Lawrenceville Kitchen Remodel: Gray Shaker Cabinets Scribed to an Arched Opening

What we were working with

This Lawrenceville kitchen was a full cabinet replacement in an existing footprint. The room is a two-wall layout with a tall wall at one end for the refrigerator and pantry storage, a long straight run of base cabinets under the window wall, and a corner where the two runs meet. Nothing about the room was unusual on paper. What made it a careful install was that every finished surface in the house — the hardwood floor, the arched cased opening between the kitchen and the family room, the ceiling line — was staying, so the cabinets had to be built and set around them without a single piece of trim looking like an afterthought.

Everything you see here is painted gray shaker: flat centre panel, square stile and rail, no bead, no glaze. It is the finish we install most often in Gwinnett County, and it is a finish that punishes sloppy work. A flat door shows a bowed wall the same way a level floor shows a low cabinet. That is why the photos on this page are from install week rather than the styled shot at the end — the install is the part that decides whether the kitchen looks right in five years.

Starting with the tall wall

We set the tall cabinets first on almost every kitchen, and this one was no exception. The pantry and the refrigerator surround establish the height reference for the entire room. Once those are plumb and locked to the framing, the upper run has something true to march away from, and the crown has a straight line to die into.

The refrigerator opening here is built as a surround rather than a plain gap. There is a finished panel on the visible side of the pantry so no raw cabinet edge is showing into the room, a bridge cabinet across the top of the appliance opening for tray and platter storage, and a deep upper beside it. The opening was sized off the appliance spec sheet, not off a tape measure held against the old fridge, and we left the clearance the manufacturer calls for on the hinge side so the door can swing past ninety degrees without hitting the panel.

The wall itself was not perfectly flat, which is normal. Tall cabinets are shimmed at the back and scribed at the finished ends so that the doors sit in a straight vertical line even when the drywall behind them is not. The alternative — screwing tall cabinets tight to a wall that leans — is how you get doors that look fine closed and rub each other open.

The upper run and the crown line

The long wall carries a continuous run of tall uppers with crown molding on top, and it ends in a glass-front corner cabinet with interior shelving. That corner cabinet does two jobs. It softens what would otherwise be an unbroken block of doors, and it gives the homeowner one place to put the pieces they actually want to see rather than store.

Uppers are the most visible cabinet in a kitchen because they sit at eye level. Two things matter and both are visible in the photo: the reveals between doors are the same top to bottom, and the crown runs in one plane from the corner to the end of the wall. We hang uppers off a temporary ledger, level across the whole run before any screw goes in permanently, and let the ceiling do whatever it wants above the crown — the crown is scribed to the ceiling, not the other way around, because the ceiling in a house like this is never dead flat.

Crown was returned neatly into the corner and mitred over the arch side rather than being stopped short. Small detail, but it is the difference between cabinetry that reads as built in and cabinetry that reads as furniture pushed against a wall.

Base cabinets, drawers and the countertop template

Under the uppers the base run is a mix of door bases and full drawer banks, with dovetailed drawer boxes on soft-close undermount slides. In the install photos the drawer boxes are sitting open and there are no countertops yet, which is exactly the stage where the cabinetry has to be right. Base cabinets are levelled across the whole run and to each other, not just to the floor, because the countertop fabricator templates off the top of the boxes. A base that sits an eighth of an inch low pulls the stone down with it, opens a gap at the backsplash, and shows up as a lip at every seam.

Electrical was another coordination point. The outlets and the switch boxes on the backsplash wall were set before the cabinets went in, so we checked box heights against the finished counter height and the planned splash before the boxes were closed up. It is far cheaper to move a box while the wall is open than to fight it with a stone cut later.

Once the base run was set and the toe kick was on, the room was ready for template. That is the handoff moment on almost every kitchen we build: cabinets levelled, sink base confirmed, appliance openings verified, and then the fabricator can measure real conditions instead of a drawing.

The arch: the fussiest part of the job

The pantry stack sits directly against an existing arched cased opening. The arch was staying, the casing was staying, and the pantry could not be moved without shrinking the storage the kitchen was built for. So the cabinet had to be scribed to it.

That means the finished end panel is cut to follow the curve and the plane of the casing rather than being butted flat and caulked. It is slow work — template, trial fit, shave, fit again — and it is what you are looking at in that photo: four full-height doors stacked two over two, sitting square, with the cabinet edge dying into the arch with no wedge-shaped gap running down the side.

Doors here are stacked deliberately: two tall doors on top for bulk and seasonal storage, two below for everyday pantry goods, with adjustable shelving throughout. Splitting a floor-to-ceiling cabinet into two door heights rather than one enormous pair also keeps the doors from sagging on their hinges over time.

Timeline and what came next

From delivery to punch list this install ran roughly four weeks, with countertop template happening once the bases were set and a return visit for the stone install, splash and final door adjustment. Doors and drawers get a final alignment pass after the counters land, because setting stone reintroduces a small amount of movement, and gaps that were perfect on a Tuesday can want a quarter turn of the hinge screw the following week.

The result is a straightforward gray shaker kitchen that is going to age well: painted flat panel doors, real crown, a glass-front cabinet for relief, honest storage in the tall wall, and drawers where a family actually needs drawers. Nothing in it depends on a trend.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a kitchen cabinet installation take in Lawrenceville?

A cabinet-only replacement in an existing layout like this one typically runs three to four weeks from delivery to punch list, plus the wait for countertop fabrication after template. Jobs that involve moving walls, plumbing or electrical run longer.

Why are the countertops installed after the cabinets and not at the same time?

Countertops are templated off the installed base cabinets. Measuring from drawings instead of the real cabinets is how you end up with gaps at the backsplash and mismatched seams, so the bases are set and levelled first, then templated, then fabricated.

Can cabinets be fitted around an existing arch or cased opening?

Yes. The cabinet end panel is scribed to follow the casing, which means cutting and trial-fitting the panel to the actual curve rather than butting it flat and filling the gap with caulk. It takes longer but it is the only way to get a tight line against existing trim.

Are gray shaker cabinets a safe choice in a resale market like Gwinnett County?

Painted gray shaker is one of the most requested finishes we install across Lawrenceville and the surrounding towns. The flat panel and square rail are neutral enough that they do not date quickly, and the painted finish can be refreshed later without replacing the boxes.

Planning a kitchen in Lawrenceville?

We build and install cabinetry out of our Lawrenceville shop and work throughout Gwinnett County. Bring your measurements or your plans to the showroom and we will walk through layout, door styles and finishes with you. Get in touch, see more project case studies, or read about our kitchen remodeling and kitchen cabinet work.