Cabinets
Cabinet design, refacing and repair in Spokane Valley, WA
Custom cabinet design and installation, refacing and refinishing, repairs, and organization with pull-out shelves and drawer dividers.
Chapter 01
The cabinet decision most kitchens get wrong
Cabinets are the largest single thing in a kitchen, and the decision about them is usually made too fast. One homeowner replaces every box because the doors look tired, when the boxes were sound and only the fronts needed attention. Another paints over cabinets that are quietly failing: a base swollen beside the sink, a drawer that drops when it is pulled, hinges that no longer hold a door in line. Paint does not fix either problem, and the money goes into a finish that will not last.
There is also the question no finish can answer. If the layout is the trouble, an aisle too tight, a corner nobody can reach, a run of uppers that stops short of the ceiling, then new doors on the same boxes will look better and work exactly as badly as before. Telling those cases apart takes someone who will open the drawers, check the boxes and ask how the kitchen is actually used.
That is the first conversation at Recommended Remodeling in Spokane Valley. Chad Peetz looks at what you have before recommending what to do with it, and the options run from a repair to a full custom install.
White kitchen cabinets around a range with a mosaic tile backsplash
Design, installation, refacing, repairs and organization
The cabinet work covers four things. Custom cabinet design and installation is for a kitchen or bath where the layout or the boxes need to change. Cabinet refacing and refinishing is for cabinets worth keeping, with new fronts or a new finish over a sound structure. Cabinet repairs handle the single failed hinge, drawer or panel before it turns into a bigger replacement. And cabinet organization adds pull-out shelves and drawer dividers so what you own has a place to live.
Installation is where cabinets succeed or fail. Floors and walls are rarely square, so boxes have to be leveled, joined and scribed to the room before the doors and drawer fronts are hung. Done carefully, the reveals between doors come out even and the drawers run true. Done quickly, you see it every day for as long as the kitchen stands. Chad is personally on site for every project.
Cabinets rarely arrive alone. They go in alongside counters, backsplash, flooring and electrical updates, and the sequence matters: the floor and walls are ready before the boxes arrive, and the counters are templated from cabinets that are already set. Because the same team handles the other trades, that order is written into the detailed plan that follows the consultation. Plumbing, where a sink moves, can be sub-contracted through us.
Chapter 03
Living with them, and knowing when it is time
Well-built cabinets ask for very little. Wipe the faces with a soft cloth, keep standing water away from the sink base, and tighten or adjust a hinge when a door starts to sag instead of waiting until the door has torn its screw holes. Most of what gets called cabinet failure started as one small thing that was left alone.
The signs it is time to act are easy to spot. Doors that no longer line up. Drawers that bind or sit crooked in the box. A finish worn through at the spots your hands reach for every day. A counter stacked with things because the cabinets do not hold them. The last one is often the cheapest to solve: pull-out shelves in a deep base cabinet and dividers in the utensil drawer change how a kitchen works without changing a single door.
If you are not sure which route fits your kitchen, start with a call. Call Chad at 509-464-9873, Monday to Sunday from 7 am to 8 pm, and every project starts with a consultation and a detailed plan that can be customized to fit your budget and vision.
Chad Peetz, owner of Recommended Remodeling, is personally on site for every project. Call 509-464-9873.
The decision sheet
New, reface or refinish: three routes for the same kitchen.
General craft, not a quote. What fits your cabinets is settled on site, with the drawers open.
New
New cabinets, drawn for the room
Kitchen in progress: white uppers hung, drawer bases set
Fits when the layout is changing, or the boxes themselves have failed.
Custom design and installation starts from how you use the kitchen: where the range sits, what lives near it, which corner needs help. The boxes are leveled and scribed to your walls, then finished with doors and drawer fronts.
Reface
Reface: new fronts on sound boxes
Hickory cabinets above plank flooring
Fits when the boxes are solid and the layout already works.
Refacing keeps the cabinet structure in place and replaces what you see: the doors and drawer fronts, with the visible frames brought into line with them. The kitchen reads as new while the footprint stays as it is.
Refinish
Refinish: the same cabinets, a new finish
Double vanity cabinet under a marble-look top
Fits when doors and boxes are in good shape and only the finish is spent.
Refinishing cleans, prepares and re-coats the cabinets you already have, in a stain or paint chosen to go with the counters and floor. It is the lightest option, and it suits kitchens, vanities and built-ins alike.
Repairs
Fix the one failed part
A sagging door, a dropped drawer or a split panel does not have to mean new cabinets. Cabinet repairs put the one failing part right before it spreads.
Organization
Pull-out shelves and drawer dividers
Deep base cabinets become usable with pull-out shelves, and a drawer stops being a pile once it has dividers. It works with any of the three routes above, or on its own.