If your cabinets are looking worn or faded, they can bring down the appearance of your entire kitchen. It’s possible that there may be problems with other parts of your kitchen as well such as worn flooring, insufficient counter space or damaged light fixtures. In this case, a kitchen remodel might be a good idea. Our team at Walker Woodworking wants you to know that if it’s just your cabinetry that’s holding back the rest of the room, then refacing them might be a better option.

How Refacing Works

In the event you’ve never had cabinets refaced before, you may want to know what’s involved. Basically, the box and frame of your existing cabinetry are kept and the cabinet doors and the fronts of any drawers are replaced. In other words, it’s just like it sounds. You’re changing the outer appearance or “face” of your cabinetry but without physically removing the existing cabinets.

Enhancing the Cabinet Box

Just because you’re keeping the box of your cabinets doesn’t mean they can’t be spruced up as well. You can opt for painting them, or when a wood finish appearance is desired, you can apply a veneer.

When you decide to handle a cabinetry refacing project yourself, you want to be careful when applying the veneer. You can use either factory-finished or unfinished veneers. While unfinished veneers can be touched up later with staining, factory-finished veneers are difficult to touch up later.

Replacing Cabinet Doors and Drawer Fronts

In the event you’re refacing standard, off-the-shelf cabinets, you should be able to find replacement doors and drawer fronts that will fit without a problem.

If you are replacing custom cabinets or you want a unique look to your new doors or drawer fronts, you may want to have custom ones manufactured that have the size, design, material or finish that you desire. At Walker Woodworking, we’ve been designing custom cabinetry near Charlotte NC since 1999 for our neighbors in North Carolina and would love to take a look at your replacement project to see if we can help create what you’re looking for.

Hardware and Measurements

Don’t forget the necessary hardware you’ll need to go with your new cabinet doors and drawer fronts. You’ll want knobs and pulls that blend with the hinges, or if you find particularly nice new hardware, you may just want to get new hinges that match them.

Ensuring correct measurements for everything is critical when refacing your cabinets. No matter how nice a cabinet door looks in a showroom, it’s not going to matter if you get it home and it doesn’t fit.

Going It Alone or Hiring a Contractor

Even if you’re fairly adept at DIY projects, you will at least need to find someplace to buy ready-made cabinets doors and drawer fronts or a place to create custom doors and fronts. Located west of Charlotte in Cleveland County, our team at Walker Woodworking has been creating custom cabinetry and other fine furnishings for residents in the North Carolina foothills for a couple of decades. If you are doing a kitchen remodel and need custom cabinetry, please contact us and we’ll see how we can help your project turn out just as you’d like at a budget that you can appreciate. Read what HGTV has to say about cabinet refacing.

Disclaimer – while cabinet refacing is an option, Walker Woodworking can only provide you with doors and drawers or all new cabinetry. We do not offer complete cabinet refacing. A contractor should be able to provide this service for you.

Located 45 miles west of Charlotte, and only an hour from Asheville, we are your one-stop-shop for all of your custom cabinet needs. We can provide beautiful, custom storage solutions for any room in your home. If you’re looking for distinctive cabinets for your kitchen, then most of what’s available off-the-shelf at retail stores will not do. Contact us and we’ll find out how we can make your kitchen stick out from the ordinary at a price you can afford.

Twin Chimney’s Farmhouse Renovation Project

If you love old homes as much as I do, you will surely love the story of the Twin Chimney Farms renovation project. Travis and I were honored that the homeowners, Jack and Carole Arey trusted us and Walker Woodworking to be a part of this 18-month long project. These final results of his circa 1817 farmhouse rehabilitation project are truly amazing!

Planning and Preparation

Projects like this one can be very challenging due to the time it takes to properly plan and execute the complicated details for a renovation of this magnitude. Like most homeowners, we want to wrap up projects as quickly as we can. However, we knew this assignment would take a lot of time because the details were complex and the rules were extremely strict for a historic home rehabilitation. Travis Walker, President of Walker Woodworking,  and Brandon Fitzmorris, lead designer for Greenbrook Design, teamed up with Tony Brooks, the general contractor with Beam Edwards and Brooks as well as the interior designer, Wendi Gragg to see this project through to the end. We hope you enjoy this story and appreciate the craftsmanship involved to preserve the home. To skip the story and view the gallery click this link.  

