WALDEN CABINETS

Rich and his team are professional, committed to high quality and easy to work with. They were willing to make changes as we proceeded and spent the time to ensure installation was just right. Would certainly use him again.

Rich provided personalized service beginning with the design that accommodated my needs and desires, especially taking into account the "wife acceptance factor" for the man-cave. He provided detailed design drawings that made it easy to understand what the final product would look like. The cabinets were finished and delivered in the time promised and then installed professionally. The finished cabinets look great and we are both very pleased. The only issue  that came up was having to adjust the mounting of the lower doors after the carpet was re-stretched; Rich personally handled this and it was done in short order.

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The only reason I gave Richard's company a five star rating is that the ratings didn't go any higher. Richard came out and measured my kitchen for new cabinets and created some beautiful work in my 100-year-old home in North Oak Cliff.  These guys are craftsmen in the truest sense of the word. Cabinets are all wood with no fiberboard or engineered wood anywhere in sight.  Every little detail is well-designed and well-thought-out.

I had previously gotten estimates from one of the major big-box stores.  They were going to do semi-custom cabinets but I balked when they started nickel-and-diming me.  "Oh, you want crown moulding?  That'll be an extra...."  Richard's final price was two-thirds what the big box store quoted, and his work greatly exceeded the quality of the big box cabinets.

The installation went smoothly and on-schedule, presided over by Richard's brother Robert and the "new guy" (who has worked for Richard for over ten years).  All-in-all, this is one of the best experiences I've had with home improvement. I'm already plotting and planning what I'll hire these guys to do as my next project.

Rich was one of three companies we spoke with to get bids. On his initial visit, he discussed our wants/needs, took measurements, made some additional suggestions, then went back to his office and drew detailed plans of the cabinets for us. he explained to us up front that he had about a three week lead time on starting the job, due to other work-in-process. This worked fine for us, as it allowed us to coordinate the demo work and flooring that needed to be done before the cabinets could be installed. He also provided us with a sample cabinet door in the wood and color we were going to use, so that we could pull our other color and material choices together.

When the cabinet boxes were ready to install (doors were in the 'stain' phase, his crew came on-site with the boxes and installed them so that we could get our granite counters installed. (We were up against a time crunch, trying to get as much as possible completed before we left on vacation.) They came back with the doors after the granite was installed and installed all of the doors and drawer fronts, as well as the door/drawer pulls on that second trip. Also, I was using an air-switch mounted through the counter top to control the garbage disposal, so Rich's people also shortened one of the drawers so that it would not interfere with switch.

When all was said and done, we had a slightly different configuration (removed a

peninsula and 'oven tower', all upper cabinets (where feasible) were 42and quot;, a nifty pull out spice rack close to the range, 24and quot; deep cabinets over the refrigerator, and ALL base cabinets had either regular drawers, or doors with pull-out trays on every shelf, including the new and greatly improved pantry. These are all true custom, all-wood cabinets that were delivered for a price that I feel was more than competitive than the orange or blue stores, or 'resellers' that we had seen.

The bottom line is that we will have Walden Cabinets at the top of our list when we get ready to do new cabinets in the master bath.

I worked directly with Rich Walden of Walden Cabinets in designing the bathroom cabinets because I had worked directly with him in designing the kitchen cabinets in my kitchen remodel two years ago; that is I didn’t go through Craig. Designing the bathroom cabinets was a much, much simpler task than the kitchen cabinets as there were fewer cabinets and weren’t nearly as many decisions to be made. The cabinets that Walden Cabinets produces are exceptionally well built, and they do a beautiful job of finishing them.

Rich designed four cabinets for me. Two actually consist of a sink cabinet and an additional attached storage cabinet. One has two attached storage cabinets, one on each side of the sink cabinet. The half bath cabinet consists only of expanded sink cabinet and no additional storage cabinet. Each sink cabinet has a rollout shelf in the bottom so I don’t have to lean into the cabinet for anything. The cabinets with additional storage cabinets each have two 9-inch deep drawers, along the lines of a pot-and-pan drawer, in addition to the shallow drawer at the top. This makes more efficient use of the storage space. The drawers are deep enough for my shower gel and pump style hand soap bottles to stand upright. Walden’s matched the finish of the bathroom cabinets to the finish of the kitchen cabinets and made sure they covered the footprint of the old cabinets. As with the kitchen cabinets, all drawer/shelf glides are full extension ball-bearing steel glides, and all drawers and rollout shelves are removable. The cabinets are and frac34; inch plywood construction with oak exterior and maple interior; drawers are and frac12; birch plywood construction.

