Custom cabinetry made to measure, wall by wall.

Modular cabinets arrive in fixed widths and fixed heights. Rooms do not. A weatherboard in Murrumbeena, a 1930s brick home in Carnegie or a unit conversion in Hughesdale will hand you a wall that runs out of square, a ceiling that steps, a chimney breast that eats 400mm, or a window sill sitting 30mm below where a benchtop wants to be. Custom cabinetry is joinery cut to those numbers instead of to a catalogue — so the run finishes hard against the wall, the pantry reaches the ceiling and nothing is packed out to make it fit.

No obligation

Where standard cabinet sizes stop working

These are the site conditions that usually decide a kitchen is made rather than assembled. One of them is enough; most older homes in the area present two or three.

01 Walls out of square or bowed Scribe

02 Raked, stepped or 3m ceilings Height

03 Chimney breasts and service ducts Obstruction

04 Low sills and deep window reveals Setout

05 Islands with a seating overhang Joinery

06 Butler’s pantries in leftover space Plan

07 Appliance garages and integrated bins Fitout

08 Existing floors that fall across the run Level

Reference photograph — full-height made-to-measure run with integrated ovens and dark stone panels, each cabinet sized to the wall

From site measure to shop drawings

Custom work is only as accurate as the numbers it is built from. The measure is taken on site after the design is settled, and nothing goes to the workshop until the drawings have been read back and signed off. Design and layout are handled first under Kitchen Design; the stages below sit between that drawing and the cabinetry stage of the 12-step process.

01 Check measure
Wall lengths, diagonals, ceiling heights at both ends, sill heights, and the position of waste, water, gas and power.

02 Template of the awkward junctions
Out-of-square corners, bulkheads and returns are templated rather than assumed, so scribes are cut to the actual wall.

03 Shop drawings
Elevations and plans with cabinet-by-cabinet dimensions, door and drawer splits, hardware, appliance openings and finishes named.

04 Sign-off
You approve the drawings before manufacture. Changes are cheap on paper and expensive once the sheets are cut.

05 Manufacture and install
Carcasses and fronts are made to the signed sizes, then levelled, scribed and fixed on site ready for benchtop templating.

What made-to-measure removes

The difference between modular and custom is easiest to see in what disappears from the finished run.

Filler panels. Strips of 20–100mm packed between a cabinet and a wall to absorb the leftover width. Custom carcasses take up the difference across the run instead, so the joinery reads as one piece.

Dead corners. The unreachable void behind a standard corner base. Made-to-measure corner units, drawer returns or a deliberate blank with access from the other side put that volume back to work — the same thinking behind Kitchen Storage Solutions.

The dust shelf above the cupboards. Overheads made to the ceiling height, with the bulkhead built in rather than left as a gap.

Appliance gaps. Openings cut to the specified model rather than to a nominal size, so a dishwasher, oven or integrated fridge sits flush with the door fronts.

Reference photograph — tall pull-out pantry unit built to the width left over beside a fridge cavity

Units drawn to the room

Most custom work in a suburban kitchen is not exotic. It is a tall pantry at 2,700mm instead of 2,340mm, an island 120mm longer than the module chart allows so three stools fit under the overhang, a butler’s pantry squeezed into a 1,100mm return off the main run, or a bank of drawers sized around the pots you already own.

Carcass material, door substrate, edging and hardware are specified in the same drawing — two-pack, laminate, veneer or timber fronts, soft-close runners and hinges, and the internal fitout for cutlery, spices, bins and trays. The door and finish options themselves are set out under Kitchen Cabinets, and made-to-measure joinery is often one line in a larger complete renovation or a high-specification kitchen.

Worth deciding before we draw

Which appliances are staying, and which are being replaced?
Model numbers set the cabinet openings. An undecided oven or fridge is the most common reason drawings have to be redone.

Are the overheads going to the ceiling?
Full-height joinery changes the bulkhead detail, the rangehood ducting and how the run is scribed at the top.

Is anything moving — sink, cooktop, a wall?
Relocating services or opening a return is decided before the measure, because it changes every dimension after it.

How much of the storage needs to be drawers?
Drawer banks cost more per metre than cupboards and are worth planning deliberately rather than by default.

More detail on hardware quality and door styles is set out in the guide to kitchen cabinet ideas, and on internal fitout in kitchen storage that removes daily friction.

Scope item 07 — Custom Cabinetry

Joinery drawn to your walls

Wall lengths, ceiling heights and the obstructions you are working around are what the cabinets get drawn to, so start with those — a photograph of the run and a rough note of what is in the way is enough to begin. Quotes for made-to-measure cabinetry are free and carry no obligation.

Request a free quote

No obligation

Prefer to ask a question first? Use the contact form.

Next line item: 08 — Kitchen Benchtops

Back to the full scope of works