Cabinets With A Capital "T"

There have been many changes in the manufactured cabinet industry over the thirty years or so I have been involved.

I first discovered manufactured cabinets back in the 1970's when I was building, finishing and installing my own cabinets; first in my own home, and later in the homes of clients.

I was always impressed by the look of the finishes because I had such difficulty achieving beautiful and durable finishes myself.

Back in those days there were few choices in cabinet finishes for a small shop like mine. There was lacquer; which was easy to apply, but fragile and brittle in use. Then there were urethane and varathane finishes, which seemed to create a durable result; but ultimately would soften and go gummy with exposure to the oils in your hands and the kitchen environment. I never experimented with oil finishes because they were more often used for furniture and not thought to hold up well to the harsh kitchen setting.

I only learned about catalyzed varnish finishes when I took steps to move out of the cabinetmaker role to become a kitchen designer marketing factory built cabinets.

My first employer was a Wood-Mode dealer who sent me to Wood-Mode's week-long training program at the factory in Kreamer, PA. I was blown away by the huge factory and showroom and the beautiful cabinets they turned out there. I was especially impressed by the demonstrations of the durability of Wood-Mode's catalyzed varnish finishes.

Since then I have seen that durability in reality year after year with most every sizable cabinet manufacturer in the country.

The finish is what separates permeable wood from the harsh kitchen environment. These cabinets really hold up! For that reason I have remained committed to manufactured cabinets over local custom, especially here in California where it was illegal to apply catalyzed varnish because of the toxicity of the process for workers.

Some years ago the toxicity issue became problematic even in the Mid-West and East, where most quality cabinet manufacturers are located; and the manufacturers pushed their finish suppliers to create non-toxic catalyzed varnishes. Now California shops are adopting non-toxic catalyzed varnishes and the reasons to prefer manufactured cabinets are becoming blurred.

There have always been distinct advantages to working with a local cabinet shop: They build the cabinets to fit from their own measurements, so there is not the concern that a mistake could ruin a designer. There are also occasionally conditions hidden behind the walls or cabinets that even an experienced designer cannot anticipate. Having cabinets locally built can save everyone's necks...designer, contractor and homeowner...in a situation like that.

Homeowners also have a different perception about local vs. manufactured cabinets: Consumers see manufactured cabinets as a finished product with consistency that rivals plastic (an incorrect perception). Local custom is seen as more a sum of its parts. There is a sense that individual pieces of wood are assembled to make the cabinets and that stains and finishes can be easily modified to achieve a desired result.

Uniformity in wood cabinet doors and panels is NEVER an accident, but instead a system of examination of the wood at every step in the process to make sure that like pieces of wood end up in the same doors and ultimately in the same kitchens. Such examination is an expensive way to produce cabinets, especially since cabinet quality wood is becoming more and more dear and harder to come by all the time.

When I first started in this business, cabinet doors with solid raised panels from upper-end manufacturers had one, two or three pieces of wood, edge-glued together to make up the solid wood panel (depending on the width of the door). Today the same manufacturers are gluing up panels for a single door made from five to ten strips of wood.

The reason for the change is that old-growth timber is not available from which to cut the larger pieces of wood the way it used to be. In other words...Our demand for wood products means the forests can't keep growing at the pace we are cutting them down. Therefore, we are cutting younger trees to meet our demand for cabinet quality woods..

Not only are there more pieces of wood in a cabinet door, but they are also more variable in their color, pattern and grain.

This variability makes it harder for a cabinet manufacturer to build a door in which all of the pieces match.

Manufacturers are able to build better cabinets for less due to these factors:

1. They locate their factories close to plentiful supplies of their raw materials and in areas where labor is cheaper.

2. They develop economies of scale by building many of the same items over and over.

3. They depend on suppliers of their raw materials to provide consistent product to their written and negotiated specifications.

4. They computerize their processes to reduce the number of employees required.

5. They develop a comprehensive catalog to help designers work with their products.

6. They hire factory representatives who develop and train a system of dealers to market their products over wide geographical areas of the country.

7. They maintain a fleet of trucks and drivers to safely and efficiently deliver their products to their dealers and/or end users.

8. They warranty and stand behind their products, some better manufacturers for a lifetime.

As soon as you add the task of eyeball matching pieces of wood to such a factory setting, you increase the need for storage space to store pieces of wood that are unmatched to date. You increase the waste factor to deal with the pieces of wood that are bought from suppliers but don't ever match well enough to make it into a door. You also increase the time the order takes from submission until it leaves the factory. Just in Time Manufacturing goes out the window. These factors increase the price of the cabinets to the ultra-high-end, making them unaffordable to the broad middle where most sales of custom manufactured cabinets go.

