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The Next Big Trend In Kitchen Cabinets
Apr 22, 2025

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Natural Materials, Uniqueness, Led By Small Shops Will Define Coming Styles

One of the key markets for distribution in North America has been the smaller 1-25 employee custom cabinet shop. These manufacturers, often self-taught or using skills handed down generation to generation, are the ones that can offer the unique details that make a new or remodeled kitchen reflect the buyers tastes and ideals. While many of the big manufacturers have focused on scale, making cabinets in high volume at low price points, to help builders finish homes at specific price points, a resurgence of sorts is happening around the local cabinet shop. And these local cabinet shops are the bread-and-butter market for a significant percentage of Cascade distributors.

Why the budding resurgence? These small shops have the vision to make buyer’s dreams a reality. They can react quickly to design trends. Most are creative problem solvers that can a screen shot from Pinterest, a page from House Beautiful or even rough sketches and make dreams a reality. Achieving the perfect balance of style and functionality is still a priority in kitchen design for 2025. Key current trends include open shelving, fluted details, rich earthy tones, alongside secret storage, and a modern interpretation of the Shaker kitchen. For the big guys embracing these changes often must be vetted by design and engineering departments, tested by marketing, priced, photographed and put onto websites and into price catalogs. For the smaller shops, their forte is turning a designer or customer’s vision into reality.

Alder can be a key part of small shops leading this design trend. It’s ease of use, the now widely available Emerald matching plywood in both 8’ and 10’ lengths, grades highlighting a clear contemporary look all the way to a heavily knotted rustic, allow custom cabinetmakers to use Alder as the key component in meeting this demand.

Starting May 1st, the new Alder Advantage brochure featuring 12 real Alder color and grade chips is available for distribution yard salespeople to use. It’s unique 4-panel design with a pullout detailing the positive environmental story around Alder should hit at the perfect time to help distributors sell more Cascade Alder to meet these design trends. Be sure to ask your salesperson about the Alder Advantage brochure and sample door program today.