Rich’s cabinet makers, Paul and Eric, did the installation. They made sure all cabinets were level for the granite people. One of my walls is out of plumb somehow even though the corner is square, and they made sure the cabinet was parallel to the tile also. They installed all doors and drawer fronts on site so they can align the parts that should align and adjust spacing. They also installed my door/drawer hardware for me. It took about a half a day for installation of the four cabinets. Walden personnel were extremely polite and did a good job of cleaning up afterward. I am so pleased with the cabinets Walden’s has built for me.
For better photos of the countertops, see the review on StoneTex. The photos here were taken to best show off the cabinets.

I hired Richard Walden on the recommendation of two friends who are in my book club. One of my friends had Rich build cabinets in two of her houses. Her husband played rugby with Rich and quot;back in the dayand quot; when both were much younger.

We had our kitchen torn out on the 8th of April. We hoped our cabinets would be ready by the 22nd of April. Needless to say, they were not ready and we had to wait until the 20th of May for installation to begin. What was lost in time was more than made up in excellence. The cabinets are absolutely perfect and I couldn't be happier with Rich's work and the smooth installation. Well, almost smooth. A two inch mistake meant a bank of drawers had to be rebuilt. Some of the material from those drawers were recycled to make small shelves inside the cabinets over the cooktop on either side of the vent for the vent a hood. Rich created spaces for my cutting boards, cookie sheets, trays, etc. and a wonderful wooden Lazy Susan in an upper corner cabinet. That's the space where stuff would end up that I would never see again. Now it is functional and looks great.

He had a lot of great ideas for making my kitchen 'cook friendly' and I am grateful for his input and advice.



His installers were amazing. They were nice guys who worked well together and were respectful of our property.

I would hire them again and would recommend them in a heart beat.

Although I thought the wait was a bit long, it was well worth it.

For as much coordination as we had to do, Rich Walden of Walden Cabinets is probably the easiest person with whom I’ve ever worked; there were a lot of discussions. Initially Rich made an appointment to see the kitchen and talk to me about what I wanted, and he was on time. He took lots of notes and measurements. I had been planning a kitchen remodel for many yearsand knew what I wanted pretty well. My kitchen cabinet space is U-shaped. My old cabinets had wasted space in both corners of the upper and the lower cabinets that I wanted to eliminate. I wanted the finish to match that of a chest of drawers and night stands that I’ve had and loved for many years. I wanted the cabinets to extend to the ceiling, pot-and-pan drawers, and a rollout shelf at the cabinet bottom under the kitchen sink. I was interested in having a wine bar in an area where there was no cabinet (a 13 x 33 inch space) if it was feasible, and I was interested in some type of cabinet along the top of my kitchen window, with sliding glass doors, for displaying decorative objects. Rich suggested a bridge cabinet for above the kitchen window which would bridge the space between the cabinets on both sides. For the wine bar, I wanted a glass-fronted upper cabinet, wine rack, counter area, drawer, and storage in the lower cabinet. Once he measured the wine bar space, he indicated it would be feasible.

Rich explained that he would take the notes and measurements and prepare a bid. If I accepted the bid, he would prepare detailed drawings of the cabinets, and we could make any design changes (and cost adjustments) necessary. He had two jobs to complete before he could start my cabinets, which gave me time to contemplate the design. As a result, I added a fancier crown molding to the cabinet tops and a beautiful matching rope molding to the bottom edge of the upper cabinets, changed the plain glass to seed glass on the glass-fronted cabinets, and added a door to hide my microwave. Rich had me come to the shop to select the moldings from a catalog. I selected the style of doors and drawer fronts from a selection of styles I was shown. An interesting discussion about door types ensued from my desire for a door to hide the microwave, because I didn’t want the door to be in the way when open. Rich suggested a flip door, which opens upward and slides back rather like a garage door.

