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Why Custom Inset Cabinets From Central Maine Actually Fit Your Kitchen

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:42:43 GMT

Why Reynolds Custom Woodworks Is Augusta-Waterville's Go-To for Custom Kitchen Cabinets

Older Central Maine homes — especially the colonials and farmhouses common around Augusta and Waterville — rarely have perfectly square walls or standard-dimension kitchens. That means catalog cabinets leave gaps that get covered with filler strips, and the result never looks quite right. Fully custom cabinetry solves this because every piece is sized to the actual room, not the nearest catalog increment.

What Does 'Fully Custom' Actually Mean?

Semi-custom cabinets come from a manufacturer's catalog in fixed sizes and a limited range of styles. Fully custom means the cabinet is built to the exact measurements of your kitchen, in the wood species and style you choose — no size compromises, no filler strips hiding awkward gaps.

For a kitchen with a 93-inch run that doesn't divide evenly into standard cabinet widths, fully custom fabrication is the only clean solution. Each cabinet is drawn to fit the space, then built from scratch in-house. You can see a clear example of how this plays out in a completed Augusta kitchen project where the layout wrapped around an off-square corner without a single filler piece.

What Makes Inset Cabinetry Different From Standard Doors?

With standard overlay cabinets, the door sits on top of the face frame, so small gaps or slight misalignments are hidden by the overlay. With inset cabinetry, the door or drawer front sits flush inside the frame opening — meaning every gap is visible and every hinge must be set precisely.

Inset doors demand tighter tolerances at every step: the frame must be perfectly square, the door must be milled to within a fraction of an inch, and the hinges must be adjusted so the reveal is even on all four sides. The result is a cleaner, furniture-grade look that holds up well over time because the door isn't catching on the frame edge.

Homeowners who choose inset cabinetry are usually after a more traditional or refined aesthetic, and the construction quality required to pull it off correctly is a reliable signal of overall shop skill.

Walking Through the Build Process

Every project starts with a consultation to understand the room dimensions, the homeowner's style preferences, and how the kitchen actually gets used. From there, a 3D design model is built so you can see exactly how the cabinets will sit in your specific space before a single board is cut.

Client approval on the 3D layout locks in the design. Fabrication then happens in-house — dovetail drawer boxes, face frames, door panels, and all case components built and assembled under one roof. Dovetail joinery in drawer boxes matters because the mechanical interlock resists racking and pulling apart over years of daily use, unlike stapled or pocket-screw construction.

Finishing is done in a controlled spray environment, which produces a consistent sheen and color across every cabinet face — something brush or roller application can't replicate at scale. The completed cabinets are then installed with the filler-free fit that full-custom sizing makes possible. You can see how this approach translates to a finished kitchen in the Benton-area kitchen project , which serves as a strong reference point for Waterville-area homeowners.

How Central Maine Seasons and Older Homes Affect Cabinet Planning

Wood moves with humidity, and Maine's wide seasonal swing — humid summers, dry heated winters — means cabinet materials need to be selected and finished with that movement in mind. Species choice, panel construction, and finish application all affect how a cabinet holds up through a Maine winter.

Older homes in the Augusta and Waterville area also tend to have settled floors and walls that are rarely plumb or level. A filler-free installation requires scribing and fitting to the actual surfaces, not assuming they're square. Getting this right during installation is what separates a cabinet that looks custom from one that actually is.

Homeowners who plan their kitchen project in the fall or early winter often benefit from a shorter wait in the fabrication queue before the spring renovation rush, making that a practical window to start the consultation and design phase.

Fully custom kitchen cabinetry built to your exact room dimensions, finished in-house, and installed without filler strips produces a result that holds up through Central Maine's climate and fits the way your kitchen actually looks — not the way a catalog assumes it does.

Explore completed work and start your design conversation with Reynolds Custom Woodworks to see what a built-to-fit kitchen cabinet project looks like in your home.

Design Your Dream Kitchen

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 13:27:10 GMT

Design Your Dream Kitchen

November 17, 2019

Why Choose a Cabinetmaker to Design Your Dream Kitchen?

Let's face it, the kitchen has become the new living space in the house. It is the place we start our busy day hustling to get everyone out the door in a timely manner. It's the place we end our day winding down before we head to bed. It's the place we all congregate when we meet as groups to celebrate, to break bread, to live our lives. The kitchen IS the new living space, the nerve center of our homes. Housing designs have reflected this in the past few decades with the open concept layout and the "kitchen forward" planning which took the kitchen from the back, northern facing corners of homes, and brought it to the front of the house as a showcase. Kitchens are no longer strictly utilitarian... they are multifaceted. We eat in the kitchen, not the dining room. We fill out our thank you cards and open our mail here, not the office. If there were a murphy bed we may even sleep here! It is where everyone goes. A well designed kitchen will streamline many kitchen related tasks and allow for comfort and ease of use.

