Custom joinery, decoded: getting the most from a cabinet maker

What a cabinet maker does (and when you need one)

Cabinet makers design, build and install custom joinery: kitchen carcasses and doors, built-in wardrobes, media walls, bookshelves, window seats and one-off furniture pieces. The job usually runs site measure, workshop fabrication, then delivery and installation — with scribing to out-of-square walls and old floors part of the craft.

The adjacent options are worth knowing. Flat-pack plus a handyman is the budget path for standard-sized spaces, and a carpenter can build simple shelving in place. A cabinet maker wins when the space is awkward, the finish matters, or you want drawer banks, integrated appliances and doors that still line up in ten years.

Where the money goes in a joinery quote

Custom cabinetry is priced per linear metre or per piece, and the run of cabinetry is the core quantity driver. A single laminate piece like a floating TV unit sits at the low end in the hundreds-to-low-thousands, built-in robes and media walls in the middle, and whole-room two-pac packages at the top — the per-metre spread from budget to premium is roughly threefold.

Two things quietly move the number most: finish and internals. Melamine keeps costs down while two-pac polyurethane and timber veneer climb steeply, and a bank of soft-close drawers costs far more to build than the same width of shelves behind doors. Stone tops and premium hinges sit on top again. Treat any figure as indicative until a cabinet maker has measured your space.

Choosing a cabinet maker

Cabinet making is generally not a licensed trade, so judge the work, not the paperwork: photos of recent jobs, a workshop they'll happily talk about, and — the big one — a quote that names the materials and hardware brands. Two quotes at different prices often differ exactly there, in board quality and hinge and runner brands, and a specific quote is the mark of a maker with nothing to hide.

Good cabinet makers also manage the details that sink DIY joinery: they'll do their own site measure rather than working off yours, ask about appliances and stone before fabrication, and lock in colours and handles with you in writing before anything is cut.

Mistakes to avoid

Joinery mistakes are expensive because they're cut into board — the fixes mostly happen before fabrication or not at all.

• Comparing quotes without comparing board, finish and hardware brands line by line
• Changing colours or handles after cutting has started — changes after fabrication cost real money
• Paying custom prices for a standard-sized space where quality flat-pack would do
• Skipping drawers to save money in spots you'll use daily, or paying for drawers where shelves would do
• Not confirming site measure, delivery and installation are included in the quote