If these walls could talk, what a deep history they would speak!

If the walls of this home could talk I believe they would tell you how grateful they have been for the care and maintenance of the family that has owned this home for many years. Let me introduce you to the current homeowner, she is the great-great-granddaughter of Joesph Suttle; Meet Mrs. Carole Arey and her family history related to this home. Here’s her story:

History of Twin Chimneys

“The Joseph Suttle house, locally known as Twin Chimneys was built around 1817 for Minor W. Smith. Smith was born in England in 1784. He immigrated to Wilmington, North Carolina and then to Shelby. Joseph Suttle and his wife bought the property in 1854. Joseph Suttle died in 1861 at the age of 34. His widow and heirs sold the property in 1883. The house saw a long series of owners both in and out of the family until purchased in 1943 by J. L. Suttle Jr., a great-grandson of Joseph Suttle, and his wife Sara McFarland Suttle. It was listed on the register of ‘Historical Places” in 1980. The house is one of the best known antebellum residences surviving in Cleveland County.  Included on this property is a cemetery which includes the graves of Minor Smith and his wife Jane, and of Joesph Suttle and also other decedents.

Today Twin Chimneys is owned by my husband and I William Jackson Arey and Carole Suttle Arey. Our Architect Jerry McGinnis, who we have worked with on previous projects, was invaluable throughout this farmhouse renovation & rehabilitation. “

“We appreciate every single person who worked with us on this project, we couldn’t be more pleased with the end result. Everyone that had a part in this venture was extremely patient with us and we thank you! Really, there is nothing we would change if we had to do it all over again.” ~ Jack & Carole Arey

Building a foundation

The two-story framed house blends Federal and Greek Revival characteristics with a Victorian influence. It is very interesting to see construction methods from the early 1800’s. As seen from the pictures below, most likely this was a timber-framed construction method with mortise and tenon joints in the floor joist. During our preparation to saw the reclaimed wood floor for the cabinetry, we found hand cutnails. These cutnails had been used in the flooring to fasten the flooring to the joist. You can also see the early foundations were made using field rocks.

“The kitchen floor was our biggest challenge. We leveled and added extra supports blending today’s materials with those that were 200 years old. Matching materials was also a challenge. I had a strategy planned out to match the rock for the foundation and had made various visits to rock yards across western NC. Nothing seemed to click until the Owner took me to the edge of the pastures where we found rocks that had been cleared from fields long ago. We even found some with live moss that made it into the foundation.”~ Tony Brooks, GC Beam, Edwards, and Brooks

Using reclaimed heart pine

Working with reclaimed wood presents its own unique challenges. Questions arise such as, “Do we have enough material to complete the project? Will we be able to find a suitable match if we do not?” These are just a few issues we faced from a production perspective”. The Arey’s were former clients of Walker Woodworking, we have collaborated on several projects and we knew this would be a ‘labor of love” to accomplish. Nevertheless, Travis Walker, owner of Walker Woodworking, was eager to take on the project.

“We mostly work with brand new lumber that comes in clean and ready to use. The majority of my employees had never worked with old growth pine and had only heard of it. I had the pleasure of educating them on exactly what old growth was and what the term meant. Some were fascinated by it and just knowing the deep history of the home made it that much better. The easy part was the nails and bolts we had to remove. We scanned the wood with a metal detector. The hard part was the amount of pitch and resin in the wood. This was tough on the knives, blades, and sandpaper, and very hard on my machinery. The end results show what can be accomplished by a talented and dedicated team. ” ~ Travis Walker, Owner Walker Woodworking

“I had the pleasure of picking up some of the extra reclaimed pine we needed to complete the project.  Some of it was resawn beams that came out of the old Double Shoals Mill near Lawndale, NC. Some of those beams were over 20 inches wide and 20 feet long, which means that the trees had to be 200-300 years old at the time of harvest.  If the mill was built in the latter part of the 19th century, that means those trees were growing in the early 1600’s or perhaps even the late 1500’s, the same time period that the famous Lost Colony was founded in NC!  I would certainly guess that English settlers had not made it as far west into North Carolina as Cleveland County when many of these trees started growing.”  ~ Justin Webb, General Manager, Walker Woodworking

Kitchen and Bath Design Challenges

Working with a historic home created a few design challenges for our design team at Greenbrook Design (LINK). The fundamental part of the floor plan had to remain close to that of the original home. Although the home had been updated several times throughout the years, we felt that we were able to keep the design as close to the original floor plan as possible also allowing the homeowners to expand cabinetry storage and function for a full working kitchen for the 21st century.