I could not be happier with my cabinets. The cabinets extend to the ceiling. There are pentagon shaped, Rich calls them diagonal, cabinets in both corners of the upper cabinets. There’s a lazy-Susan in one lower corner cabinet and a blind-corner pullout in the other lower corner cabinet. Each lazy-Susan tray is mounted to a shelf, so things can’t fall off the top tray and get lost on the back of the bottom. Most of the lower cabinet storage consists of pot-and-pan drawers, with a couple of roll out shelves in one cabinet. All drawers and rollout shelves use full extension ball bearing glides, and the drawers and roll out shelves come within an inch of the back of the cabinets. All shelves in the upper cabinets are adjustable. They matched the finish to the chest of drawers beautifully from the night stand drawer I had loaned them. The wine storage rack holds 16 bottles of wine, and they built stemware racks below the wine storage.

I asked a zillion questions by phone and by email. I visited the shop and looked at cabinets he was building for another customer. We discussed how they build and finish the cabinets before I ever approved the bid. I even asked about his education and training, since he is a certified kitchen designer. Rich was so easy to work with; I could not ask for a better cabinet builder.
It took two days for the Walden Cabinets makers to install the cabinets. I never realized there was so much to installing cabinets. They made sure they were level in all directions, applying shims where necessary. The doors were all installed on site, as were the drawer fronts and the trim (including trim against the wall along cabinet edges). They also installed all the cabinet hardware I had purchased. I learned a lot by watching them and was struck by the care and attention to detail in all phases of the installation. I spent the most time in direct contact with Walden personnel; they were extremely polite and did an excellent job of cleaning up afterward.

Rich came out to the house listened to what we wanted,he took measurements,then came back with a plan. We discussed what changes we wanted. Rich is very easy to work with. I had a cabinet color in mind, and he worked with me until I was completely satisfied.

First a few words about my previous experience that led me to seek out Walden Cabinets: I had a cabinet built by a fellow in Allen TX that advertises locally and has a shop at his house. When I went to look at it I saw right away that some of the details I had asked for were way off. Even though the details were different, they were not deal breakers and I was anxious to finish my project so I accepted it, wrote and check and had him deliver it. A few days later my countertop arrived and it was only then when I set it on the cabinet I discovered that the cabinet had been built 1 inch too deep! Unfortunately I could not find the specific dimensions on anything I signed. So I was kind of stuck. I wound up having to alter it myself and while doing so got an education in the process. So when it came time to put my second bathroom the folks where I bought a faucet recommended Walden Cabinets so I decided to give them a try. Walden Cabinets will not impress you when you visit. They are in an old industrial park in Garland. Their shop used to have a showroom but it is dated, cluttered and not presentable. However after talking to Rich and seeing some examples of his work I decided to have the vanity cabinet quoted. I am a telecom engineer and presented Rich with a fairly detailed drawing. We went over some of the detail I had not thought of and agreed on the design and a price. Since this was a relatively small piece (42 X 30 X 21) and I lived only a few miles away Rich even agreed to deliver this to me free. Since I don’t own a truck this was a nice plus. A couple weeks later and on schedule I got a call from Rich that my cabinet was ready. I drove down on my lunch hour to look at it. Based on my last experience I was prepared to give this cabinet a thorough inspection before accepting it. When I went back into the shop and saw the cabinet I could hardly believe my eyes! The quality and craftsmanship was absolutely outstanding! Every dimension was correct down to the fraction of an inch! I was one super happy camper! I wrote the check and told the shop guys to be sure to tell Rich how happy I was with their work. They dropped it off at my house that afternoon as promised. So in spite of the old industrial warehouse shop and shabby office and showroom, I would not hesitate to recommend this company to anyone needing any kind of cabinets made. Their attention to detail and the quality of work is absolutely superb. The price may seem high but the workmanship is worth it. I cannot say enough about how happy I am with the result.