This brings us to my problem: Custom manufactured cabinets don't LOOK as good as they used to look. Consumers have expectations based upon what they have seen or purchased themselves in the past. Those expectations are no longer being met. The process getting here has been slow, but inexorable.

I recently did a kitchen where most of the (medium stained cherry) doors that were delivered on the cabinets were unacceptable to the client. She had done several kitchens over her lifetime and had what she thought were reasonable expectations of uniformity. The manufacturer took a bath trying to make her happy, and ultimately she was, but there was certainly a lot of headache and heartache for the client, the cabinet dealer, the contractor, the manufacturer, and me.

That's trouble with a capital T.

Peggy

The Shoe Tub

Over the top consumerism. Who ARE these people?




























































An Italian mosaic manufacturer SICIS Art Mosaic Factory, presents a bathtub for the shoe obsessed.

Audrey is a luxury shoe-shaped bathtub designed by Italian designer Massimiliano Della Monaca and decorated with precious glass mosaic tiles.

The shape of the bath – an elegant pump shoe with a sky-scraper heel – allows the water to cascade down from the heel like a waterfall. These bathtubs are objects of great personality, created as a tribute to the woman's world. And at 165cm tall they will certainly be the talking point of any bathroom.

Happy New Year!

Peggy

Thiruvathirai Kali and Poduthuval

Hope and wish you all had a lovely start to the New Year. After the celebrations, every one must be back to routine. So am I. We had all most all of the family here for the New Year except my eldest co-sister and niece. We missed them very much. Since Thiruvathirai was celebrated on the 1st, the day started pretty early for me (3:30 A.M) to go to the temple to have the Aruthra Darsanam (The pre-dawn hours of the full moon night, in the month of Margazhi/Danu with the longest nights in the year, marks the auspicious time for Arudhra Darshan). The specialty food for thriuvathirai is kali and poduthuval. Kali is roasted and powdered rice cooked in jaggery syrup. The sweet dish is served with a spicy side- Poduthuval. The main ingredient for the poduthuval is Kavathu and Avarakkai. Some add pumpkin, raw banana etc to it. Each family has their own recipe. In Kerala, many take upvaas/nolumbu on the day and they abstain from eating rice. Kali is made using arrowroot powder and will have consistency of payasam. During the time of thiruvathirai, shops sell this arrowroot powder. I usually stock it up during this season.

Thiruvathira Kali


Raw rice - 1 cup

Powdered jaggery - 1 cup

Whole moong dal - 2 tblspn

Water - 2 cups

Grated coconut - 3 tblspsn

Elaichi powder - 1/4 tspn

Ghee - 1 tblspn



Wash and drain rice. Roast it over low flame till it is pink. Roast moong dal for few minutes tillyou smell the flavor.  Cool and powder rice and moong dal, not very fine. It should be like rava, slightly coarse and grainy. Then only you will get fluffy kali else it will end up in a sticky mass.

Heat water in a kadai/uruli. When water gets heated, add the powdered jaggery. Bring it a boil. When it starts boiling, stir in the powdered rice rava. Lower the flame and let it cook for few minutes. The water will be fully absorbed as the rice rava gets cooked. Add a tablespoon of ghee and elaichi powder. When the kali appears dry and fluffy, stir in the grated coconut and remove from fire. Cover and leave it to cool. Kali taste best when it is cold.

It’s very easy to prepare kali provided you get the measurements right. The amount of water might differ according to the variety of rice. Usually the ratio of rice to water is 1:2.  This time, I made kali from 3 cups of rice.

Kavathu Poduthuval



Kavathu chopped into cubes - 2 cups

Avarakkai/Indian broad beans - 8 nos

Salt to taste

Turmeric a pinch



To grind

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Green chilly - 3 nos



To season

Coconut oil - 1 tblspn

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tspn

Red chilly - 2 nos

Curry leaves


Method

Wash and peel the skin from the kavathu. Chop them into 1 inch cubes. String the beans and cut one into 2 or 3 pieces according to the size. Add turmeric and enough water to the pressure cooker along with the cut vegetables. Pressure cook for two whistles. The consistency of the poduthuval will be of thick gravy. Some prefer it to be dry. This is each one's personal choice. We like it slightly gravy but not runny kind.

Grind the coconut and green chilly coarsely without adding water. Add the ground coconut and salt to the cooked vegetable and bring to a boil. Adjust the consistency by adding water if needed. Do the seasoning and serve hot with the cold kali. This is the only festival I remember where a sweet dish is served with a salty side.

On a different note:

One of my readers Shrilatha sent me pics of recipes tried from Kailas Kitchen along with the New Year wishes. She really made my day. I am happy to share the pics with you all. Thanks Shri for sending the pics across.

No bake pinwheel cookies

Milk Chocolate