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Hi, I was wondering if the Los Angeles style is offered in City Cabinets? I see it in the style page, but can’t find it in the drop down choices anywhere? If I’m not fond of shaker cabinets or edge profiles, is my only choice in city cabinets a slab? (I’m actually fond of a slab, but the “warnings” and terms about not grain matching have me scared-off. I wish I could see some examples?) Thanks!
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1. Currently, the Los Angeles style is not available in City Cabinets. City focuses on quality, speed, and price. While the Los Angeles style is certainly high quality, it takes a long time to produce, and the skilled labor required for mitering, attaching, and hand-sanding does not align with the speed and price goals.
For the Los Angeles style, please check out Barker Cabinets, which offers more options like this.
2. The Slab Plywood Door style has a long history, but it comes with significant challenges. The biggest issue is grain matching and managing customer expectations. In the past, we’ve had customers agree that grain matching wouldn’t be available, and we shipped the doors accordingly. However, if a door was damaged in transit, replacing it became a major challenge. The new door wouldn’t be from the same batch, sheet, or even tree, leading to substantial differences in color and grain. This often resulted in customers requesting a complete remake of all doors at no cost due to transit damage—something the carrier never covers. Ultimately, this created frustration for both the customer and the vendor, often ending in negative experiences for both parties.
To solve these issues, we launched BarkerModern.com. Our modern line eliminates these problems by using Italian laminate, which is highly realistic, offers consistent color and grain tone, and allows for easy replacement—even years later—with nearly identical results. Since the material features an engineered core, large sheet sizes, and a durable laminate finish, it is stronger, more affordable, and overall more beautiful.
Personally, I have to touch these Italian doors to tell if they are real wood or laminate—they’re just that good.
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Thank you Chad! You might want to remove the Los Angeles Style from the city cabinets website then?
https://www.citycabinets.com/Los-Angeles-Cabinet-Door-Style-s/380.htmI understand how managing customer expectations with a slab might become insane. There are some bizarre reviews out in the world about having horizontal grain on one cabinet and vertical on the one next door. I cannot imagine as a company that is something you’d intentionally do! I also understand the veneer slicing process. I guess I’m just wondering if any QC/Care is taken in the build process that if something looks horrible, someone will just look at it and say, “nope?”
In all honesty, I really like the Boise style fronts and will be pricing them out this weekend. I build and finish mahogany/sapele sail boats and so I’m a little partial to the sapele with the chestnut stain. That being said, the walnut and RSWO are calling to me too 🙂
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Yeah, having one horizontal and another vertical is crazy if a company is trying to pass that off as acceptable. For our slab plywood doors the grain is always vertical. Our plywood has A grade veneers with careful consideration to color and tone. The issue is having grain run perfectly from one door to another and from a lower drawer font to the one on top. Just not feasible and it gets worse if a front is damaged and needs replacement. It’s still a well reviewed style that we offer.
Yeah, Sapele is highly underrated as a wood type currently. Seems like everyone orders white paint and white oak with a clear finish. As for Sapele, it has one of the nicest smells, textures, and classy feel of all the wood types offered IMO. Side note, I sometimes take the fall-off pieces of wood home and burn batches of the rejected Sapele in my fireplace. I cannot describe the smell of burning Sapele, but I would say it has a sweet smell that is very unusual.
Boise is awesome, I used that style in my home. The applied molding has a classy feel and is a very nice elegant style IMO.
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