What Should Be Standard in Custom Cabinetry?
When homeowners start comparing custom cabinets, one thing becomes clear pretty quickly: “custom” doesn’t always mean the same thing from one cabinet company to another.
Two kitchens may look nearly identical in photos, but what’s behind the doors can be very different. Cabinet construction, drawer boxes, hardware, finishes, design flexibility, and installation all affect how cabinetry performs long after the project is finished.
So, what should you actually expect when investing in custom cabinetry?
At Twin River Cabinets, our Casa, Signature, and Luxe Collections are custom built in our White Bear Lake, Minnesota shop. While materials and finishes vary between collections, there are several features we believe should simply be part of quality custom cabinetry from the beginning.
Soft-Close Hinges and Drawer Slides Should Be Standard
Soft-close cabinet hardware isn't something we consider a luxury upgrade.
Our custom cabinetry includes soft-close hinges and drawer slides as standard. Doors close gently instead of slamming, and drawers glide smoothly into place. It certainly makes a kitchen quieter, but that's not the only reason it matters. Cabinet doors and drawers are opened and closed thousands of times over their lifetime. Quality hardware helps cabinetry function smoothly through all of that everyday use.
When you're comparing custom cabinet companies, this is an easy question to ask: Are soft-close hinges and drawer slides included, or are they an upgrade?
With TRC's custom collections, they're standard.
Drawer Boxes Should Be Built for Everyday Use
Drawer construction is easy to overlook when you're focused on door styles and paint colors, but it's one of the parts of your cabinetry you'll interact with constantly.
TRC's custom cabinet drawer boxes are constructed from 3/4-inch plywood, including the drawer bottoms.
Why does that matter?
Think about what ends up inside kitchen drawers: heavy cookware, dishes, utensils, small appliances, pantry items, and everything else we somehow manage to cram into them!
A strong drawer box and bottom create a solid foundation for the things your cabinets need to hold every day.
This is also why it's worth looking beyond the exterior when comparing cabinetry. Open the drawers. Look underneath them. Ask how they're constructed. The parts you don't immediately see can tell you quite a bit about the cabinetry you're buying.
Custom Cabinets Should Be Designed for Your Space
One of the biggest advantages of true custom cabinetry is the ability to design cabinets around the room rather than designing the room around predetermined cabinet sizes.Stock and semi-custom cabinetry generally work within established size increments and available configurations. That can work very well for many projects, which is one reason we offer our Summit by TRC semi-custom collection.
Custom cabinetry gives us considerably more flexibility.
Cabinet dimensions can be adjusted to make better use of available space, accommodate appliances, work around architectural features, create intentional symmetry, or solve a storage problem that standard cabinet sizes simply can't address.
That flexibility can be useful in kitchens, but it's especially valuable in spaces such as mudrooms, home offices, built-ins, laundry rooms, bathrooms, bars, and older homes where walls and dimensions don't always cooperate!
Quality Cabinet Construction Shouldn't Be an Afterthought
Cabinet construction isn't particularly exciting to look at online, but it matters every single day once the cabinetry is installed.
Our custom Casa, Signature, and Luxe Collections use frameless cabinet construction. Standard cabinet interiors are melamine, with plywood construction available as an upgrade for homeowners who prefer it.
Upper cabinets include backs as standard, with full backs available as an upgrade.
Being clear about these details is important because terms such as “all plywood” or “custom cabinets” are sometimes treated as shorthand for quality. Cabinet quality is more complicated than any single material.
Construction methods, drawer boxes, hardware, finishes, design, craftsmanship, and installation all work together.
A Durable Finish Should Be Part of the Conversation
Cabinet finishes have to do much more than look pretty. Kitchen and bathroom cabinetry is exposed to fingerprints, moisture, spills, cleaning, sunlight, and constant handling. A quality finish needs to stand up to real life.
Our painted custom cabinetry uses Sherwin-Williams finishes, and custom paint matching is available. Our wood cabinetry offers stain options designed to complement the natural characteristics of the selected wood species.
The right finish depends partly on the material you're choosing, which is why paint, stain, wood species, and cabinet construction shouldn't be treated as completely separate decisions.
If you're comparing cabinet companies, ask what finishing system they use and where the cabinets are finished. It's a small question that can tell you quite a bit.
Thoughtful Cabinet Design Should Be Standard Too
Good custom cabinetry isn't just a collection of boxes that happen to fit the room. The layout matters.
Door and drawer proportions, appliance placement, cabinet depths, usable storage, clearances, symmetry, and how you naturally move through the space should all be considered during the design process.
A beautiful kitchen can still be frustrating if the trash pull-out is in the wrong place, drawers collide, frequently used items are difficult to reach, or valuable storage space wasn't used well.
This is where custom cabinetry should earn the word custom.
Your cabinets should be designed around your room and how you plan to use it.
Professional Installation Matters
Even beautifully built cabinetry can fall short if it isn't installed properly.
Our custom cabinetry includes professional installation by TRC, helping ensure the cabinetry is installed according to the design and adjusted correctly in the space.
Walls aren't always straight. Floors aren't always level. Older homes especially have a way of reminding you that what's drawn perfectly on paper doesn't always exist perfectly in real life!
Proper installation accounts for those realities and is an important part of the finished result.
What Should You Ask When Comparing Custom Cabinets?
Before choosing a cabinet company, ask what's actually included in the cabinetry you're being quoted.
Are soft-close hinges and drawer slides standard? How are the drawer boxes constructed? What materials are used for the cabinet boxes? What finishing is used? Can cabinet dimensions be customized? Is installation included? Which features are standard and which cost extra?
Those answers make it much easier to compare cabinetry accurately instead of comparing prices that may include very different things.
What Does TRC Include in Its Custom Cabinetry?
Our Casa, Signature, and Luxe Collections are custom built in White Bear Lake and share many of the same foundational features, including frameless construction, 3/4-inch plywood drawer boxes and bottoms, soft-close hinges and drawer slides, custom sizing, and professional installation.
From there, homeowners can choose the collection, materials, door styles, finishes, colors, and other details that make sense for their project.
That's where customization should happen: building on a solid foundation rather than paying extra just to get the basics right.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are soft-close cabinets standard with TRC custom cabinetry?
Yes. Soft-close hinges and drawer slides are standard in our Casa, Signature, and Luxe custom collections.
Are TRC custom cabinets made from plywood?
Standard custom cabinet construction uses melamine, with plywood available as an upgrade. Our drawer boxes, including the drawer bottoms, are constructed from 3/4-inch plywood.
Where are Twin River Cabinets' custom cabinets made?
Our Casa, Signature, and Luxe custom cabinetry is built locally in our shop in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
Can custom cabinets be made to unusual sizes?
Yes. One of the primary advantages of custom cabinetry is the ability to adjust cabinet dimensions and configurations to better fit the room, appliances, storage needs, and overall design.
What Should Custom Cabinetry Really Give You?
Custom cabinetry should give you more than a beautiful finished room. It should give you cabinetry designed specifically for your space, dependable construction, quality hardware, thoughtful storage, durable finishes, and a finished installation that works the way it was intended to.
The decorative choices are the fun part! Door styles, wood species, paint colors, stains, hardware, floating shelves, custom hoods, and storage accessories are where the project starts becoming yours. But underneath all of that, the fundamentals still matter.
Because when you're investing in custom cabinetry, quality shouldn't begin with the upgrade list.