How to Clean Wooden Cabinets in Your Kitchen

Kitchen cabinets are a vital part of your kitchen but do you know how to care for your kitchen cabinets? Kitchen cabinets need maintenance to look their best and last for years to come. When properly maintained your cabinets will look better and last for years to come. 

A basic cabinet cleaning involves a microfiber towel that is dampened and a dry microfiber towel to fully dry the cabinets. This process is used to clean off grease, spills, fingerprints and other contaminants. If the cabinets are especially dirty you may need to use a mild detergent and water and follow with a dry cloth. Dishcloths and sponges are not ideal because they may contain harsh detergents and can scratch the delicate finish on the cabinets. Avoid soap with dye, self-polishing wax, abrasive cleaners and ammonia based cleaners. These can damage your cabinets and leave a film. Furniture polish is not advised for cabinet cleaning. 

Spills should be cleaned up quickly. Cabinets are made of wood and can become damaged if too much water is left on the cabinets. Spills should be wiped up immediately with a dry towel, blotting up the water not rubbing it around. If water is common in certain areas like around the dishwasher or sink you will want to take extra care to remove this water and protect your cabinets. 

Excessive moisture can cause problems for your cabinet finish and the wood. Wet towels should not be draped over the cabinet doors because this can cause excess moisture to penetrate the wood. Additionally coffee pots, tea makers and other appliances that create steam should be kept away from the cabinets. Over time this steam can ruin cabinets. If steam gets on your cabinets you will need to dry them immediately just like you do with a spill. Cabinets with sinks should be protected from interior spills. Adding a waterproof mat below the sink is a great way to protect the interior of your cabinets from water damage. 

Excessive heat can also damage cabinets. Appliances should be kept away from the cabinets and should not be put inside a cabinet unless designed to do so like an in cabinet microwave. The wood and finish on your cabinets can be damaged by excess heat. Direct sunlight can be a concern as well and blinds or window tinting are a great option for protecting your cabinets from the sun. The Idaho summers are hot and windows can really magnify the sun if you home is positioned in direct sunlight. 

Abrasive cleaners and tools can damage the wood finish. These tools can allow the surface to become damaged and make it easier for food, mold and moisture to penetrate your cabinets finish. Over time abrasive cleaners and tools can dull your cabinets. 

Cabinets are a huge investment in your home and caring for them can lengthen their life a great deal. Extending the life and beauty of your cabinets is an investment in your home. Water and heat are the two enemies of cabinet finish and if exposed to these for long periods of time your cabinets can become damaged. This sort of damage is not covered under warranties and will be your responsibility to repair. 

Sweetwood has specific instructions about materials and cleaning agents to use on our custom cabinets. Our years of experience in the industry has allowed us to come up with guidelines that help your cabinets look great for years to come. When the maintenance plan we provide is followed your cabinets can look beautiful for years and years. Sweetwood can help with repair damage to cabinets as well as replace cabinets that have become damaged. Call us today to discuss you custom cabinet project. 

Schedule Your Custom Cabinet Quote Now for 2022

Choosing the timeline for remodeling your kitchen can be hard but if you are starting to plan you may want to consider starting to get custom cabinet quotes. The 2022 season will fly by and with the current state of imports and supply chain issues if you wait until you are ready to schedule your project may be delayed months. Starting the process early is a great way to ensure your custom cabinets are available when you are ready. 

When it comes to custom cabinets, experience counts!

If you are considering custom kitchen cabinets you may be searching through different companies wondering which is best. Custom cabinetry is only as good as the professional and experience is a huge advantage in this field. Finding a good cabinet maker like Sweetwood cabinets is vital to a beautiful finished product. Quality is the cornerstone of custom cabinetry and beautiful quality work comes with time and experience. Quickly built cabinets are available nearly anywhere but a custom builder puts in the hours. 

Benefits of Custom Cabinets Versus Pre-Built Cabinets

Is it time to get new cabinets in your kitchen or bathroom? You may just want a new look and feel to your home. Or you may be selling your home soon. Upgrading cabinets is a great way to increase your home’s resale value. Whether it’s time to upgrade your home for yourself, or if you’re just planning on selling, there are benefits to investing in custom cabinets as opposed to pre-built cabinets. Not all cabinets are created equal. Well prefabricated cabinets are often the cheaper option, you get what you pay for. And if you want high quality, you’re going to need to pay a little extra for it. But the benefits outweigh the drawbacks when it comes to investing in custom cabinets. 

