Custom cabinets in San Marino & Pasadena

Houses with a point of view

Pasadena and San Marino have some of the best-kept early 20th-century houses in Southern California. Bungalow Heaven holds hundreds of Craftsman bungalows built between about 1900 and 1930, and the Prospect district along Prospect Boulevard has houses from 1906 to 1930. Greene & Greene’s Gamble House sits near the Arroyo. San Marino, incorporated in 1913, is almost entirely residential, built mostly from the 1920s to the 1960s in Spanish Colonial, Mediterranean, Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival styles, with houses by architects such as Wallace Neff.

In houses like these, a kitchen with flat slab doors and long bar pulls tends to look like it came from somewhere else. The cabinetry has to agree with the woodwork, windows and proportions already in the rooms.

Cabinetry that respects the period

Inset doors. Doors set flush inside a face frame were standard in houses of this era. They take more care to build and fit, and they’re the single detail that most separates a period-right kitchen from a modern one.

Painted and stained finishes. Craftsman houses often call for stained quartersawn oak or fir to match existing trim. Colonial and Tudor houses usually suit painted cabinetry in muted colors. Spanish Revival kitchens can carry either.

Period hardware. Bin pulls, latches, butt hinges and knobs in unlacquered brass, nickel or iron, rather than concealed-hinge modern pulls.

Butler’s pantries and china cabinets. Many of these homes had a pantry between kitchen and dining room, or a glass-front built-in. We restore the idea with glass uppers, drawers for linens and silver and a counter for serving, so the new kitchen stays connected to the house’s original plan.

Historic districts and the inside of the house

Pasadena has many landmark districts, and its review there is aimed at exterior work visible from the street, so replacing kitchen cabinets is generally an interior matter. Certain designated monuments and Greene & Greene houses are treated differently, so check with the city’s Design & Historic Preservation staff if yours is one. San Marino adopted a preservation ordinance in 2018. If your house is a designated landmark, confirm with the city before work begins.

Built for inland heat

Pasadena and San Marino sit at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, far enough inland for hot, dry summers and occasional Santa Ana winds. That’s a different stress than the coast:

• Stable door construction so wide inset doors keep their even gaps when the air dries out.
• Finishes sealed on every face, so wood gains and loses moisture evenly.
• Wood selected to match, since old trim has had a century to settle and new stock is chosen with that in mind.

Living in a historic Pasadena or San Marino house? Book a free design visit. We’ll study the original details, measure the rooms and draw cabinetry built in our factory to sit naturally in the house.