What Custom Kitchen Cabinets Includes:
Architectural kitchen solutions crafted with quiet precision for homes where the kitchen is the heart of everything. When standard cabinets aren't good enough for your dream kitchen, we build truly custom. At BradleyBuilt, we design and build luxury kitchen cabinetry and interiors that elevate how you cook, gather, and live. Whether for a modern city penthouse or elegant stately home, our artisan kitchen cabinetry is built for both architectural flow and your personal rituals.
From our Chicago workshop, we build true custom cabinets that are built to your exact specifications. Ceiling height? We build to it. Awkward corner or angled wall? We design around it. Specific drawer depth for your flatware? Built precisely. This approach eliminates filler strips, awkward gaps, and compromise.
High-Quality Materials:
We work primarily with solid hardwoods—quarter-sawn white oak for its stability and grain character, walnut for warmth and depth, cherry that deepens with age. Each species is selected not just for beauty, but for how it responds to our joinery techniques and finishing methods. Paint-grade cabinetry receives the same attention: multiple primer coats, hand-sanded between applications, finished with durable lacquer or conversion varnish that stands up to daily use.
Tailored Kitchen Design:
Every BradleyBuilt kitchen begins with understanding how you use the space. Do you bake weekly and need dedicated zones for mixers and marble? Host gatherings that flow between kitchen and dining? Prefer concealed storage or open shelving for display?
Drawings:We create detailed drawings that show cabinet elevations, interior configurations, and how each element relates to your architecture. If you're working with an architect or interior designer, we coordinate directly to ensure cabinetry integrates seamlessly with lighting, countertops, and architectural millwork.
Craftsmanship:A well-designed kitchen anticipates how you move through space. We build soft-close drawers with dovetail joinery that glide smoothly under weight. Pullout pantries fitted precisely to your ceiling height. Appliance garages that conceal daily clutter. Integrated knife blocks, spice inserts, and tray dividers sized to what you actually own.
Kitchen Styles We Craft
Modern Minimalist Kitchens — Clean lines, slab door fronts, integrated pulls, and seamless surfaces. We build frameless European-style cabinets or face-frame construction with reveal details that create shadow lines without hardware.
Traditional & Transitional Kitchens — Inset doors, beaded face frames, and proportions rooted in classical cabinetry. These kitchens feel appropriate to historic homes while incorporating modern function.
Contemporary Architectural Kitchens — Material-forward designs where wood grain, book-matched veneers, or contrasting finishes become the focal point. Often mixed materials: walnut uppers with painted lowers, open shelving alongside closed cabinetry.
Kitchen Cabinet Remodels & Replacements
When replacing cabinets as part of a kitchen remodel, coordination is everything. We work directly with your general contractor, designer, and trades to ensure your renovation stays on schedule and your new custom cabinets integrate seamlessly with every other element.
What to Expect During Your Cabinet Replacement
Timeline: Most kitchen cabinet replacements take 2 weeks to 2 months from template to installation, depending on design complexity and whether you're keeping your existing layout or redesigning completely.
Working Within Existing Spaces: We have extensive experience adapting to Chicago condos, historic homes, and buildings with unusual dimensions. Our custom approach means we build to your exact measurements—no filler strips or awkward gaps.
Removal & Disposal: We coordinate cabinet removal with your contractor to determine the most efficient approach for your project. In some cases, we handle removal ourselves; in others, we time delivery to align with your contractor's demolition schedule.
Integration with Countertops & Appliances: We work directly with your countertop fabricator and appliance providers to ensure proper clearances, cutouts, and alignment. This includes coordinating for under-counter refrigeration, range hoods, and built-in appliances.
Cabinet Replacement for Existing Layouts vs. Full Redesigns
If you're keeping your current kitchen footprint, we can often work faster by templating your existing space and building cabinets that maximize storage within those constraints. For full redesigns, we collaborate with your architect or designer from the planning phase to ensure cabinetry, lighting, and architectural details work together seamlessly.
Whether you're updating a 1920s Chicago brownstone or modernizing a Gold Coast condo, our custom approach delivers kitchen cabinets built for how you actually cook and live.
Our Kitchen Design Process
1. Initial Consultation — We meet in your home to understand your space, cooking habits, and aesthetic preferences. If you're working with a designer or architect, we review plans together.
2. Design Development — We create detailed cabinet drawings showing elevations, sections, and interior configurations. This is collaborative: we refine until the design feels right.
3. Material Selection — Together we choose wood species, door styles, finishes, and hardware. We provide samples to review in your lighting.
4. Workshop Build — Your cabinets are built in our Chicago workshop over 8-12 weeks, depending on project scope. Every joint is cut, fitted, and finished by hand before delivery.
5. Installation — Our installation team, who know the cabinets intimately because they helped build them, ensures everything fits precisely and functions as designed.
