Vancouver Island Cabinetry

I was talking with Jay the other day, and he summed up one of the things Gillingham Cabinets does better than our competitors really well – so well that I made a note of it and thought I would share it.

This is what he said:

We’re talking about a construction project – custom-made built-in furniture for your home.

There is a good chance things may go wrong along the way and what really matters is how your cabinet-company or contractor deals with things if and when they do go wrong.

If and when they go wrong we will fix them, and we will fix them quickly.

He’s right – at Gillingham Cabinets we will fix things if & when they go wrong, and we fix them much more quickly than some of our competitors that operate from  factories in other cities, provinces, or even countries.  This isn’t a guilt-trip to convince you to buy local, this is honest-truth.  The best part is that we aren’t more expensive than our competitors.  Come in for a quote and work with the best!

We made a video of our Revolution Corner and wanted to share it with you.  It’s a lazy-susan unit – with a surprise feature – drawers!

Drop in on us at our Duncan or Nanaimo showroom – we’d be happy to let you try it for yourself, or get started on your kitchen plan with our kitchen planning checklist.

Since we shone the spotlight on Nanaimo in a previous post, we thought our customers might like a similar peek at our Duncan Showroom.

You may recognize Arlene – our sales chief  – who usually occupies the pole-position in the showroom behind the reception desk.  Jay makes an appearance in this photo as well as in our Now Open Saturdays in Nanaimo post because he serves customers in both Nanaimo and Duncan.

Arlene and Jay are standing beside our new island display, the cabinets shown  have raised-panel maple doors that are painted antique-white and then given a glazing of a dark paint. It’s a difficult finish that not many cabinet shops on Vancouver Island can  equal, and it’s key to this popular ‘modern country’ style.

Other cabinets in this island have interiors made from White Mel, Maple Mel, and Birch-Ply, as well as drawers in Metabox, Tandembox, and Dovetail.

Revolution Corner Cabinet

Another great corner-cabinet option we have on display is our Revolution Corner – it offers corner drawers and a rotating lazy-susan style platform – combined. You can see it in the photo at right, but really it should be tried to be properly appreciated.

Drop in on us sometime – you’ll find us at:

2986 Boys Road
Monday – Friday
7am to 5pm
(250) 746 4989

Pictures are often worth more than words.  We install cabinets everyday so we know what is involved in a kitchen cabinet installation, but not all of our customers have been through this process before. Here is how one of our installations looked earlier this year:

Whether new construction or a renovation, this is the way we need  the space when we  start. Clear of obstructions, with electrical and plumbing ready and in-place. Continue reading →

Our Nanaimo showroom is filled with some of our best work, and it’s now open Saturday to serve you better.

Our kitchen designers Kellie and Jay will be happy to answer your questions and – should you wish – design a kitchen complete with 3D pictures of what your kitchen will look like as part of our free-of-charge quoting process.  Want to know more about how the process works? Here’s a link to an overview of what’s involved when ordering kitchen cabinets from Gillingham Cabinets.

Corner Drawer Unit

We think you will be impressed with our Nanaimo Showroom – from our Glazed-Antique finishes that few cabinet companies on Vancouver Island can match, to our classic dark-stained maple.

There are tasteful displays of  non-wood door types like Thermofoil and PVC and the rich wood displays in Cherry, Fir, and a more eco-friendly Bamboo.

Even more worth the visit is the chance to try for yourself our corner drawer units and our exclusive to Vancouver Island revolution-corner unit.

Our Nanaimo showroom:

4131 Mostar Road, Nanaimo, BC
Monday – Friday 8:30am to 5pm
Saturday 10am to 4pm
(250) 729 7000

From Victoria to Ladysmith, you may prefer our Duncan showroom:

2986 Boys Road, Duncan, BC
Monday – Friday
7am to 5pm
(250) 746 4989

In lieu of buying gifts and cards for our customers and suppliers this year, we have elected to make a donation to the Cowichan Valley Basket Society. We hope you find this to be an acceptable alternative.

Of course, we also wish to take this opportunity to:

• Thank all our customers for their business
• Thank our suppliers for all their hard work, and
• Wish everyone the best of the holiday season.

Merry Christmas from Gillingham Cabinets!

We’re proud of having cut our carbon footprint in half in the past 3 years, as you will have seen mentioned  elsewhere on our website.  I’ve finished measuring our carbon footprint for this year, and have come up with some numbers that any extra-green-keen customers out there might wish to use to calculate how much carbon-footprint was involved in producing their kitchen.

1 – CO₂e: Carbon Dioxide Equivalent, the standard measurement of carbon footprint.

So for an average kitchen that has 12 cabinets,  made in 2010-2011 we would have created: 12 x 18 kg = 216kg  of CO₂e during the making of that kitchen.

This does not include the carbon-footprint of the wood used in the cabinets. I looked into assessing the carbon footprint of the wood used, but because wood traps/sequesters carbon, it decays over time, and carbon-based energy is also used during the extraction of the wood, it’s a complicated issue. Here are two sources for example.

Arguably you could consider your cabinets to be reducing your carbon footprint by actually storing carbon, but according to the Climate Smart Methodology we follow, what is most important is to measure what we contribute and can control, because that is where we can make direct improvements.  We’re definitely proud of the improvements we’ve been able to make – as we projected with our comprehensive recycling program, our landfill waste has been reduced by over 95%!