Custom Kitchen Cabinets in Adelaide: Made to Measure

• What they are: custom made kitchen cabinets are the base units, drawer banks, tall pantry units and overhead cupboards built for one room and fitted on site. Custom built kitchen cabinets follow your walls and appliances, made to measure instead of cut from a fixed range of sizes.
• Other names: custom kitchen cupboards, custom kitchen units and bespoke kitchen cabinets mean the same thing, and kitchen joinery is the trade term for the same work.
• What this page covers: the kitchen cabinetry only. The benchtop, splashback, appliances, plumbing and electrical work are separate trades and suppliers, so they are covered where they meet the cabinets.
• What to settle first: the layout, the door style and finish, the drawer and pantry storage, and how the appliances fit. That is the kitchen design, and it is settled on paper before any kitchen joinery is cut.
• Sizes: published base cabinets run to a typical height and depth, but made-to-order cabinets are built to the room. The sizes table below shows both.
• Price: set by the written quote, and this page publishes no prices. The cost guide shows what moves a quote and what a quote should include.
• Beyond the kitchen: panelling, wardrobes and shelving are covered in custom joinery in Adelaide, and the stages of a job in how custom built cabinet makers work.

The layout decides how many cabinets you need and where the drawers, pantry and appliances sit. Five layouts cover most Adelaide homes, from older houses with separate rooms to new builds with open-plan living:

• One-wall: every cabinet on a single wall. It suits small or open-plan rooms and leans on tall units and deep drawers for storage.
• Galley: two parallel runs with a walkway between them. It is efficient for cooking in a narrow room, as long as the walkway stays clear enough for two people to pass.
• L-shape: two adjoining walls. It is the most forgiving layout for an open-plan room, and the corner needs a planned solution such as a corner drawer or a pull-out.
• U-shape: three walls. It gives the most storage and bench space, and it needs enough width that the two facing runs do not crowd each other.
• Island or peninsula: a freestanding or attached run that adds bench, drawers and seating. Published guides suggest about a metre or more of clearance around an island, so the room has to be large enough to carry one.

Bespoke kitchen cabinet makers design around the room you have: the layout follows the walls, the windows and doors, and the point where the services come in. When the room allows it, ask for the layout drawn two ways and compare how many drawers, how much bench and how much pantry space each version gives you. That comparison is the core of kitchen design, and it costs far less to make on paper than after the cabinets are built.

Good kitchen design starts with how you cook, not with a cabinet catalogue. A cabinet maker or designer works through the same questions on every job:

• Zones. Storage, preparation, cooking and cleaning each get a place, so the sink, cooktop and fridge sit within easy reach without crossing the cook's path.
• Who uses it. The number of cooks, their height and any need for easier reach decide drawer heights, bench heights and where the heavy pots live.
• Appliances first. Large appliances are chosen early, because their sizes fix the cabinet widths around them.
• Storage by use. Daily items go in the drawers and cabinets nearest the bench, and rarely used items go high or low.
• Style last. Shaker or flat-panel doors, painted or timber finishes, and handle or handleless fronts are decided once the layout works.
• The house. Adelaide homes range from older villas with high ceilings to new builds with open plans, so the same design is not right for every house.

A kitchen design is drawn as a plan and elevations, and some makers add a rendered view. Kitchen design for a custom job names every cabinet, door and drawer, so the quote can be built from the drawing. Check each dimension and each drawer against how you cook before you sign, because a correction costs almost nothing at the design stage and a lot after boards are cut. A check measure on site then confirms the sizes, so the cabinets are made to the room as it really is. Bespoke kitchens are only as good as that measurement.

