Some of the true custom cabinet makers and cabinet shops typically out source their cabinet doors to large cabinet door manufacturers. There is usually large debates on whether or not the custom cabinet maker or cabinet shop should make their own doors of it they should out source to custom cabinet door companies. For some of the smaller custom cabinetmakers and cabinet shops it may make a lot of sense to out source their cabinet doors to a larger manufacturer that specializes in custom cabinet doors. There are a few advantages to this for the custom cabinet maker. One of them is speed, it is much faster to simply purchase new cabinet doors and have them made while the custom cabinetmaker is making the cabinet boxes, cabinet face frames, and other woodworking components need for the particular job.
Another advantage is selection. You can purchase custom cabinet doors that have a wider selection than something you can typically put together or even something the small cabinet shop could put together themselves. Also unique doors as well as multi-panel doors, applied moulding doors, things that may consume far too much shop time and fabrication time for the average custom cabinet shop can also be utilized.
The other advantage of using a custom cabinet door manufacturer to out source your cabinet doors is wood quality. Most custom cabinet door manufacturers use very high quality furniture grade hardwoods for their custom cabinet doors. Most of the time this lumber is bought in large unit quantities and is hand selected for color, grain matching and appearance. This will provide the custom cabinet maker with a very high quality product. Since the cabinet doors are the first thing you will see when a cabinet is finished. As well as it is usually the largest surface of the cabinet that is visible into the room. By having high quality cabinet doors with a quality color and grain matched appearance will allow for a much higher quality finished product. Also by selecting the highest quality woods available maximum wood stability and resistance to cupping and warpage will be attained.
Also in using these high quality hardwoods for cabinet doors will allow for a much more even stain application should the doors end up being stained either with a wood stain or dye.
Along with the advantages of speed and quality there are also some convenience factors of ordering custom cabinet doors for cabinetmakers, in that some cabinet door manufacturers are also offering European style hinges along with the order but also they will drill the 35 mm hole needed to install the hinges. For the custom cabinet maker this will save a tremendous amount of time and prevent them from having to drill the holes themselves either setting up a drill press purchase a dedicated hinge boring machine to drill out these 35 mm hinge hole. So once the cabinet doors arrive the cabinetmaker can simply install the hinges mount and adjust the doors if it is an unfinished project or if it is a finished project the doors make be either stained painted or finished. But either way it reduces one additional step of shop time, and this can allow the cabinet maker more time for other aspects of the craft.
One of the more important factors for the cabinet maker to consider using a custom cabinet door manufacturer as opposed to building cabinet doors themselves, is cost. Most small cabinet shops may not have or wish to utilize the capital and resources needed to set up a cabinet door manufacturing center in their own shops. Typically this can range anywhere from several thousand all the way up a hundred thousand or more. Not to mention the skilled labor need to operate a lot of this equipment. Along with the actual investment in machinery that a custom cabinet shop would need to manufacturer cabinet doors, another consideration is also floor space even a modest set up will require a good deal of space.
If a custom cabinet shop decides to out source you have the additional free room where those tools would occupy that can be utilized for storing product, completed cabinetry, or perhaps the custom cabinet shop could expand into finishing and use that space for a spray booth or some type of ventilation equipment needed to do their own spraying.
From a lot of the custom cabinetmakers that I have met in my many years of remodeling experience, not too many of them build their own custom cabinet doors due to a lot of the things we have just gone over. Cost, hassle, additional employees, that makes it very difficult. We’ve seen small one man shops do quite well just with ordering custom cabinet doors. It allows them to provide a larger selection to their client and makes them look like a much larger scale operation since they have more product to choose from. We have even seen very large scale custom cabinet manufacturers as well as prefabricated cabinet manufacturers utilize and out source cabinet doors also for the same reasons.
Now one thing we hear a lot from custom cabinet makers is, obviously since they are running a business and their bottom line depends on all of the products and materials used and in order to stay competitive if they are going to out source they are going to need custom cabinet doors that are built affordably. There are thousands of cabinet door manufacturers out there, but finding one that has quality along with low prices can be hard to find. Those two things are what is most important from the custom cabinet maker. They want to find a cabinet door company that is reliable cost effective and provides a high quality product. This way they can stay competitive in the market, and perhaps even provide something that most of the large scale manufacturers will not be able to provide due to selection of product.
Below is a resource that supplies us with new custom cabinet doors as well as supplies a lot of the custom cabinet makers that we use on some of our projects.
Custom Cabinet Doors
