I have never had to think about cabinets in my entire life in the same way that I have had to think about them over the past year. Building a house from scratch meant thinking about a ton of different types of cabinets (bathrooms, kitchen, bookshelves, closets) all at once. It some ways, it was completely overwhelming. And in other ways—with the help of Project M+—I was able to look at all the rooms of our house like a family…each member of the family could be different but were also united in some way.

When we first looked at all of the options we had for cabinets, I went for two opposite ends of the spectrum. We got bids for building everything custom to the exact size for each space. And, we looked at what was already pre-made and could be plopped right in. I thought maybe I could swap out hardware of existing pieces and save a lot that way! But it turns out that the completely pre-made options were really hard to make fit in this blank new space. Pieces were just a tad too small or too big. On the flip side, doing everything custom was completely out of budget. So we ended up doing a mix of a few different things…

We decided to go semi-custom for a bunch of areas using Reform cabinets. Reform offers modern options for cabinet fronts that get installed onto Ikea bases. So you have the convenience and great pricing of working with all the sizing options that Ikea offers. But you have more options for panels and fronts. We used them here to do a custom color in the laundry room shown above…

…and used Reform Degree here in a bright white in our kitchen! As well as the Chelsea in another (yet to be revealed) area in the very first photo.

For the major closets in the house (master, kids’ rooms, and entryway closet), storage was essential to make the most of each space as possible. For these major areas, we worked with California Closets to design and maximize the use of each of these spaces.

Finally, for a handful of areas where a semi-custom option would not fit or would not offer the exact type of storage needed, we did have some custom pieces built. We saved the custom pieces mostly for bathroom vanities and this built-in storage/desk area in our living room. Custom pieces made sense for areas with a unique size and in rooms that will be used very often whereas semi-custom solutions worked really well mostly everywhere else!

What have you worked with in the past? Pre-made, semi-custom, totally custom? Tell me yours pro’s and con’s! Or, any questions you have!

{Photos by Lily Glass. Construction by Boswell Construction, Architecture by Project M+, Interiors in collaboration with Project M+. All cabinets linked above. Written by Joy Cho.}