Expanding Design Possibilities Throughout the Home
For decades, custom cabinetry has been closely tied to kitchens and baths. These spaces remain the foundation, but today, cabinetry is expanding beyond the kitchen into every corner of the home. It is not only about storage. It is about storytelling, adding permanence, function, and beauty to spaces where furniture alone cannot meet the need.
Designers and homeowners are embracing cabinetry as a way to create seamless design details that flow from one room to the next. The kitchen may be the heart of the home, but it is now also the nucleus, setting the tone for materials, finishes, and styles that ripple into living rooms, bedrooms, and beyond. Shifting ideas about kitchen design, as I discussed in Rethinking the Kitchen Work Triangle, is a great example of this idea.
Cabinetry provides unique opportunities to tailor each design to the specific function needed in a room. Where furniture limits what you can have, a custom cabinet has few limits on where your creativity will take you and the design.
Home Office Cabinetry: Designing with Intention
As more households embrace remote and hybrid work, custom cabinetry has become a tool for crafting offices that balance function and elegance. Built-in desks, storage towers, and shelving units elevate a workspace from makeshift to permanent. Unlike stand-alone furniture, cabinetry allows for hidden storage, clean lines, and integration with the home’s overall design story.
Mudrooms and Laundry Rooms with Cabinetry Style
What were once back-of-house utility spaces are now being designed with the same attention as entry halls and kitchens. Custom cabinetry creates lockers for family organization, benches for added convenience, and storage solutions that eliminate clutter. In laundry rooms, cabinetry transforms an overlooked space into a styled extension of the home with concealed hampers, folding stations, and functional beauty.
Stylish finishes create an ultimate laundry room
Furniture-Style Cabinetry
Custom cabinetry can also step beyond walls and become freestanding pieces. Imagine a bedroom storage unit designed to look like a bespoke armoire or a sideboard designed to match kitchen finishes. These pieces combine the craftsmanship of cabinetry with the flexibility of furniture. One example from my own projects involved designing cabinetry to function as a furniture piece, blurring the line between built-in and freestanding. Cabinetry can be customized to meet every detail a design can call for.
Living Rooms and Built-In Wall Units
From media walls to bookcases, cabinetry in the living room elevates storage into a design feature. Built-in wall units bring structure to a space, framing fireplaces or televisions while creating opportunities to display art, collections, and personal touches. These installations not only save space but also bring architectural interest that freestanding furniture often cannot achieve.
Custom cabinetry millwork. Design by Sharon L Sherman
The Expanding Role of Cabinetry in Design
What is exciting about this shift is that it creates opportunities for both interior designers and kitchen and bath professionals. Interior designers can now incorporate cabinetry as a design element throughout the home. Kitchen and bath professionals, meanwhile, can extend their expertise into new rooms, offering clients more cohesive solutions. Wine rooms, meditation rooms, gyms, hospitality bars, smoothie bars, and coffee bars, to name a few, can be easily realized through custom cabinets.
Custom cabinetry has always been about craftsmanship. Now it is also about connection, linking rooms together through a shared design language. By moving beyond the kitchen and bath, cabinetry is redefining how we tell the story of the home.
Thinking Outside the Box
Custom cabinetry is not just about utility. It is about expanding the language of design across every space. From home offices to mudrooms, bedrooms to living rooms, cabinetry has the power to bring unity, style, and function into the story of the home. The kitchen may still be the heart, but cabinetry allows it to radiate outward, influencing every other room in ways that are both practical and inspiring.
Sharon L. Sherman, ASID, NCIDQ, CID, CKD
About Sharon:
Sharon founded Thyme and Place Design, headquartered in Wyckoff, New Jersey, and has been practicing kitchen and bath design for over 20 years across New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and the Eastern Seaboard. Sharon is Past President of the American Society of Interior Designers, New Jersey chapter, a professional member of ASID, as well as a Certified Interior Designer in New Jersey, and a Certified Kitchen Designer, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Interior Design Community.
She is a current member of the editorial board of KBB Magazine, the official magazine of the National Kitchen and Bath Association. Sharon received the Kitchen Bath Design News 2022 Innovator of the Year Award. Her award-winning designs and editorial comments have been featured in Forbes, The New York Times, Design Milk, Furniture Lighting and Decor, Designers Today, Bergen NJ magazine, Kitchen & Bath Design News, Woman’s Day, Country Decorating, Design NJ, New Jersey Home Magazine, 201 Magazine, as well as several books. She has authored the Interior Designers’ Guide to Kitchen and Bath Business Success, available through the website. Sharon is a sought-after conference speaker and CEU provider. You can contact her through the website www.thymeandplacedesign.com.
