When you hear people talk about new cabinets, if you’re like me, you’ll immediately think of loading them up at the local Menard’s or Home Depot. It’s a pretty routine process. You get to pick from a small selection of finishes, designs and a million different pieces of hardware, all while you’re sitting in a big loud box store. The world is buzzing around you while you make the decisions that will take up a hefty financial commitment and that SHOULD be creating your dream space. But this doesn’t feel so dreamy. The salesman ticks off boxes on the paperwork faster than you can spell your own name. The next thing you know, you’re asked for measurements and if you’re installing them yourselves. By this time, you’re kinda reeling. You’re so wrapped up in the hustle of it all, that you forget to ask about the little things that are BIG things to you; soft close drawers & hinges, special heights and custom colors. You’re feeling a little guilty for wanting to go back to the drawing board and just walk away, but yet you still leave the place with a carbon copy order in your hand with additional costs for measurements, installs and who knows what else. When you are finally in the car, it happened so fast, you can’t even remember what you picked out.
THIS. IS. NOT. HOW. IT. SHOULD. BE.
Hell. No.
Charlie and I have always been big about saving up so we can get what we WANT. Yes, it’s amazing to get great deals and the “best price”, but when it comes to big things like remodeling our home, we learned our lesson on the “get it on the cheap” or the “just swing by the ____ store”. Nope. Never again.
When you go with the big box stores, guess what you get? Cookie Cutter treatment and product. You get call after call when things don’t go right and you just want it fixed. You get “we call it custom, but it’s far from custom”.
Our small master bathroom posed a few challenges, the biggest? The size. It’s TINY. Like Super Tiny. Like what the hell were the previous homeowners thinking, tiny. Unless we want to bust down walls and DOUBLE the total cost of this project, we knew we had to stick to the same footprint. Everything in it’s same place, just so much better visually and a much more efficient use of space.
So, Finken Companies & our Contractor, Bob, came in and demo’d that baby. Out went the Shower, Toilet, Sink, Vanity, and cabinets. Next? Time to Plan some seriously awesome custom cabinets.
No, we did not call a box store. We did not call our private contractor to find something at a building center. We called TISCHLER. Best. Decision. Ever.
I worked with Bryan (President & CEO) & Leah (Design & Sales). Bryan was the first to join me at our home and measure our bathroom. That is where we started, with our canvas. Bryan also came upstairs to look at my corner kitchen cabinets to see about adding a Lazy Susan. A few measurements, and Bryan and I were chatting about options. I told him that in the basement master bathroom, our linen cabinet was just doors and shelves. It was so deep that you had to crawl on the floor to get to the back of them. They were terrible in the world of function. I asked about drawers. I asked about linen/hamper options. I asked so many damned questions. Not only was Bryan able to answer me with a yes, no, possible, etc..but it was right there, real time and non of it was cookie cutter. He asked all the questions and didn’t tick off one box. He took notes. He listened so I could be the one directing the purchase. By the end of the first meeting, it had only been 30 mins, in the quiet of my own home, and we had a stellar launching point.
My requests
-Probably black cabinets with Nickel Hardware
-Modern meets Farmhouse without the extra “feminine” that farmhouse can bring
-Feet on the vanity without being open to the back
-An opening inside the vanity to accommodate an outlet for the Touch2O faucet.
-One cabinet and drawers for my linen. Vanity, one big open space and two small drawers on the top.
That’s it. No final decisions. No Ok, sign your life away here. Nope. None of it. Just the start of something amazing.
Within about a week, Bryan was ready to show me what he had created. Now..slow down there, when I say created..there were no nails, board or paint of any kind. It was time to review the DESIGN plans and pick out my dream cabinets.
I joined Bryan and Leah at Tischler Wood Products in Avon. We were in a beautiful private room, with added Covid features like plexiglass between us so we could talk and see, but had that added protection. Then Bryan slipped me a piece of paper. It was his printed off designs for MY Cabinets. No one elses. No factory stock photo. Nope. MY CABINETS. There they were. I could immediately tell that not only did Bryan hit the nail on the head, but that I was going to be so much more excited that I expected to be.
Next Leah brought in samples of doors, hardware, colors and more. I had brought with me my granite sample, the flooring sample and the paint color sample. She knew exactly where to begin. I didn’t have to peruse a wall of knobs and pulls and everything under the sun. Sure I could have, but Leah had already chatted with me about ME. What I loved, what I wanted in this bathroom and she brought out 3-4 options. And BOOM. there it was. I picked out my doors. The color of the INSIDE of my cabinets even. However, it was the color OF the cabinets that blew me away. I had originally been looking at Black for a modern, masculine but yet still modern farmhouse look. Leah saw that Indigo Batik was one of my blue choices. So she walked up to me with a pre-finished cabinet door. I knew IMEDIATELY what color it was. It was a Benjamin Moore color of the year. It was a color I had pinned so many times. I literally started shouting HALE NAVY! OMG HALE NAVY! YES! DONE. it’s DONE. That’s IT!
We compared the original choice of brushed nickel pulls, but when I saw the brushed gold I fell in absolute love. Here the girl that for years had dreamed of that perfect Potterybarn home, was about to have the most beautiful Potterybarn-esc cabinets. This is when I started crying. I was so overcome with joy and emotion, I literally started crying.
From this point, Bryan and his crew took my choices and created the most beautiful cabinets. Anything that came up during the install was handled on site. Charlie and I are still in awe with our team that we’ve put together. When/if something goes a little wonky, guess what? They can fix it. Right then and there. They can troubleshoot. Our team is not a group of random delivery guys that throw things into the room and walk out. Our team is definitely not Charlie and I DIY’ing and hitting a snag going..”Oh great, now what do we do?”
I still walk up to the cabinets and touch the smooth, no bumps, no brush line surface and think, “Holy shit. This is mine.” We’ve had other vendors in working on the bathroom that literally asked, “did they ACTUALLY make that or order it?” To which I Proudly answer, they made it. They ABSOLUTELY Made It. I’m so proud to have these cabinets in my home. I absolutely recommend them for any job. If it’s wood, they can create it. Charlie and I have already discussed that they WILL be creating for our home again.
Don’t get me wrong, the big box stores DO serve a purpose, but if you’re looking for an experience that can literally bring you to emotional tears like the moment you picked out your wedding dress and saw it on yourself, then head to Avon or TischlerMN.com. You won’t be disappointed.
I can’t wait to show you the big reveal! All will be finished in the next two weeks!
Brook Stephens 