“The opportunity to work in a historic home was a unique endeavor that gave us the opportunity to be creative in establishing a new functional space. The challenge was for us to stay true to the character of the home. A great deal of family history and emotion was embedded in the project that remained as the foundation of collaboration between the contractors, designers, and homeowner. This allowed a narrow and specific route to achieve an outstanding design and allowed my team to diversify our skills in cabinet design.”  ~ Brandon Fitzmorris, Lead Design at Greenbrook Design

Interior Design Challenges

Wendi Gragg was involved in many components of this project collaborating with our the team meeting the requirements of the historical rehabilitation. The home remains listed with the registry of Historical Homes in North Carolina.

“The original architecture of the home was a mix of Federal, Greek and Victorian styles with several renovations throughout the years. I wanted to make sure the interiors remained rooted in a serene country spirit and that it retains the provincial charm that was indicative of the time. It was great to work with a team that you trust and depend on to meet the highest level of craftsmanship.”  ~ Wendi Gragg, Interior Design

We have many more photos that we would love to share with you, follow this link to view the full gallery.

For more design details about this project, you will find more detailed information in this link.

For more information about the home, here are available resources:  National Registry Listing

Are you ready to start your remodel project? Give us a call today and we will get the process started. Our process incorporates the time each project takes, a full design package, attention to detail and a partnership with you to ensure every job is even better than what you expected.  Contact Us

Cabinet Basics 101: Our Building Options

When clients first come to us at Walker Woodworking they are often overwhelmed by the different cabinet options offered from different sources. We always strive to educate our clientele on all the options they have during their custom cabinetry selection process. There are many options to choose from within the categories of build method, paints/stains, drawer/door fronts, moldings, and hardware. This article will focus on detailing our two building method options and highlighting the differences between them while describing common styles that they each lend to. Regardless of which building style or look you prefer for your cabinetry all of Walker Woodworking custom cabinetry will be built to the highest level of quality. You can see more about our quality here: Product Education. Keep in mind, this article will only discuss our build methods, so let’s get to it!

Frameless

The only overlay build method that Walker Woodworking offers is a frameless cabinet style. When this build method is chosen the stiles and rail around the cabinet openings are minimized so that none of the face frame is visible. All you see when you look at the cabinetry is the front of the doors and drawer fronts. In addition to creating a streamlined clean look, this style also maximizes the storage capacity of the cabinets, especially the drawers. This style is can be paired with either an ornate or simplistic door style, depending on if you are wanting a more transitional style or a clean lined look. Popular design styles for this build method include; Modern, Contemporary, Industrial, European, and Transitional. As you can see in the above picture, the overlay build method showcases the door and drawer style as the cabinet detail, while helping the client get maximum utility out of the cabinets.

Inset

Walker Wood also offers the alternative of an inset building method as an option for our cabinetry. The term inset describes the placement of the doors and drawer fronts since in this style of building they actually sit back into the face frames. This beautiful style has long been a staple in traditional high-end homes and is often used with a detailed door/ drawer design. When clients choose to use an outer bead on their door edges they can achieve the look of having a beaded inset look, at a fraction of the cost. We also have the ability to add the bead onto the face frames of the cabinets, but it is rarely needed since it is an upgrade in cost and the same look can be achieved with beaded doors and drawers. This building method is often selected for the following design styles: Traditional, Victorian, Arts and Crafts, and Transitional. As seen below in these images, you can see the entire face frame when using the inset build method.

Some people view the inset method as too busy visually, while others see it as having a timeless elegance and showcasing superior craftsmanship. There is no wrong or right direction to go, but we do want to make sure that all of our clients understand the differences and “pros vs. cons” of each style. You should also note that there is a small price difference to build an inset job over a frameless job. Each job is custom priced, but usually, the difference is about 8% – 10%, since inset jobs will be priced by the square foot of the face frames.

