Custom cabinets for Boulder's small kitchens and older homes.

Most Martin Acres houses are ranches of roughly 1,100 to 1,600 square feet above grade, built between the mid-1950s and late 1960s. Kitchens in houses that size are compact, and there's rarely a spare wall for more cabinets. The ones you have need to hold more.

We start by counting what has to be stored, then assign it to drawers before shelves. Uppers taken to the ceiling hold the things you use twice a year. A 12 to 15 inch deep pantry fits where a full-depth one won't. A kitchen cabinetry plan for a small room is mostly a stack of small moves like these.

• Uppers taken to the ceiling, with stacked cabinets on top
• Shallow pantry cabinets in narrow walls
• Drawer bases in place of door-and-shelf bases
• Appliance garages to clear the counter
• Panel-ready dishwasher to keep a short run visually quiet

Cabinet boxes are mostly composite wood: particleboard, MDF or hardwood plywood. Federal rules under TSCA Title VI cap formaldehyde emissions from those panels, and products sold in the US must be certified to them. That's a floor, not a ceiling. If you want lower, ask for boxes made with no-added-formaldehyde (NAF) or ultra-low-emitting (ULEF) resins, and ask to see the documentation. Our guide to cabinet materials covers the rest.

Finishes matter as much as the box. A factory-cured finish has largely off-gassed before it arrives. A finish sprayed on site in a small room hasn't, and in January with the windows shut, you'll smell it.

Boulder updated its accessory dwelling unit rules in 2023 and again in 2025. If you're adding one, the kitchen is usually a single wall or a short L: a sink base, a narrow range or cooktop, a compact fridge and storage that does double duty. We draw these to the inch, and you'll want to confirm current requirements with the city before anyone orders.

Rentals on University Hill and in Goss-Grove need a different spec. Tenants change every year, doors get slammed and the sink base takes a beating. Plywood boxes, full-overlay doors on solid hinges, a hard finish and standard widths that are easy to repair. Cabinet replacement in a rental should be easy to repeat, not precious.

Mapleton Hill is a city historic district, with houses dating mostly from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Plaster walls, original trim and floors that have settled for a century are normal, so cabinets get scribed to the wall and finished to meet existing casings.

Inset doors suit the period. They also show every error, since an eighth-inch reveal exposes any box that isn't square. If the project changes anything outside, such as a new window over the sink, talk to the city's historic preservation staff first.