Custom Kitchen Cabinets in Franklin, TN

Some kitchens do not fit a catalog. The range wall is three inches too short for standard sizes, the ceiling is ten feet, the window sits off center, or you want a flush inset door with a beaded frame that looks like furniture. Custom cabinets are built for one room, to the measurement, in the wood and finish you choose. Nothing is padded out with wide filler strips, and nothing is forced to a standard height.

That matters in the homes we work in. Newer houses in Westhaven and Berry Farms have 9 and 10 foot ceilings that call for stacked uppers proportioned to the room. Estate homes in Governors Club and Annandale in Brentwood have kitchens large enough that an island, a hutch, and a paneled refrigerator wall need to be designed together. Older homes near downtown Franklin have walls that are not plumb and floors that are not level. In each case, cabinets drawn for the actual room look like they have always been there.

What Custom Cabinetry Includes

• A consultation at your home with field measurements of every wall, window, soffit, and ceiling height
• A scaled layout with 3D renderings and cabinet elevations you approve before anything is ordered
• Cabinets built to exact dimensions, framed or frameless, with inset or full overlay doors
• Plywood boxes, dovetailed drawer boxes, and soft close undermount slides
• Your choice of wood and finish, from paint grade maple to rift cut white oak and walnut
• Appliance panels, a range hood enclosure, furniture style ends, and interior storage built into the design
• Crown, light rail, and scribe moldings fitted on site to your walls and ceiling
• Installation, door and drawer adjustment, and hardware fitting

How We Design and Build Your Cabinets

1. Measure and listen. We visit your home, measure the room ourselves, and ask how you cook, what you store, and what bothers you about the current layout.
2. Draw it and approve it. You get a scaled layout, elevations of every wall, and 3D renderings. We revise until the proportions, door style, and storage are right, and nothing is ordered until you approve.
3. Fix the price in writing. You receive a fixed written price before demolition. Changes only happen when you ask for them, and they are priced in writing first.
4. Build while your kitchen still works. The cabinets are built and finished in the shop. When they arrive we inspect every piece against the drawings, and only then do we schedule demolition.
5. Protect the house and install. We help you set up a temporary kitchen, protect the floors, and hang plastic dust walls. Cabinets are set level, scribed to the walls, and fastened to framing, and the site is cleaned at the end of every day.
6. Finish and walk through. One project lead runs the job on a written schedule, with a short update at the end of each work week. After countertops, tile, and hardware are in, that same lead adjusts every door and drawer and walks the kitchen with you.

When Custom Cabinets Make Sense

• You want inset doors, beaded frames, or a flush slab front with consistent grain across the run
• The ceiling is 9 feet or higher and you want cabinets that reach it in good proportion
• The room has walls out of plumb, an off center window, or a dimension standard sizes cannot fill cleanly
• You want the refrigerator, dishwasher, and hood paneled so they disappear into the cabinetry
• The island is meant to look like a piece of furniture, in a different wood or finish from the perimeter
• You have specific storage in mind, such as a coffee station behind pocket doors or a pantry wall with roll outs

If none of those apply, tell us. A good semi custom line, covered on our kitchen cabinets page, may do everything you need.

Construction, Door Styles, and Wood

Start with how the box is built. Framed cabinets have a solid wood face frame on the front of the box, and doors either overlay the frame or sit inside it. Frameless cabinets, also called full access, have no frame, so drawers and openings are slightly wider and the look is cleaner. Framed inset suits traditional homes in Franklin and the brick colonials of Brentwood. Frameless slab fronts in rift cut white oak or walnut suit a more modern kitchen. Either way, we specify plywood boxes, dovetailed drawer boxes, and soft close undermount slides, because those are the parts that take daily use.

Door style sets the character. Shaker is the most requested door here, a flat recessed panel inside a square frame, and it works painted or stained. Beaded inset adds a small bead around each opening for a more detailed front. Slab doors are flat and depend on good veneer matching from door to door. For paint, we use paint grade maple, often with a stable engineered center panel. For natural wood, rift cut white oak gives a straight, quiet grain without the wide arches of plain sawn oak.

Wood movement deserves a plain conversation. Middle Tennessee summers are humid and heated winter air is dry, so solid wood swells and shrinks through the seasons. On painted doors, that can show as a hairline at the joints of the frame. On inset doors, the gap around each door has to be sized so nothing rubs in August. We plan for it in the design and tell you what to expect before you choose.

What Drives the Cost of Custom Cabinets

• The number of cabinets and the linear footage of the kitchen, including the island
• Door construction, with inset costing more than full overlay
• Wood species and finish, with stained rift cut white oak, walnut, and specialty paint finishes at the higher end
• Ceiling height, since stacked uppers and tall pantry cabinets add boxes and doors
• Interior fittings such as roll outs, drawer organizers, and pocket door hardware
• Paneled appliances, a hood enclosure, and furniture details like legs, feet, and applied ends
• Site conditions that require extra scribing and fitting

After the design is approved, you receive a fixed written price before demolition. The only changes are ones you ask for, priced in writing first.

Start With a Drawing

Custom cabinets are worth doing only if the drawing is right, so that is where we begin. If the cabinets are part of a larger project, see full kitchen renovations. Book a kitchen consultation and we will measure your room, bring door and finish samples, and show you the layout in 3D. Or call (615) 555-0100.

Are custom kitchen cabinets worth it compared to semi custom?

They are worth it when the room or the design asks for something a catalog cannot do. Inset doors, cabinets scribed to walls that are out of plumb, a hutch that looks like furniture, an appliance garage sized to your mixer, or a specific wood like rift cut white oak are all reasons to go custom. If your layout is regular and you want a Shaker door in a standard finish, semi custom is often the smarter choice.

How long do custom kitchen cabinets take to build?

Custom cabinets often take several weeks to a few months to build after the drawings are approved, depending on the shop, the finish, and the size of the kitchen. Inset doors and specialty finishes typically add time. You keep using your current kitchen during the build. We schedule demolition only after the cabinets have arrived and been inspected, so the build time is not time spent without a kitchen.

What is the difference between inset and full overlay cabinet doors?

An inset door sits inside the face frame, flush with the front of the cabinet, with a thin even gap around it. A full overlay door sits on top of the frame or box and covers nearly all of it. Inset looks more tailored and traditional and costs more because the fit is exact. It also needs room for seasonal wood movement, which matters in Middle Tennessee, where humid summers and dry winters make doors swell and shrink.

What wood is best for painted kitchen cabinets?

Paint grade maple is the usual choice for painted doors and face frames. It is hard, smooth, and has a tight grain that does not show through the finish. Many shops use a stable engineered center panel in painted Shaker doors so the panel does not shrink and leave a visible line at the edge in winter. For stained or natural finishes, white oak, walnut, and cherry are common, with rift cut white oak the most requested.

Can custom cabinets fit an older home in downtown Franklin?

Yes, and older homes are where custom work helps most. Houses around Hincheyville and Downs Boulevard often have walls that are out of plumb, floors that slope, and windows set at unusual heights. Custom cabinets can be built to those conditions and scribed to the wall on site so the gaps disappear. Interior kitchen work is generally not subject to historic zoning approval, though new exterior vents or windows can be, and we confirm that for your address.