What’s your style?

Perhaps, you are still undecided about your style preference.  We suggest an in-home measurement consultation, followed by a design session and estimate. We are here to help you, and would love to speak with you to set up an appointment time. Please call us today. 704.434.0823~

Questions about your Kitchen Remodel: What you didn’t know you needed to know!

When remodeling your kitchen there are certain decisions that are fairly obvious to the average consumer. For example: Do I want stained or painted cabinetry? What scope of construction will my project entail (full gut/renovation, sprucing up existing cabinets, new paint, new countertops, etc.)? What is the overall style I want to achieve? These large scale opinions are fairly easy for clients to determine early on in their project planning. However, as any distinguished designer can tell you, the small details are just as important to achieving your dream kitchen. Here I will address some issues for you to consider while planning your kitchen remodel details, things you did not know you needed to consider.

Selecting the finishes of your fixtures:

The rules of everything needing to have “an exact match” have been thrown out during recent years. Designers and clients are now mixing and matching finishes in and amongst their hardware, plumbing fixtures, and lighting. The choices are limitless and there are practical usage considerations to be made that go above and beyond the basics of being aesthetically pleasing. Brushed finishes hide smudges and droplets far better than their polished counterparts.

 

Hardware:

What will look and function best? The sheer number of styles and finishes available for decorative hardware can be overwhelming. It is best to have your designer guide you through the selection process, as there are many things to consider. Size is a major consideration, and it is not uncommon for us to use 3-5 varying lengths within a single kitchen. You want to make sure that the handle to drawer/door proportion looks and feels correct. No tiny handles on huge drawers. This is another area in which mixing and matching is allowed.

Codes, laws, and permits……oh my:

It is important to find out what codes in your area pertain to construction; preferably before it is time for an inspection. Some cities have codes that dictate the way hood fans must be ventilated or disposals in the sink may need to drain. The city in which you live probably has their own electrical codes as well. These are definitely things to consider beforehand, as they can affect your design layout. These issues can also cause headaches on the back end, if not planned for properly.

Type of sink and mounting style:

The farm sink of today is not your grandmother’s farm sink. Deciding the type of sink you’d like is the first step: under-mount, drop in (self-rimming), triple/chef styles, and farm sinks are among the most popular choices. Think about how much you use your sink and what it is used for primarily. If you are a heavy duty scrubber and are very rough on your sink, then the ceramic ones may not be for you. The other consideration about the sink is how to mount it. If you are planning to have laminate countertops the sink will need to be dropped in and cannot be under-mounted, due to contact of water and the wooden sublayer of the top. Mounting a farm sink can be tricky too and can pose a water damage threat to the front of the cabinet if not protected. This is why we, at Walker Woodworking, recommend sitting any farm sink with an exposed front on a piece of your selected stone countertop. We also always request your specific sink at our shop during construction to ensure a proper fit.

 

Finishes and edges of your stone surfaces:

The basic materials of the countertops and tile you select are important, however, the texture that you choose to finish them in can change the entire look. Polished stone or tile will give more of a modern or transitional look to your kitchen. Whereas, tumbled, textured, or honed stone surfaces can lend to a traditional old-world feeling. Along that same line, you will need to consider the edge profile for your countertops. The straight line of an eased, squared, or pencil edge lends to a clean and modern style. While either a bullnose edge or an ogee offers a touch of softness blending more with the classical elements of a classic look.

As you can see there are many things to consider when beginning to plan the details of your kitchen. You can rest assured knowing that our design staff will assist you with any and all of these decisions that you wish.

If you would like to schedule a consultation please call Jan 704.434.0823 or contact us through our website.

Article by guest blogger: Jeneane Beaver, Former Designer at Walker Woodworking

“Having worked with Walker Woodworking for 7 years, I have the opportunity to share my experiences as a designer as well as a client, I remodeled my own kitchen in 2012.”  ~ Jeneane Beaver

If you are only in the dreaming stage of beginning to plan for a new kitchen? We would love to talk to you and work with you to fine-tune your very own remodel plan.  If you’re ready to be further from dreaming and closer to construction, call Walker Woodworking today 704.434.0823.

Please feel free to add a comment about your own personal experience with keeping your new kitchen clean.