The prospect of selecting new cabinetry for your remodeling project is always exhilarating. At the same time, it can be quite overwhelming. Establishing a relationship with a top-notch cabinetry showroom or craftsman is one of the best ways to curb these pre-purchase jitters.
Showroom visits are valuable because you can actually see the cabinetry and test their real-life functionality, color, and size, giving you a more thorough perspective not available by simply perusing design magazines and websites.
Estrella Cabinetry & Design Center is a little known gem in Goodyear offering some of the best in home design. Owned and managed by two delightful women: Laura Eagan, CKD (certified kitchen designer), and Kimberly Sambito with a combined 50 years of experience in cabinetry, countertops, decorative plumbing, window treatments, lighting, and decorative hardware. The professionals at Estrella Cabinetry & Design Center are there to help you transform your vision into reality.
But even the best-intended visions do not always translate into the perfect finished product without quality workmanship and materials. Estrella Cabinetry & Design Center realizes this and has selected product lines that reflect their high standards and commitment to value and innovation. They feature what they feel are the best lines in the industry, across all price spectrums, and as evidenced by the restaging of their showroom, will replace suppliers they feel no longer meet their exacting standards.
Our visit included a personalized tour of five cabinetry lines as part of a Lunch and Learn presentation generously sponsored the first Thursday of each month by the showroom and its vendors for valley designers. Vendors include Huntwood, Ultracraft, Showplace, Legacy, and Waypoint. All five are United States manufacturers and each has been selected for functional and beautiful design and excellent customer service. Our tour began with one of the two full kitchen vignettes at the front of the store.
Huntwood, a leading Western manufacturer of custom cabinets, offers a high level of personalization that is able to meet most budgets. Offering one of the nation’s largest door styles, wood species, colors, finishes, custom modifications, moldings, and accessories as selectable standard features.
The Huntwood display showcases an example of its highest price point with classic traditional cabinetry with flush beaded inset, raised panel doors, columns, stacked moldings, glass mullions, and burnished crème finish. The soft, creamy vanilla finish is accented by the navy of the beaded island cabinetry, quartz countertops from Caeserstone Marble Collection, and stainless steel farm sink by Lenova. A combination of lending a contemporary vibe to this stunning display. The contrasts between the light and dark cabinetry, cool stainless steel, and fabulous metal beaded chandelier from Premier Lighting create instant eye appeal.
Huntwood will color match any hue across all paint lines using Sherwin-Williams base products and offers an array of instantly accessible features from pull-out spice racks, roll-out shelves, and wastebaskets, and creative uses of corner cabinet options.
The Ultracraft display was our next stop. Although displayed to reflect the possibilities of semi-custom cabinets at a lower price point, it most certainly did not disappoint even after starting with the more pricey display. Ultracraft offers many of the higher-end features such as full access cabinets, 5-way adjustable hinges, soft close doors and drawers, and trash receptacles, all noted as standard features in this truly contemporary space.
The textured Melamine slab doors in Metropolis Argent Oak feature textured, exotic wood-look cabinetry infused with the currently popular gray tones, accented by fabulous hinged door uppers from the Vision line.
In consideration of the trend-savvy, yet budget-conscious customer, Estrella Cabinetry & Design Center completed vignette with Silestone countertops with waterfall sides on the island, mosaic backsplash, and floating shelves. Successfully creating a kitchen that can visually stand its own against high-tech, high-priced competitor’s kitchens.
The custom paint color program will not only color match your colors from major paint manufacturers, but they will send you a custom door sample complete with your door style, paint color, glazes, and distressing.
Not to be outdone by Ultracraft, Showplace Wood was our next big hitter to pull out all the stops. If a truly custom cabinet is what you are looking for, look no further. Even if ready to let Showcase take the lead in cabinetry design with its extensive offering of door styles, interior accessories, moldings, decorative accents, and glass and mullion choices, rest assured you won’t find these custom cabinets in any big box outlet.
Showplace takes your bespoke needs to a whole new level by building-to-suit from your custom sketches. Beyond the cabinetry basics, Showcase applies its furniture finish techniques to an extensive line of fireplace surrounds, murphy wall-beds, and furniture including much-requested floating vanities and universal-design options to meet the exacting requirements of your project.
Their new-build cabinetry is complemented by the Renew cabinet refacing program. Replace out tired, worn base cabinet faces with the same styles, wood species, and finishes to match or coordinate with new uppers. No longer do you have to tear out like-new countertops to get a completely fresh space. Woods, finishes, and color matching are only limited by your imagination and can become a reality in as little as 6 weeks.
Next stop, Legacy Cabinets from Alabama. Four to five generations of love poured into this line as well as many standard features such as self-closing hinges, dovetail construction, and ¾” plywood full-depth adjustable shelves.
Custom remodelers and home flippers, take heed. This is the line of choice by many of the large builders in the valley for both quality and price point for projects in the $550-990K price range. They know that a reasonable price point and a history steeped in heritage does not mean stuck in style. Legacy offers 6 wood species (includes Thermafoil on MDF “medium density fiberboard”). Color Splash program offering a strong, full-color offering from the standard Sherwin-Williams fan deck. And 3 distinct distressed cabinet options. Think of the design possibilities!
Anticipate a 4-week lead time plus transportation to deliver your select product. A full-service operation, Legacy installers personally drive your product to your doorstep and do the install. Now that’s customer service.
Also known for personalized customer service is Waypoint Living Spaces, an independent dealer-only brand, of the widely sold American Woodmark brand. What does that mean? American Woodmark has other brands that are available in the big box stores, but Waypoint, its flagship line is only available through independent dealer showrooms like Estrella Cabinetry & Design Center.
Headquartered in Virginia, American Woodmark has nine plants that serve the stock cabinet demographics around the U.S. Important because woods acclimate and finishes are subject to shrinking and ghosting. Unfinished wood surfaces are given adequate time to adapt to the local humidity (or lack of) before paints and finishes are applied, assure your cabinetry retains that factory look for years to come.
Price-wise, they are what is called an 80/20 brand. A semi-component product that is neither high-end custom nor low-end mass-produced and offering a full array of selections for the same price point. Soft closing doors and drawers, glazing selections, and plywood sides as a few of their standard features.
Worried that once you pick out cabinets there will be unforeseen hidden costs for transportation? Not with Waypoint, delivery is on them. They will even hold your product until you are ready for installation as well as carry it all up several flights of stairs. All for no extra charge.
Now for the cabinetry showstopper. Not only can you have this product delivered within 4 weeks, but you can be a design hero with the client who decides, in the 11th hour, they no longer want that chocolate glaze or particular door style. Waypoint accepts last-minute cancellations and can take finish changes within 48 hours of shipping.
Truly the best of the best in design center choices, Estrella Cabinetry & Design Center also offers three different manufacturers of hardware in an array of styles. Not hollow-core selections, but solid, durable pieces and an array of fabulous designs for all sensibilities.
For the curious. The appliance-less vignettes are awaiting the arrival of Estrella Cabinetry & Design Center’s appliance top pick, Monark.
Happy designing!