Tempe Elite Cabinets provides professional custom kitchen cabinets in Tempe, AZ for residential and commercial properties across the Salt River Valley. Custom kitchen cabinets in Tempe run $15,000 to $40,000 and up for a full kitchen, and that spread has almost nothing to do with the door style you fell for online. It moves on box construction, drawer count, and whether anyone measured the walls before the order went in. We build to the room you actually have, which in the Maple-Ash district usually means a 1962 galley with a soffit boxed in above the uppers hiding nothing but air.
Boxes are 3/4-inch furniture-grade plywood with dado-and-glue joinery and full plywood backs, so the cabinet stays square while it hangs off framing that went up wet sixty years ago. Drawer boxes are solid maple, dovetailed, on Blum full-extension undermount slides. Particleboard is wood fiber and glue pressed flat; it holds a screw right up until it doesn't, and one supply line weeping behind a dishwasher turns a sink base into oatmeal.
Species we keep moving: maple for painted work because it takes a sprayed finish without telegraphing grain, quartersawn white oak for anything stained, hickory when somebody wants character, rustic alder when they want it cheaper. Panels are CARB Phase 2 compliant and the boxes are built to ANSI A161.1, the standard KCMA certification sits on top of.
The detail people get wrong here is the solid raised panel door.
A Tempe house sits at 10 to 20 percent relative humidity through June, and a solid panel glued up in a humid shop shrinks across the grain once it lives here, backing away from the stile and showing a pale unfinished hairline.
We use quartersawn stock or engineered panels wherever the design allows, finish all six sides, float the panel so it can move, and let the material acclimate inside the house for several days before a single box goes on the wall.
The other move worth making in a Tempe ranch is killing that soffit. Thirty-inch uppers stopping a foot short of an 8-foot ceiling are the main reason these kitchens read like a hallway with appliances. Frameless European construction with full-overlay doors and taller uppers run to the ceiling buys back real storage in the same footprint, which matters far more here than it does in a new build out east with 10-foot plates.
Honest opinion, and it costs us money to say it: if your existing boxes are plywood and still square, and the layout isn't fighting you, don't replace them. Reface. A lot of what we look at near campus is a sound carcass wearing tired golden oak doors, and $6,000 of refacing gets the same photograph as $22,000 of demolition.
Install runs one to three weeks depending on tops. Nothing in a mid-century house is plumb, so finished ends and tall cabinets get scribed to the wall on site instead of caulked and hoped for. Painted work is sprayed in catalyzed conversion varnish rather than brushed enamel, because brushed paint on a west-facing run through a Tempe summer goes soft and chalky inside two years.
With 15+ years of experience, our insured team brings the right materials and equipment to every job — furniture-grade plywood boxes, solid maple dovetail drawers, Blum and Grass soft-close hardware, frameless European construction, full-overlay and inset doors, rigid thermofoil and veneer refacing — and backs the work with a written workmanship warranty. We serve Tempe and nearby communities including Scottsdale, Phoenix, Glendale, Peoria.
What We Handle
Everything our custom kitchen cabinets in Tempe covers
One crew, one point of contact, and the full range of custom kitchen cabinets work in Tempe, AZ. If it is on this list we do it in house rather than handing it to a subcontractor:
- custom kitchen cabinets
- custom cabinet maker
- semi custom kitchen cabinets
- frameless kitchen cabinets
- plywood kitchen cabinets
- shaker kitchen cabinet doors
- inset cabinet doors
- white oak kitchen cabinets
- two tone kitchen cabinets
- kitchen cabinet cost per linear foot
- kitchen cabinet replacement
Not sure which one describes your situation? Describe it in plain words and we will sort it out — or browse the rest of our Tempe services.
Materials, equipment and how we do custom kitchen cabinets
The difference between custom kitchen cabinets that lasts and custom kitchen cabinets that gets redone in three years is almost always preparation and materials, not the finish you see on day one. We work with furniture-grade plywood boxes, solid maple dovetail drawers, Blum and Grass soft-close hardware, frameless European construction, spec them to the job instead of to the invoice, and write the material grades into the free estimate so you know exactly what you are buying.
Every Tempe job runs the same way: site walk and measurements, written scope and fixed price, protection of the surrounding area, then the work itself with a daily clean-up. 15+ years of cabinet work in the Salt River Valley means we have already met whatever your property is going to throw at us — awkward access, older construction, an HOA with opinions.
Where we do custom kitchen cabinets outside Tempe
Tempe Elite Cabinets covers Tempe and the surrounding communities of the Salt River Valley. Crews run out to the same nearby cities every week, so an out-of-town job does not mean an out-of-town price.
- Custom Kitchen Cabinets in Scottsdale, AZ — Maricopa County, population 241,361
- Custom Kitchen Cabinets in Phoenix, AZ — Maricopa County, population 1,608,139
- Custom Kitchen Cabinets in Glendale, AZ — Maricopa County, population 248,325
- Custom Kitchen Cabinets in Peoria, AZ — Maricopa County, population 190,985
- Custom Kitchen Cabinets in Surprise, AZ — Maricopa County, population 143,148
- Custom Kitchen Cabinets in Goodyear, AZ — Maricopa County, population 95,294
Start on the Tempe Elite Cabinets homepage for a free estimate, or call (855) 416-1185 and describe the job.
Why Tempe Chooses Tempe Elite Cabinets
- ✓Over 15 years refacing and building cabinetry across the Salt River Valley
- ✓Refacing quoted honestly when the boxes are sound, not upsold to a teardown
- ✓Frameless European construction to recover interior width in small kitchens
- ✓Soffit removal so uppers run to the ceiling in Tempe's older ranch houses
The standards behind custom kitchen cabinets
Quality here is not a matter of opinion — it is written down. The custom kitchen cabinets work we do in Tempe follows published industry standards: KCMA runs the ANSI/KCMA A161.1 cabinet performance certification, and National Kitchen & Bath Association publishes the kitchen planning guidelines. If a contractor cannot tell you which standard a detail comes from, that is worth asking about before you sign.
Every custom kitchen cabinets project in Tempe gets the same attention, whether it is a single room or a full commercial job. We show up on schedule, keep the site clean, and stand behind the work — the estimate is free and there is no pressure.
Ready to get started? Call (855) 416-1185 for a free custom kitchen cabinets free estimate in Tempe, or request a quote and we'll get right back to you.