Typical span 8–14 weeks
Cabinetry
Built-in work has to fit a house that was never square. That is the whole discipline: shop drawings taken from site measurements, material chosen per assembly rather than by habit, and installation that scribes to real walls instead of pretending they are plumb.
There is a reason a bookcase from a shop looks like furniture standing against a wall and a built-in looks like part of the house. A built-in is made for one opening, in one room, in one building, and it is fitted to the surfaces actually there rather than the surfaces a drawing assumed. Nothing about that is possible without measuring the opening after demolition and drawing the piece from those measurements.
So the order is fixed: demolish, measure, draw, approve, then cut. Shop drawings are produced and signed off before any material is machined, because a sheet of hardwood plywood cut to the wrong dimension is not a revision, it is a sheet of plywood. Those drawings show the carcase construction, the face treatment, every door and drawer size, the hardware being used, the edge and reveal dimensions, and how the piece meets the wall, the ceiling and the floor.
That process also sets the calendar. Approval takes one to three weeks, the build and finish take several more, and none of it starts before the site measure. Eight to fourteen weeks from approved drawings is a realistic planning range, and it is normally the item that decides the schedule for everything around it.
Custom Cabinetry & Millwork · scope
- Shop drawings approved before any material is cut
- Species, grade and sheet-good core chosen per assembly and location
- Face-frame or frameless construction chosen for the opening, not by habit
- Finish sampled on the actual species before the run is sprayed
- Scribed and shimmed to real walls and floors, which are never plumb or level
Every item above appears as a line in your written scope of work with the specific materials named. This list is the shape of the document, not a substitute for it.
F 2.0
Custom, semi-custom, and which one you actually need
These words are used loosely in the trade, so it is worth being precise, because the difference is money and there is no virtue in spending it where it buys nothing.
Semi-custom means a manufacturer's carcases in fixed width increments, with a range of door styles, finishes and interior fittings to choose from. Where a wall accepts standard sizes and a filler panel at one end is acceptable, this is good value and the lead times are usually shorter.
Custom means the carcase is built to the dimension the opening actually is. That matters in a specific set of cases: a run that has to fit exactly between two fixed walls; an unusual ceiling height where standard uppers leave an awkward gap; an appliance or a sink that is not a standard width; a room where floors and walls are far enough out that standard boxes cannot be made to line up; and any piece with a shape a catalogue does not contain, such as a window seat, a stair-adjacent bookcase, or a mudroom that turns a corner.
We will tell you which your project needs. Recommending custom for a straight wall of standard widths would be spending your money on nothing you can see.
F 3.0
Material and finish decisions that matter
Cabinet material is a set of separate choices, and they are made per assembly and per location rather than once for the whole job.
The carcase is normally a sheet good, and which one depends on where it lives: under a sink or in a bathroom, moisture resistance decides it; on a long shelf span, stiffness decides it; where an exposed edge will be visible, the appearance of the core decides it. The face may be a face frame or frameless, and again that is chosen for the opening and the drawer access wanted, not by habit. Doors and drawer fronts can be solid hardwood, veneered panel, or painted MDF, and painted MDF is genuinely the better choice for a flat painted door because it will not move at the joints the way solid stiles and rails do.
Species and grade get chosen with the finish in mind. An open-grained species under a clear finish will read completely differently from a closed-grained one, and a species with strong colour variation between boards needs either accepting or selecting for. Because that is impossible to judge from a sample chip, we sample the finish on the actual species being used and put it in front of you before a run is sprayed.
Hardware is specified by name: hinge type and its overlay, drawer runner type and load rating, soft-close where it is wanted, and the pulls or knobs with their fixing centres. Hardware is the part of a cabinet you touch several thousand times a year, so it is worth deciding rather than defaulting.
F 4.0
Installing into a house that is not square
No wall is plumb, no floor is level, no corner is ninety degrees, and no ceiling is flat. This is true of a house built last year and dramatically true of one built in 1962. Installation is the craft of making a square object look intentional inside a building that is none of those things.
Practically, that means levelling and shimming carcases to a datum line struck on the wall rather than to the floor; scribing the filler and finish pieces to the actual profile of the wall and the floor instead of relying on caulk; keeping consistent reveals between doors and drawer fronts so the eye reads a straight line even where the wall behind is not; and fastening into framing that has been located rather than guessed at, which matters a great deal for a tall bookcase or an upper run carrying weight.
Where a run meets an out-of-plumb wall, there is a decision to make about where the discrepancy is absorbed — in a scribed filler, in a tapered stile, or in a deliberate shadow gap. Made consciously, it is invisible. Left to be discovered on installation day, it becomes the thing you notice every morning.
Most of our cabinetry work sits inside a larger scope. Kitchens are covered on the kitchen remodeling page, vanities and bathroom joinery on the bathroom remodeling page, and the sequence that governs when the site measure can happen is on the process page.
Questions
Asked about custom cabinetry & millwork
Broader questions about permits, payment stages and living on site are answered on the questions page.
What is the difference between custom and semi-custom?
Semi-custom means a manufacturer's standard boxes in fixed increments, with a range of doors and finishes — good value where the wall accepts standard sizes. Custom means the box is built to the dimension the wall actually is, which matters for a run between two fixed walls, an unusual ceiling height, an appliance that is not a standard width, or a house where nothing is square. We will tell you which one your project genuinely needs.
How long does custom cabinetry take?
Shop drawings and approval take one to three weeks; the build and finish take several more; and none of it starts until the site is measured, which means after demolition on a remodel. Eight to fourteen weeks from approved drawings is a realistic planning range. This is the item that sets the schedule for the rest of the project, which is why it is decided early rather than late.
Can you match existing woodwork in an older house?
Often, and it depends on the profile more than the wood. Running a matching moulding profile is a solvable problem. Matching the colour of a finish that has aged for fifty years under sunlight is harder, and matching an old-growth grain pattern in new material is sometimes not possible at all. We sample the finish on the actual species and show it to you against the existing work before anything is sprayed.
Where we do this work
Custom Cabinetry & Millwork is carried out by Blue Mountain Construction Services Inc throughout Vacaville, Fairfield, Suisun City, Dixon, Davis, Napa, Solano County, CA. Our office is at 707 Aldridge Road, Suite B, Vacaville, CA 95688, which is why Vacaville projects have the most scheduling flexibility — and why we know which departments review what in the towns around it.
Permit requirements, plan-check turnaround and inspection scheduling all differ between a Vacaville project, a Solano County unincorporated parcel, and a job in Davis or Napa. We tell you which set of rules applies to your address at the consultation rather than after the drawings are done. See the full service area.
Blue Mountain Construction Services Inc
707 Aldridge Road, Suite B Vacaville, CA 95688- Phone
- (800) 889-2085
- info@sillee.com
- Hours
- Mon–Fri 08:00–17:00 America/Los_Angeles
- Trade
- Residential Remodelers
Talk to our team about your custom cabinetry & millwork
Describe the rooms and the changes you are considering. We will come out, take our own measurements, and put a written scope of work in front of you before anything is priced.
Blue Mountain Construction Services Inc · 707 Aldridge Road, Suite B, Vacaville, CA 95688