Every box is built to a dimension taken off your wall rather than picked from a catalogue. That is the whole difference, and it is why custom fixes rooms that stock kitchens can only work around with filler strips.
Stock cabinets come in fixed widths, usually in three inch steps. A wall almost never lands on one of those, so the gap left over is bridged with a filler strip. One filler is invisible. Four of them, plus a base run that stops short of the window, is the reason a kitchen never quite looks fitted.
Custom boxes are made to the measurement instead. Where a wall bows or a floor falls away, the cabinet is scribed to follow it rather than packed out behind. In a period house with nothing square, that is not a luxury detail, it is the only way the run sits tight to the wall.
The cost gap is real and worth stating plainly: roughly $500 to $1,200 a linear foot installed for custom against $100 to $400 for stock. Example ranges, not quotes. Where the room is close to standard, refacing or stock is the better spend. See custom costs and the custom hub.
Recent work
How it works
How Custom Boxes Get Made
Survey what is actually there
Walls checked for plumb, floors for level, ceilings for rake. Those numbers decide the cabinet sizes, so the survey is the job rather than a formality before it.
Plan the room first
Sink, range, fridge and the paths between them are settled before any door style is discussed. A beautiful kitchen with a bad plan is still a bad kitchen.
Drawings and sign-off
Elevations and a plan with every cabinet dimensioned. Once signed, production starts. Changes after that point are expensive, which is why the drawings are worth reading carefully.
Six to twelve weeks, then fit
Boxes are built, delivered and installed against your walls, scribed where the wall is out of true. Doors aligned, and a return visit re-adjusts anything that settles.
What we build in
The Things You Only Get by Building New
Cabinet depth is the one people notice first. A standard base is fixed, but a run against a narrow wall can be built shallower so the walkway stays usable, and an island can be built deeper because nothing constrains it. Neither is available from a catalogue.
Height is the second. Uppers can run to the ceiling rather than stopping short and leaving a dust shelf above them, and on a sloping ceiling they can follow the rake. Drawer banks can be set to what you store instead of the standard three-drawer split.
Then there is what goes inside. Pull-outs, corner units and deep drawer dividers are all designed in from the start rather than retrofitted into a box that was not planned for them, which is both cheaper and better fitting. See built-ins for the awkward spaces.
Built to suit
Other custom work
The Rest of What We Build
Custom cabinetry covers all of these. Each has its own dimensions and constraints.
Cost against stock, lead time, and whether your room actually needs it.
Installed, roughly $500 to $1,200 per linear foot, against $100 to $400 for stock and $150 to $700 for semi-custom. Solid hardwood with premium hardware goes higher again. Example ranges, not quotes.
Six to twelve weeks. Stock is one to three weeks and semi-custom four to eight. Fitting is fast by comparison, so the build window is what your project timeline has to be planned around.
Only if the plan or the room shape is the problem. If the layout works and you dislike how it looks, refacing does that for a fraction of the cost. We will say so at the visit.
Cutting the cabinet edge to follow the actual line of a wall or floor rather than leaving a gap or packing it out. It is why a custom run sits tight in a house where nothing is square.
Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons people choose custom. It removes the dust shelf above standard uppers and adds real storage, and on a sloping ceiling the boxes can follow the rake.
Before the drawings are signed, freely. After that, boxes are in production and changes cost real money. That is why we ask you to read the elevations properly rather than skim them.
Rarely. Good plywood or veneered board is more stable for a carcass than solid timber, which moves. Save the solid wood for doors and face frames where it is seen and where it can move safely.
Homeowner reviews
What Edmonton Homeowners Say About Custom Cabinets
Walls, floors and ceilings measured for what they actually are, then a plan and a quote by the linear foot. If your room does not need custom, we will say so.
