Traditional Kitchen Cabinets in NYC

Name: Urban Homes
Price range: $$

Urban Homes designs and installs traditional kitchen cabinets from its showroom located at 325 West 16th Street in Chelsea, Manhattan. Since acting as a Wood-Mode dealer, the company has constructed both inset and full-overlay cabinets in painted, stained, and glazed finishes for pre-war apartments, brownstones, and suburban houses in New York City, Bergen County, New Jersey, Westchester, Fairfield County, Connecticut, and the Hamptons. They have been designing kitchens in this sector since 2005.

Cabinetry built the way it was built before it was mass-produced

Traditional cabinetry is not just a style you add at the end of a project. It comes from choices you make at the start, like how the door fits in the frame, the proportions of the stiles and rails, whether the crown is made from one piece or three, and where the light rail sits compared to the counter. When you get these details right, the room feels like it has always belonged. If you miss them, no amount of trim can fix it.

That is the difference between cabinetry that only looks traditional and cabinetry that is truly built in the traditional way. This is also why the traditional kitchens that last are usually the ones designed in a showroom, at full scale, where you can actually hold the door in your hand.

Two manufacturers, two ways to build a traditional kitchen

American traditional and Italian classic are quite different styles. The American traditional style originates from Shaker and Federal cabinetmaking and includes characteristics such as face frames, applied molding, painted poplar, and stained cherry. Italian classic, by contrast, has its origins in European furniture-making, so that a classic kitchen seems more like a fitted room than merely a set of cabinets. We provide both styles and, generally speaking, most people work out which one they prefer in about twenty minutes in our showroom.

Wood-Mode: seventy-five years of American cabinetmaking

The company based in Kreamer, Pennsylvania has been producing cabinetry for 75 years. Every cabinet is made to order for a particular room and there is no warehouse containing finished cabinets that are ready to be shipped, so your kitchen does not have to conform to a standard size. It is particularly important to use traditional craftsmanship when making this type of cabinetry. A frameless box is nothing more than a rectangle and the proportions it has hardly ever differ from one kitchen to another. A traditional face-frame cabinet is more in the nature of a composed piece, with features such as the width of the stiles, the height of the rails, the amount of reveal on the panels, and the way the door fits into the frame. The proportions for these have to be designed for each individual room and not selected from a catalogue, or else the cabinet will look wrong even if you can’t precisely say why. We use Wood-Mode when carrying out inset construction, for beaded face frames, for painted and glazed finishes, and in any situation where the cabinetry has to match the original details of the building; as an authorised dealer we have been recommending their cabinets for 20 years

Elegant white Wood Mode kitchen with classic cabinetry, large windows, and a central island for cooking and di. — A spacious, stylish kitchen featuring white cabinetry, a central island, and large windows that bring in natural light, perfect for modern urban homes.

Modern white kitchen with dark island, stainless steel appliances, and elegant lighting fixtures. — Bright and stylish modern kitchen featuring white cabinetry, a dark central island, and contemporary lighting for a sleek look.

Bright urban kitchen featuring contemporary design, spacious layout, and natural light for stylish c. — A spacious, modern urban kitchen with large windows, sleek cabinetry, and a cozy dining area, perfect for city home living.

Contemporary white kitchen with wooden accents and ample natural light. — Stylish modern kitchen featuring white cabinetry, a large island with wooden countertop, and elegant decor for urban homes.

Aster Cucine — Italian classic, and we are the exclusive North American distributor

Aster Cucine have been manufacturing kitchens in Pesaro, on the Adriatic coast of Italy, since 1970, and Urban Homes is the exclusive distributor for North America meaning that each Aster kitchen installed in that region is sold through them.

The classic range by Aster is inspired by furniture design rather than by traditional joinery; unlike American traditional kitchens which are made up of separate cabinets, an Aster classic kitchen is designed as a single fitted area, featuring continuous runs, framed paneling, integrated columns, and finishes that are based on furniture-making rather than on cabinet catalogues. This style is represented by three collections, each of which has its own character.

Portrait is Aster’s traditional range and the one of the three most similar to a period kitchen; it follows what Aster refers to as a “back to country” style, featuring warm timber, framed doors, and materials that have the appearance of having been used rather than being arranged for effect. This collection is very suitable for a brownstone or country house if you would like the kitchen to seem older than the renovation.
Avenue is the collection that Aster has created as a transitional range, the name being taken from the Champs-Élysées and its purpose being to act as a link between different periods. It includes rich wood veneers, lacquered and metal finishes as well as classic hardware, but with simpler details. The collection is suitable for use in an apartment which has crown moulding and herringbone floors since otherwise the full period cabinets could appear overwhelming.
Luxury Glam is the most decorative of the collections and draws its inspiration from Art Deco; it includes gold and silver metalwork, glossy lacquer, mirror glass, leather panels, and fine veneers. Although it is not traditional in a national sense, it does show clear signs of classical influence. It is ideal for use in a penthouse or a pre-war apartment which has high ceilings.

Both makers build genuinely traditional kitchens. The honest difference is what tradition each one is referring to.

