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Murrumbeena VIC — Scope item 14 · Custom Cabinetry

Cabinetry made to measure, for rooms that were never built square.

Flat-pack sizes assume a perfect wall, a level floor and a ceiling that does not fall away toward the back door. Murrumbeena and the suburbs around it are full of houses where none of that is true. Custom cabinetry is joinery drawn to the room you actually have — scribed to the wall, filled to the corner, and sized so the last cupboard finishes flush rather than short.

No obligation

Reference photograph — every custom run begins as a set of site dimensions, not a catalogue code

What to have ready before joinery is drawn

You do not need drawings to start a conversation. You do need a few facts, because they decide whether a run is standard or made to measure. Gather what you can and bring the rest to the consultation.

01 Wall-to-wall width at floor and bench heightWidth

02 Ceiling height, and whether it drops anywhereHeight

03 Window and door positions, including architravesOpenings

04 Appliances you intend to keep, with model sizesAppliance

05 Where the sink, gas point and power currently sitServices

06 The three things the current kitchen gets wrongBrief

Scope of works: what a custom run covers

Custom cabinetry is not a finish applied over a standard box. It is the carcass, the front, the internal fit-out and the junctions between them. A written scope sets those out group by group, so the quote describes the job rather than gesturing at it.

Tall storage. Pantry and appliance towers are drawn to the ceiling of the room rather than to a catalogue height, so the dust gap above a standard cupboard becomes shelving you can reach with a step. Butler’s pantry and scullery joinery is specified the same way, and overhead runs are carried up to meet the bulkhead instead of stopping short of it.

Islands and benches. Island carcasses, waterfall ends and return panels are set out as one piece of work, because the stone and the joinery have to agree on a single dimension before either is cut. Seating overhang, power positions and the side the dishwasher opens toward are settled on the drawing, not on installation day.

Drawers and internals. Drawer banks are sized around what they have to hold — cutlery and utensil inserts, pot depths, the awkward tray that fits nowhere else — and integrated fridge and dishwasher panels are made to the appliance’s own dimensions so the fronts line through with the rest of the run.

Fitting to the room. The last group is the part nobody photographs and everybody notices: scribes to a wall that is not straight, filler widths set at the design stage rather than improvised on site, bulkheads squared up, and shadow-line rails or handleless profiles run at a consistent reveal from one end of the kitchen to the other.

The decisions that change the price

Carcass and substrate. Moisture-resistant board as standard, with heavier substrate where a tall run carries weight or sits near water. Fronts follow — two-pack painted, laminate, thermolaminated or timber veneer — each with a different edge condition and a different repair story years later.

Hardware. Soft-close runners and hinges are not all equal, and a full-extension drawer behaves differently to a budget side-mount after five years of daily use. We name the brand and series in the written scope so the comparison you make between quotes is an honest one.

Junctions. How the run meets the benchtop, where the splashback lands, and how the end panel returns to the wall. Those three details are what separate joinery from cupboards.

Reference photograph — internal inserts and drawer depths are specified per cabinet, not chosen after installation

Where custom joinery sits in the twelve stages

Made-to-measure work is decided early and installed late. These are the stages of the 12-step renovation process that a custom cabinetry scope touches directly, in their document order.

01 Consultation — the brief, the constraints, the wish listTalk

02 Measure — site dimensions taken, walls checked for squareSite

03 Design — cabinet-by-cabinet layout and elevationsDrawing

04 Quote — the scope written as line items you can readScope

05 Materials — board, fronts, hardware and inserts locked inOrder

08 Cabinetry — carcasses set, levelled, scribed and fixedInstall

11 Finishing — doors hung, drawers aligned, gaps evenedAdjust

12 Handover — walk-through, care notes, hardware detailsClose

Custom cabinetry — measure and drawing stage

Questions asked at the measure

Is custom always dearer than standard cabinets?

Not automatically. A modest kitchen in a standard-width alcove may be better served by stock sizes with a custom end panel. Cost rises with tall units, unusual depths and complex fronts — not with the word custom itself.

Can custom joinery match an existing kitchen?

Often, for an added pantry or island. Paint finishes can be matched closely; laminate and veneer depend on the range still being current. We check the existing doors at the measure before committing to a match.

What happens if the walls are badly out of square?

It is planned for rather than discovered. Scribe allowances and filler widths are set at the design stage, which is why the measure is taken on site and the cabinet sizes are confirmed after demolition rather than before it.

How far ahead do materials need to be chosen?

Fronts, hardware and internal inserts are confirmed at the materials stage, before demolition begins. Changing a door finish after joinery is in production is the most common cause of delay on an otherwise tidy job.

More answers sit on the kitchen renovation FAQ.

Murrumbeena VIC — Quote request

Send the dimensions. We will write the joinery scope around them.

Custom cabinetry for kitchens in Murrumbeena, Carnegie, Hughesdale, Oakleigh, Chadstone, Malvern East, Bentleigh East, Ormond and McKinnon. Tell us the room, the constraints and what the current kitchen gets wrong, and the reply comes back as a written scope rather than a single number.

Or write to us through the contact form