Cabinets · Nashville, TN
The Nashville homeowner's guide to cabinetry
What the work involves, what drives the price, what your options are, and what a bad job looks like — written so you can judge any cabinet maker in Middle Tennessee, including us.
Estimate request
Which room, and what is wrong with the cabinets now?
Straight to us, and a reply the same day.
By Michael Blair, owner, Nashville's Cabinets · who we are
Warning signs
How to know you need us
Recognize one? Have it looked at before it grows.
- Cabinets dated in appearance but structurally sound
- Doors sagging, delaminating or no longer closing square
- A corner or an awkward wall where nothing standard fits
- Not enough storage for the space the room actually has
- Wanting built-ins that look original to the house
- Replacing cabinetry after a leak or water damage
Your options
More than one right answer.
Solid boxes often need new doors, not a new kitchen, and a maker who never mentions refacing is skipping a real option. Here is the range from refinish to full custom.
Refinishing
Degrease, sand, prime and spray. Keeps the boxes and the doors, changes the color entirely, and costs a fraction of replacement.
Refacing
New doors, drawer fronts and veneer on existing boxes. A full visual change including the door style, without a demolition.
Semi-custom replacement
Quality manufactured cabinetry specified properly. The right answer for most kitchens where the layout already works.
Full custom
Built to your dimensions and your storage. Worth it for awkward rooms, unusual ceiling heights and built-ins that need to look original.
What it costs
What actually drives the price.
Box construction, door style, finish, linear feet and how far the walls are out of square all move a cabinet price, so somebody measures before anyone quotes. This is what drives it.
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Custom, semi-custom or stock
Three genuinely different price tiers. Custom is built to your dimensions; semi-custom adjusts within set sizes; stock is what fits and what does not gets a filler strip.
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Box construction and material
Plywood boxes against particleboard, and solid wood doors against thermofoil, are where the durability difference lives — and neither is visible from across the room.
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Finish
A painted finish costs more than stain because it shows everything underneath. Grain filling for a smooth painted finish is real labor.
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Interior fittings
Soft-close hardware, pull-outs, drawer organizers and pantry systems add up quickly and are the part people use every day.
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Installation and scribing
No wall is straight and no floor is level. Making a run look integral rather than placed is most of the installation skill and none of the visible cost.
Estimates are free, written and without obligation. Anything found only after starting is priced up front.
What happens
From your call to the finished job.
Measure and design
Every wall measured, not assumed. Older Nashville homes are rarely square and the design has to account for that rather than discover it.
Build or order
Four to ten weeks for custom, two to six for semi-custom. This is the long pole in almost every cabinet project.
Installation
Boxes hung level and scribed, then doors and drawer fronts aligned. Alignment is the day that decides how the finished run reads.
Finish and hardware
Trim, filler, toe kick and hardware. On refinishing work, doors come off, get sprayed and go back.
Done badly
What goes wrong, and why it matters.
Shortcuts that cheapen the quote and cost you later. Ask anyone you are considering about them.
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Painting cabinets without degreasing
Kitchen doors carry years of invisible cooking residue, and no coating will bond through it.
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Wall paint on cabinet doors
Wall paint never fully hardens on a surface that gets handled. It chips at the edges within a year.
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Hanging boxes without finding studs and shimming
Cabinets loaded with dishes are heavy, and a run that was not shimmed level shows in every door gap.
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Ordering before the appliances are chosen
Panel-ready and oversized appliances dictate cabinet sizes. Choosing them afterwards is how filler strips happen.
Before you hire anyone
Six questions worth asking any cabinet maker.
Including us. If a cabinet maker cannot answer these easily, that is the answer.
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Who measures the room — a salesperson or the installer?
The installer, with a drawing you can read. Cabinets ordered from a sketch arrive with gaps at the ceiling.
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What are the boxes made of, and what is the finish?
Plywood or particleboard, the door style, the finish type, all named. “Solid wood” often means solid wood doors on particleboard boxes.
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Will you scribe to walls and ceilings that are not square?
Yes — every wall in this region is out somewhere, and a good installer plans the filler and the scribe. Trim over a gap is not an install.
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Is the price the whole kitchen — install, hardware, trim, removal?
Itemized, including tear-out and disposal of the old cabinets. The cabinet price alone is half the job.
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Can I see a kitchen you built, or a shop you work from?
A custom maker has a shop and finished work to show; an installer has references. Either is an answer; a shrug is not.
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What is warranted — the boxes, the finish, the install?
Three warranties, and a good answer explains which covers a sagging door versus a chipped finish versus a crooked run.
FAQ
Choosing a cabinet maker in Nashville
How do I choose a cabinet maker in Nashville?
Every cabinet maker and installer on our crews carries liability insurance on file with us, and the ones building custom work have shops and finished kitchens we have seen. Ask the six questions below of anyone, including us.
Should I get more than one quote for cabinetry?
Yes — and compare the scope, not the total. Cabinets in Nashville are priced by the linear foot or the box, and the tier — stock, semi-custom, custom — moves the number three to one; the installation, the removal of the old cabinets and the countertop are separate lines the quote should show.
Is the cheapest cabinetry quote usually a bad idea?
Not automatically; a low number is information. Most kitchens are served well by a good semi-custom line, and the honest maker says so.
Do I need a permit for cabinetry in Nashville?
Cabinet replacement needs no permit from Metro Nashville and the surrounding counties; a remodel that moves the sink or the range does, and the contractor doing that part will pull it.
How far in advance should I book cabinetry?
A measure in Nashville is usually within a week or two; custom cabinets take weeks to build, semi-custom weeks to ship, and the installation is a few days once they land.
Free estimate
Planning new cabinets, or saving the ones you have?
Send Nashville's Cabinets the room, the size and what you want changed, and after measuring we return a written estimate free of charge. You decide from there, with no pressure from us.