When you have your cabinets custom built, you can add your own style and flare into them. the cabinet maker will likely strive to give you exactly what you want. Cabinets built individually are completely customizable to look like whatever you want them to look like. You can determine the layout, area, and finish. You can match the rest of your home perfectly by choosing custom cabinets. With prefabricated cabinetry, you are limited as to what style, color, and type of cabinet you can choose from. You may not be able to find what you’re looking for. Custom cabinets may also be easier if you have a kitchen or bathroom with strange or difficult angles. It may just make more sense to go this route.

Custom built cabinets are off in a high quality and highly desirable when a home is on the market. They’re stylish and can be made to look modern, retro, rustic, or any other way that you decide to specify. You have your choice of materials as well. Some types of wood are better for making kitchen cabinets than others. Some are more durable, and others look better. Some are both durable and look good. When you work with a cabinet maker, you can bring your own set of specifications to the table and even possibly assist in designing the perfect cabinets for your home. If you choose high quality materials, it is likely that the quality of craftsmanship will be quite high. Some cabinets even last long enough to be passed down from one generation to the next.

When deciding upon the finish for your custom cabinets, take into consideration the rest of your interior design. Do you want something more versatile, or something that better matches what you’ve got now? Whether you are upgrading just because of normal wear and tear, or if you are looking to sell your home and want to increase its value before you do so, consider hiring a custom cabinet maker to create the cabinets for your home. a good furniture maker will be able to work with your vision. They can be attention grabbing or more subtle. Ultimately, you get to choose what your finished cabinets will look like.

Why Custom Cabinets are Better Than Lowes/Home Depot Cabinets

When you are on the hunt for cabinets for your home, it can start to get overwhelming with the number of places you can buy them from. What is the difference between them? Are some better than others? Based off of those questions, we have broken down the exactly why someone might want to choose custom cabinets over prefabricated cabinets from big box stores.

Pre-Fabricated Cabinets at Lowes & Home Depot

Pre-fabricated cabinets are most often bought at home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowes. Like you would think, these cabinets come fully formed and ready to install right away. With no customization, there is a certainty that someone else’s cabinets will look just like yours. There is no option for individualization, as these types of cabinets are mass produced for Lowes and Home Depots all over the country.

There tends to be a variety of options to choose from in terms of style, however. Rather than being able to pick a specific style, decorative features, finishes, and overall layout, pre-fabricated cabinets require homeowners to choose a typical cookie-cutter style. Many pre-fabricated cabinets are made with low-quality wood materials as well, making them have a shorter lifespan than a custom set. Hardware can be cheap and not quite match the rest of the cabinets. Pre-fabricated cabinets are unable to fluctuate in dimensions to fit odd sizes in kitchens as well. For those with uniquely sized kitchens or that are wanting to use them for laundry rooms or behind bars will probably find that there are awkward leftover gaps from the rigid dimensions of the pre-fabricated cabinets.

Custom Cabinets Made by Sweetwood

Custom cabinets, on the other hand, are exactly that: Able to be individualized to your specific home and tastes. While this is a more costly option, it more than pays for itself in the fact that you have almost no limitations on what your cabinets can look like. A cabinet company in Boise like Sweetwood is able to provide one of a kind features centered around a design that is created by the homeowners themselves. On the same hand, we can also install the cabinets so that you do not have to worry about the tricky process.

Because you know that your custom cabinets are made to order with quality materials, they will often last a lifetime! For those that have a unique cabinet situation (putting in a downstairs bar or those with uncommon kitchen dimensions), going with custom cabinets is often the only way to go. Additionally, homeowners have an unlimited design option to add whatever they would like into their kitchen cabinets – lazy Susan’s, bookshelves, or even a doorway to downstairs (trust us, we have seen it all!). Instead of working with the pre-fabricated designs to decorate the rest of your kitchen, you can use a custom design to accentuate every aspect of the space. As you can tell, custom cabinets are often much more visually rewarding than pre-fabricated cabinets.