	Wood-Mode	Aster Cucine
Made in	Kreamer, Pennsylvania	Pesaro, Italy
Tradition it references	American — Shaker, Federal, Colonial Revival	European — fitted furniture and paneled rooms
Construction	Face frame; inset or full overlay	Framed panel within a furniture-led system
Collections for traditional	Full custom to your drawing	Portrait, Avenue, Luxury Glam
Signature finishes	Painted, stained, glazed, distressed	Veneer, lacquer, metal, mirror, leather
Strongest in	Period-correct work; matching existing millwork	Continuous fitted rooms; decorative and Deco schemes
Lead time	8-12 weeks	12 -18 weeks

One practical note that matters more in New York than almost anywhere else: inset cabinetry is unforgiving of a wall that isn’t plumb, and pre-war walls rarely are. That is not an argument against inset in an old building—it is an argument for measuring properly and scribing on site, which the installation should include anyway. Ask any showroom how they handle it. The answer tells you a lot.

Door styles we specify most

Raised panel — the center panel is proud of the frame with a shaped edge. The most formal option, and the one most people picture when they say “traditional”.
Recessed panel — a flat center panel set into a molded frame—traditional detailing without the weight of a raised panel; the safest choice in a smaller room.
Beaded inset — a bead run around the inside of the face frame: the most period-correct look available, and the most demanding to build and install.
Shaker — square-edged flat panel, no molding. Technically traditional in origin, transitional in effect. Where most New York clients land.
Glazed and mullion doors — for upper cabinets, display cabinetry and butler’s pantries.

Finishes

Finish	What it does	Consider it when
Painted	Even colour, hides the grain, widest palette	You want the cabinetry to read as architecture rather than furniture
Stained	Grain stays visible; cherry, walnut, white oak, maple	The room has good natural light and you want warmth
Glazed	A tinted layer settles into profiles and corners, emphasising detail	Raised-panel or beaded doors whose shaping deserves to be read
Distressed	Deliberate wear applied before finishing	Rarely, in the city. More at home in a country house
Two-tone	Painted perimeter with a stained or contrasting island	The most-requested traditional treatment of the last five years

Traditional cabinetry in a New York apartment

Traditional cabinetry is usually taken photographs in large suburban kitchens which have nine-foot ceilings and contain no structural surprises; most of our work in the traditional style is carried out in more difficult situations—such as a pre-war apartment on Central Park West, a Brooklyn brownstone, or a Village co-op whose kitchen is nine feet wide and which has rules regarding when you can use the freight elevator.
The limitations have an effect on the design rather than stopping it. If the ceiling height varies by an inch within a single run then the crown has to be scribed on site rather than being cut according to the drawing. A radiator enclosure becomes part of the cabinetry instead of acting as something placed next to it. In cases where a full-depth base cabinet would make a narrow galley impractical, a shallower run with taller storage is able to regain the volume by going vertically.
The way in which the building is carried out is just as important as the design; the co-op and condo alteration agreements determine the working hours, the insurance requirements, and usually also the delivery schedule. Since we have been carrying out installations in Manhattan and Brooklyn for 20 years within those rules, we work together with your contractor, architect, or managing agent as part of the project rather than leaving that responsibility to you.

Frequently asked questions about traditional kitchen cabinets

Q. What is the difference between traditional and transitional kitchen cabinets?
A. Traditional cabinetry uses period construction and detailing — raised or recessed panel doors, visible face frames, applied mouldings and crown. Transitional keeps the proportions and warmth but simplifies the detail, usually a Shaker door with contemporary hardware. Most New York kitchens we design land somewhere between the two.

Q. What is inset cabinetry, and is it worth the extra cost?
A. Inset means the door sits flush inside the face frame rather than on top of it, the way cabinetry was built before the 1950s. It costs more because the tolerances are tighter in both manufacture and installation. In a pre-war apartment or a brownstone it is usually worth it; in new construction, full overlay often serves the room better.

Q. What is the lead time on Wood-Mode cabinetry?
A. Typically 8 to 12 weeks from final approved drawings to delivery. Every cabinet is made to order in Pennsylvania, so the clock starts when the design is signed off, not when you first visit. Custom finishes and specialty doors add time.

Q. Will traditional cabinetry work in a small New York apartment?
A. Yes, with the right door. Recessed panel and Shaker doors carry traditional detail without visual weight, and full-height cabinetry recovers storage a small footprint loses. Heavy raised-panel doors with deep crown can overwhelm a nine-foot galley — that is a design decision, not a limitation on the style.

Q. Can you match existing millwork in a pre-war apartment?
A. In most cases, yes. We can work to the profiles of existing trim, doors and panelling so new cabinetry reads as original to the building. Bring photographs and, if possible, a physical offcut of the existing moulding to your first showroom visit.

Q. Which cabinet brands do you carry for traditional kitchens?
A. Two. Wood-Mode, made to order in Kreamer, Pennsylvania, for American traditional work — inset construction, face frames, painted and glazed finishes. And Aster Cucine, the Italian maker for which Urban Homes is the exclusive North American distributor, in its Portrait, Avenue and Luxury Glam collections.

Q. What is the difference between the Aster Cucine Portrait, Avenue and Luxury Glam collections?
A. Portrait is Aster’s traditional collection — warm timbers and framed doors on a “back to country” foundation. Avenue is transitional, bridging classic detail and modern lines with veneers, lacquers and metal finishes. Luxury Glam is the decorative end, drawing on Art Deco with gold and silver metalwork, gloss lacquer, mirror and leather.

Q. Do you work outside Manhattan?
A. Yes. We design and install throughout New York City, Bergen County NJ, Westchester, Fairfield County CT and the Hamptons. Roughly 60% of our projects are outside Manhattan.