you can see changes very quickly. And Byron does listen to what the customer wants, which was a refreshing change from one particular cabinet maker I'd worked with before. My kitchen is a total of 14 feet on the sink side which has normal uppers, and for the lowers, some cubbies for baskets, a base with two pullouts, a sink base, a 20" drawer base, and a 30" wall oven cabinet with baking tray dividers in the upper and a large lower drawer. The wall oven cabinet also accomodates a Microwave Drawer. There is a 90" cooktop run with all large drawer bases. I have 36" of refrigerator surround next to a 34" wide pantry with pullouts. These pullouts could not be soft close as they are deeper than normal, but they open and close so effortlessly I love them. All shelves are adjustable. I thought I wouldn't like this, because I never liked the look of all the holes, but honestly, I don't even notice that anymore, and it's well worth the customability. My old cabinets were stationary shelves which could not accomodate anything tall. The cabinets are perfect in every way, and the finishing job was fine as well. He provided me with several long boards to play around with stain color, and then a door sample so I could use that in choosing other things. The installation went flawlessly. We had him change all of the trim in the kitchen, and that is beautiful as well. He had one drawer glide on which the soft close "thing" was broken, but he changed that glide out promptly. He noticed it before I did. The only problem I had was that the cooktop didn't fit in the cabinet by about a half an inch. My contractor called about this the morning they were there to finish up and install the faucet and cooktop. He said he would prefer Byron to come and fix it. Byron left his job immediately, (took his lunch hour at 9am), and was at my house within a half an hour, fixing the problem very quickly. I was very grateful for this, because I really wanted to be able to cook for my husband's birthday that weekend. Problems/mistakes will happen along the course of any job - I have learned that lesson well. To me it's about overall quality of the service/product, and how well and with what attitude the provider responds to any problems/mistakes that occur. Byron was excellent in this regard. People on kitchen website forums will tell you not to settle for anything less than Blum undermount drawer glides, in soft close, and to demand dovetail drawers. This is what most of the commercial cabinet manufacturers are doing. I interviewed about 5 local cabinet makers in the Baton Rouge area, and they all told me that there would be a fairly steep upcharge for that. There is a reason for this - they have to make the drawers differently to accomodate Blum glides, and it's more labor intensive. Dovetail drawers are of course way more labor intensive. So, I went with the side mount soft close glides that Byron suggested, and they work very well, even on my 30 inch wide, 11" deep drawers. They are installed at the bottom on the side of the drawer. The drawers not being dovetail do not bother me at all. I think they are pretty, but a little overrated. My Mom had custom cabinets built in the 70's - no dovetail drawers and they never failed. My old cabinets had no dovetail drawers and never failed - and were also built in the 70's. In conclusion, I would highly recommend Byron, and plan to have him build us new bathroom vanities when we're ready for that renovation.