Overheard a customer say countertops don't matter and it got me thinking

I was at a hardware store last Saturday picking up some new drawer slides and I overheard this guy telling his friend that countertops don't really matter for cabinets because nobody looks at them close. That got me thinking about how I spend so much time matching grain and making sure my face frames are perfect, but maybe the real focus should be on the simple stuff like drawer boxes and hinge placement. I had a job last year where the customer loved the woodwork but complained about a sticky drawer, and that's all they remembered. So now I spend more time testing the hardware and less time obsessing over the outside look. Has anyone else changed what they focus on after hearing something like that from a customer?

3 comments

3 Comments

diana201d ago

Customers remember sticky drawers not perfect grain.

jordanc321d ago

Man that's rough, sorry you had to overhear that. Those little hardware issues really do stick with customers way longer than any fancy grain matching.

thomasshah1d ago

Countertops are literally the first thing people see when they walk into a kitchen though. Grain matching and face frames set the whole tone and if your countertops look cheap or wrong it doesn't matter how smooth your drawers slide. I get what @diana20 is saying about sticky drawers but that's like fixing a squeaky door while the whole house is on fire.