Adelaide homes vary enough that one kitchen design rarely suits them all. Four situations come up often, and each changes the drawing:

• Older villas and bungalows often have high ceilings and walls that are not square, so tall units, bulkheads and scribed end panels are planned at the check measure.
• Extended or renovated houses can join a new open-plan room to an older one, so the floor, ceiling and walls differ across the same run of cabinets.
• New builds and townhouses usually have square rooms and set ceiling heights, which suit standard widths, and a custom design can still add drawers and storage that a catalogue range lacks.
• Hills and coastal homes can have difficult access, which affects how cabinets are delivered and carried into the room.

Tell the maker which of these describes your house. The kitchen joinery drawing then starts from the right assumptions, and the kitchen cabinetry is made to the room instead of adjusted on site.

Custom made kitchen cupboards and custom made kitchen units are built from the same parts, and the design drawing names each one:

• Base cabinets carry the benchtop and house the sink, cooktop and dishwasher. Door bases suit tall pots, and drawer bases suit almost everything else.
• Drawer banks are stacks of wide drawers, often with internal organisers. Many new kitchens use deep drawers in place of low door cabinets, because everything is visible from above.
• Tall units and pantry cabinets run from the floor to the ceiling or a set height. They house ovens, fridges and pantry storage, and they set the ceiling line of the room.
• Overhead cabinets hang above the bench. They are shallower than base cabinets, and a rangehood often sets their depth.
• Appliance cabinets are built around an oven, microwave, dishwasher or fridge, with the ventilation gaps that the manufacturer's instructions require.
• End panels, fillers and kickboards finish each run. They are what make a room look built-in instead of assembled.

Custom kitchen cabinet doors set the look of the room more than any other part of the cabinetry, and the style and the finish are two separate choices. Bespoke cabinetry lets you pick each one instead of taking a fixed combination. Custom built kitchen cabinet doors can also be made on their own, to refresh boxes that are still sound, and shaker and flat-panel doors can share one design across the whole house.

Door styles

• Flat panel (slab): a plain door with no profile. It suits modern rooms and works with handleless finger-pull edges.
• Shaker: a flat centre panel inside a square frame. It reads as classic and sits easily in traditional and contemporary rooms.
• Profiled or routed: a decorative edge or panel for a traditional look.
• Glass-front: a framed glass door, usually on overhead cabinets, for display.

Door finishes

• Two-pack polyurethane: a sprayed painted finish in almost any colour, smooth and sealed, though a hard knock can chip it. It pairs naturally with shaker doors.
• Thermolaminated: a foil pressed onto shaped board in a vacuum press, seamless around the edges and hard-wearing.
• Laminate or melamine: printed surfaces that resist wear and suit the practical parts of the room.
• Timber veneer: real timber grain on a stable board, with the look of solid timber and less movement. It suits flat-panel doors.
• Solid timber: the most natural option, which can be sanded and refinished, and which is usually protected with oil or a clear polyurethane. It moves with humidity.

Ask the maker to name the board, the door style and the finish on the design drawings and again in the quote.

Hardware is used every day, so it shows wear before the doors do. Three groups of fittings matter in kitchen joinery:

• Hinges hold the doors. Concealed hinges with a soft-close action stop a door slamming, and a heavy door needs stronger hinges or more of them.
• Drawer runners carry the load. Full-extension runners let a drawer open completely, and soft-close runners slow the last part of the travel. Push-to-open runners suit handleless fronts.
• Lift-up and pull-out fittings support overhead flaps, bins, corner units and pantry pull-outs, and each one has a weight rating.

Ask which hardware is fitted, and ask for it by name in the quote, not as "quality hardware". Each soft-close fitting adds cost, so price them as a separate line if the budget is tight, then use the cost guide. Good hardware in a well-designed kitchen cabinetry run lasts as long as the carcass, and it can be adjusted when doors settle. Hardware is also where kitchen cabinetry design can be simplified to save cost without changing the look.