A great design starts with custom cabinetry

There are many advantages to having your kitchen cabinets built by a cabinetmaker. The cabinetry can be any size... including height, depth, and shape. The cabinetry can come in any wood type and color. The cabinetry will come with all the latest hardware. Most importantly... the cabinetry will be built by one company, under one roof, with YOU in mind. When you contract with a cabinetmaker all the workers know who the cabinetry is going to and why they are the sizes and shapes they are because it is all at your request. They are also built as large as possible to limit the number of seams during installation. They are built exactly they way you want them to be. They are not being built in a large factory where the end user and all circumstances are unknown.

A Cabinetmaker Designs and Builds YOUR cabinetry with YOU in mind

Good cabinetmakers are the best designers of kitchens. Since cabinetmakers build kitchens with the end user in mind designing your kitchen becomes a collaboration. Cabinetmakers will take all of your wants, needs, and room layout (windows, doors, high traffic areas) and create designs specific for your home and workflow. Since the cabinetry isn't being ordered out of a catalog in nominal sizes, cabinetmakers will build specific pieces to eliminate the need for filler strips and maximize storage.

At Reynolds Custom Woodworks you not only get our incredible custom inset cabinetry, you also get our superior design work. Our designer is a cabinetmaker. Together we will find the perfect balance of form and function to transform your kitchen into the showcase you've always dreamed it could be.

Reynolds Custom Woodworks... Simply Beautiful Cabinetry

Which Style of Cabinetry Should I Choose?

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 13:25:11 GMT

Which Style of Cabinetry Should I Choose?

Which Style of Cabinetry Should I Choose?

Time for a new kitchen? Congrats! You’re about to increase the value of your home AND fix all of the issues you’ve be living with in your current kitchen. Now it’s time to start thinking about the style of cabinetry you will be using. There are a few basic styles of cabinetry that you can put in your home. These styles fall in to one of two categories… Frameless and Face Frame cabinetry. There are advantages and disadvantages to each, I’ll dive in to those shortly. At Reynolds Custom Woodworks we are exclusively a Face Frame cabinet shop focusing on Inset Cabinetry.

Frameless Vs. Face Frame

These two terms deal specifically with how the doors and drawer fronts are hung on your cabinetry. It all starts with a cabinet box. The cabinet box houses shelving, drawers, or roll out shelving that you store your items in. Whether frameless, or framed, these items are used for both. The main difference between the two is how the doors are hung.

February 27, 2020

Frameless Cabinetry

Frameless cabinetry is just that… it does not include a face frame on the cabinet box. Instead, the edges of the cabinet box (usually particle board, sometimes actual plywood) are banded in a thin material that is either made from vinyl or a picture of wood. The doors and drawer fronts are then hung in a way that the edges of the cabinet box are mostly covered. This style of cabinetry is also called “euro style” and when used with slab or completely flat doors can create a very modern look. Frameless cabinetry tends to allow for more storage as they are very minimalistic, however they do tend to not hold up to the test of time as the banding on the plywood will fail due to moisture and overall wear and tear as it is so thin and basically hot glued on. This type of cabinetry tends to be less expensive and used a bunch in commercial applications with the thought that they can be replaced a few years down the road.

Framed Cabinetry

Face Frame cabinetry is a more robust way of building cabinetry. The same cabinet box is used with frameless, but instead of using thin strips of wood to cover the cabinet box, a frame made of wood (think picture frame) is built and mounted onto the cabinet box. Doors and drawer fronts are then hung on the frame of the cabinet. When the doors and drawers are closed you see a portion or the entire face frame of the cabinet. This style of cabinetry is mostly used in a residential setting, and I’ll bet that this is the style of cabinetry that you have now. If you open your doors, and you see wood on the box of the cabinet… you have Framed cabinetry.

Overlay vs. Inset Framed Cabinetry

There are two styles of framed cabinetry… overlay and inset. Overlay is just that. The doors and drawer fronts when closed, overlay the face frame of the cabinet. A very high percentage of the face frame cabinetry out there fall into the overlay category. You probably have this… how to tell? When the doors are closed, can you see the edge of the door? If yes, you have overlay. Overlay cabinetry tends to be less expensive then inset cabinetry which I’ll describe next.

Inset cabinetry is the cadillac of cabinetry. It is the way cabinetry has been built for hundred of years. It requires more skill to build, and because of this, will stand the test of time. Inset cabinetry is built so when the doors and drawers are closed they are flush with the face frame of the cabinetry giving a clean sleek look. Each door and drawer front has to be cut to fit perfectly in the frame of the cabinet. Because the frame is seen as well as the door, the wood that is used has to have perfect color and grain matching. Inset cabinetry takes more time and is more precise. This extra time does come at a cost as inset cabinetry holds the highest price tag of all the cabinet styles. Most cabinet companies around the country charge up to 50% more for inset cabinetry than overlay.

At Reynolds Custom Woodworks we do not uncharge for inset cabinetry… it’s what we do, almost exclusively. Since we are set up and trained to build in the inset style, we don’t charge extra. If you take our inset cabinetry and in an apples to apples comparison with other cabinet companies that uncharge for inset, we are more affordable.

Reynolds Custom Woodworks….

Simply Beautiful Cabinetry