The in-house millwork process at Forest Heart Builders is the same on a freestanding cabinet as it is on a one-hundred-cabinet custom kitchen.
The shop lead reviews the full cabinetry package against the construction documents. Dimensions confirmed against actual job-site measurements. Door style, drawer detail, hardware, and finish specifications confirmed with the designer and the client.
The shop lead walks the lumber yard and selects every board for the project. Grain orientation, color match, and structural soundness checked board by board.
Rough lumber milled to thickness and width on the shop’s industrial planer and jointer.
Doors built using traditional cope-and-stick or mortise-and-tenon joinery in the species and profile the design specifies.
Drawer boxes built from solid hardwood. Half-blind dovetail joinery at the front. Through-dovetail at the back. No staples, no biscuits.
Solid hardwood face frames joined with pocket-screw and glue construction. Frame faces sanded flush before assembly.
Cabinet boxes built from no-added-formaldehyde plywood with solid-wood edge banding where visible. Boxes squared and clamped during glue-up.
Three-pass progressive sanding 120, 150, 180 grit on all visible surfaces. Profiled edges hand-sanded. Final sanding under raking light to catch every surface imperfection.
The finish system is a process unto itself, with its own dedicated page (/craftsmanship/22-step-finish). The short version twenty-two distinct sanding, sealing, staining, glazing, top-coating, and rubbing steps, applied by hand, one piece at a time.
Soft-close Blum drawer slides and hinges installed in the shop. Knobs, pulls, and decorative hardware installed at the project site after delivery.
Every piece inspected against the cabinetry package. Reveals measured. Finish surfaces examined under raking light. Hardware function verified.
Local projects installed by the Forest Heart installation team. Out-of-region projects crated, freighted, and coordinated with the client’s installation crew.