Caring for your cabinets
Mostly it's a soft cloth, a little dish soap and steady humidity.
Day-to-day care
A new finish takes about 30 days to cure fully, so clean gently in the first month.
Cleaning
Dust with a soft, lint-free cloth. For grease or fingerprints, stir a few drops of dish soap (not dishwasher detergent) into warm water, wipe with a damp cloth, then dry right away with a clean one. Skip sponges and dishcloths, which hold grit.
What never to use
- Bleach or ammonia
- Scouring powder or pads
- Steel wool or magic erasers
- Oven or tub cleaners
- Solvents like mineral spirits or nail polish remover
- Wax or furniture polish, which builds up into a hazy film
Spills and steam
Wipe up anything wet right away, and keep damp towels off the doors. Set the coffee maker, kettle and slow cooker where their steam won't rise into an upper cabinet. Before an oven's self-clean cycle, take off the nearest doors and drawer fronts.
Humidity
Wood swells in damp air and shrinks in dry air. Keep the humidity in your home between about 35 and 55 percent all year, and the doors stay flat and the joints stay tight. In winter, when the furnace dries the air, a humidifier helps.
Sunlight
Sun changes the color of wood over time and can fade paint. Blinds or curtains on a sunny window protect the cabinets nearest it.
Thin lines on painted doors
A fine line can show where the pieces of a door's frame meet. It comes from the wood moving with the seasons under the paint. It's normal on every painted wood cabinet, it doesn't weaken the door, and a dab of touch-up paint hides it.
Glass doors
Spray an ammonia-free cleaner onto your cloth rather than the pane, so nothing runs behind the trim.
A door that won't line up
Text us a photo. The hinges are under warranty for two years, and on a job we installed, adjusting the doors is also part of your free first-year tune-up.
Read the warrantyAfter your cabinets are in
A free tune-up in your first year
If we installed your cabinets, text us any time in the first twelve months and we'll come out once to adjust every door and drawer and touch up the finish.
What you get on install day
When we install your cabinets, we leave you a box with:
- Your touch-up kit. A labeled jar of your own paint or stain and a fill stick, for small nicks.
- Your cabinet record card. The wood, door style, color and sheen of your job, and who made your hinges and slides.
- The care guide. These same tips on one printed sheet, to keep in a drawer.
- Your warranty, dated. A printed copy with your delivery and install dates. Read the warranty
- Two referral cards. For friends planning cabinets.
Your finish on file
We keep a record of every job we build: the wood, the door style, and the color, mix and sheen of its finish. Adding a vanity or a pantry later? We mix its finish from the same recipe as your kitchen's.
Know someone planning cabinets?
Tell them to mention your name, or give them one of your cards. When their cabinets are installed, they get a free roll-out shelf, and we send you $100.