When to Use Custom Cabinets

There are a lot of different situations in which someone might need to purchase custom cabinets. Most often, we see custom cabinets being used for kitchen remodels, when the homeowner is able to finally get a chance to put their spin on their home. This gives them the freedom to incorporate everything they have ever wanted into their kitchen layout and offers a lot of flexibility in the remodeling design. This also goes when homeowners decide to build a downstairs bar or even an upstairs fully loaded laundry room. Having custom cabinets allows for more of a unique look to the space, while also being able to match the other cabinets in your home.

New construction companies that are interested in setting their homes apart from typical new constructions will sometimes offer custom cabinetry. This visual standout often appeals to home buyers and can be the difference between skipping on a home and sending in an offer. Many homeowners worry that if they wait to remodel their bathrooms or kitchens down the road, that they won’t be able to match the rest of the cabinetry in the home. Those using custom cabinetry, however, need not worry! Utilizing custom cabinetry allows you to wait until you are in a good spot to start remodeling a specific part of the house because cabinetmakers can easily create cabinets that complement the rest of the home.

Hiring Sweetwood for Custom Cabinetry

When you are looking to hire a cabinetmaker, you want to ensure the woodworking projects they complete are top quality. To find a great cabinet company in Boise, first look to those that have used one around you! People that have firsthand experience with a custom cabinet company will be able to tell you who they loved working with and who they would recommend for your special project. Once you have found a couple businesses, make sure that they have all the right licenses to be in business, as well as can provide testimonials and examples of the work they have done in the past.

Not only will seeing these examples prove great workmanship but might also give you some ideas on what you will want for your custom cabinet order! Here at Sweetwood, we work closely with our clients to ensure they are getting the highest quality workmanship along with the best customer service. Through the design phase, we will work alongside your budget to help you shape exactly what you would like to see in your custom cabinets. Our team of experts can even help if you are unsure of what you want! As a local, family-owned business, we take pride in being able to provide quality craftsmanship to those in our community to help them express themselves within their homes. When it is time to remodel your kitchen, build a downstairs bar, or revamp your laundry room, give us a call to

Reclaimed Wood Has Claimed Cabinetry Too

Reclaimed wood is the hottest trend in interior design at the moment. You see it used in hardwood floors, kitchen islands, countertops, bathrooms, and much more. It’s also being used in cabinets. So, what is reclaimed wood? Reclaimed wood is wood that has previously been used for some other purpose and is reclaimed for a new use. That could mean something as simple as wooden cabinets used in one house being sold to be used in a different house. However, the implication is often that the wood has been used for some significantly different purpose and that the wood has been weathered. Barnwood is often considered the ideal kind of reclaimed wood.

What is Barnwood?

 As the name suggests, barnwood is wood that was used in barns. The wood is often unfinished wood used on the exterior of the barn. The exposure to the elements has caused the wood to develop a rich patina that is difficult to replicate. Oftentimes, the ends are cracked and splintered, the wood has old nail holes, and the color is uneven. All of these weathered characteristics just add to the look of the wood.

How Is It Used?

 Any type of reclaimed wood is basically used the same way as any new hardwood would be used. A company will source reclaimed wood from several different sources. They’ll then piece together the planks of wood to form cabinet doors. They’ll sand the cabinets smooth, stain them, and finish them. If you buy reclaimed wooden cabinets from a company, you can expect that they’ll be the same quality as their new wood cabinets.

You can also find reclaimed wooden cabinets yourself if you know where to look. If you’re going to do the work yourself, it’s advisable to find old cabinet doors that you can restore. An old cabinet door that has been used in a house or business for decades will pick up many of the same characteristics as barnwood or other types of distressed wood.

Restoring Old Cabinets

 If you choose to buy old cabinet door and restore them, you want to make them sound but you don’t want to overdo it. If you completely restore the cabinets, they’ll look brand new. That’s a great way to save money but not the look you’re going for. Sand away rough spots but don’t fill in old nail holes and don’t sand away scratches.

A good, light-colored stain will enrich the natural color. Then you can finish them and install them.