Kitchen cabinets are built around fixed things, so these are settled before the drawings are signed:

• Appliance models. An oven, cooktop, dishwasher or integrated fridge has its own cut-out size and ventilation gaps. Give the maker the model numbers and follow each manufacturer's installation instructions.
• Rangehood and ducting. The rangehood sets the depth and height of the overhead cabinets, and a ducted rangehood needs a route to the outside planned before the cabinets are made.
• Plumbing and power. The tap, waste and power points sit inside or beside the cabinets, so their positions go on the drawings. A plumber or electrician moves them, not the cabinet maker.
• Lighting. Under-cabinet lighting and the power for it are easiest to run before the overhead cabinets are fixed.

Appliance choices are part of the kitchen design, and changing a model after the drawings are signed can mean changing a cabinet. A check measure records where each of these sits in your Adelaide home, which is why a quote built from a floor plan can change once the real walls are measured.

The benchtop and splashback come from other trades, but the kitchen cabinetry is built to receive them:

• Support and overhang. Base cabinets are built to carry the weight of the benchtop, and heavy stone needs extra support around the sink and cooktop cut-outs.
• Stone and timber. Natural stone, porcelain, engineered stone and timber benchtops are cut to a template taken from the cabinets once they are fixed and level, so a stone benchtop is made after the base cabinets are in. Timber benchtops are fitted to allow for movement.
• Laminate. A laminate benchtop is a lighter, lower-cost option, and it may be supplied by the cabinet maker or a separate supplier.
• Splashback. Tiles, glass, stone or a painted finish go on after the benchtop, so the finished bench height has to be known when the cabinets are drawn. The splashback material and height also decide how far the overhead cabinets sit above the bench, so settle the splashback before the cabinets are drawn.
• Joins and cut-outs. Sink, tap, cooktop and power cut-outs, and any joins in the benchtop, are marked on the drawings so each trade works to the same positions.

Ask who is measuring and fitting the benchtop and splashback, and book them alongside the cabinet maker, because stone is often the longest wait.

Storage fittings are where a custom kitchen earns its daily use, and most of them are choices made at the design stage:

• Pull-out and tall-drawer pantries put every item in view and within reach, and they suit narrow spaces better than a deep shelf.
• Walk-in and butler's pantries are a separate room or alcove with its own shelving, bench and sometimes a second sink or appliance.
• Bins in a base cabinet hold waste and recycling behind a door or drawer front, and the cabinet width decides how many bins fit.
• Corner solutions, such as corner drawers, pull-out units and revolving shelves, make a blind corner usable.
• Internal drawers and organisers hold cutlery, utensils, spices and wraps, and they keep wide drawers from turning into a pile.

Pantry and storage planning is where kitchen cabinetry is most personal. Describe how you cook and what you store, and the maker can size the drawers and pantry to match. A pantry outside the kitchen run, such as a stand-alone cupboard or a walk-in room, is covered on the custom built in cabinets page.

• If your room is square and standard in size, standard or semi-custom units may suit, and a quote for both shows what the custom version adds.
• If walls lean, ceilings are high or there are alcoves and bulkheads, bespoke cabinetry avoids the filler panels and gaps that standard sizes leave, and a check measure shows how much it matters.
• If the existing boxes are sound, new doors and drawer fronts can refresh the room, and a maker can check the boxes at the site measure.
• If you are comparing kitchen cabinet makers Adelaide-wide, give each the same drawings, appliance models and specification, because quotes only compare when the scope matches. Ask each one who installs.
• If you are weighing two kitchen designs, or shaker against flat-panel doors, ask the maker to draw both, and compare drawers, bench space and pantry capacity before you compare quotes.
• If a builder or designer is running the job, send their plans to the cabinet maker early so the sizes, services and ceiling heights are checked against the room.
• If you are watching the budget, start with the cost guide to custom cabinets and give your maker a budget range before the design drawings begin.
• If the kitchen is in a townhouse or unit, raise stairs, lifts and building rules in your first message, and see how home types differ across Adelaide areas.
• If you are not sure where to start, begin with our overview of custom cabinetry in Adelaide, then tell us about the room.