By Valmont Custom Cabinetry · Published September 12, 2026 · No prices in the guides
The three categories in plain terms
Stock is built to standard sizes and held in inventory. You pick from what exists and fit the room around it. Semi-custom is made to order from a catalogue of doors, finishes and box sizes, with a set list of modifications allowed. Custom starts with your room, not a catalogue: the boxes, doors and fronts are drawn for those walls and built for that job only.
Sizing increments and what fillers do
Stock cabinets step in three inch increments. Your wall is unlikely to land on one, so the leftover goes into filler strips at the ends and in the corners. Semi-custom narrows the gap by allowing widths, depths and heights to be modified within limits. Custom is cut to the millimetre for the wall it stands against, so the run reads as one piece.
Fillers are not only cosmetic. A wide filler in a corner can block a drawer or a door from opening fully, and a filler beside an appliance can push the run out of alignment with the ceiling detail above. Scribes on a custom job do the same job in a few millimetres.
Box construction and interiors
Box material sets how the run feels years in. Ask what the sides, backs and shelves are made of, how the edges are finished, and how the boxes are joined. Ask how the back is fixed and how the unit hangs, since that is what carries a loaded drawer bank or a tall pantry.
- Stock: standard box material and thickness, fixed shelf spacing, edges finished to a set spec.
- Semi-custom: a choice of box materials and interior finishes, within the catalogue list.
- Custom: box material chosen per job, interiors fitted for what actually goes in, drawers sized to the contents.
- All three: check the hinge and runner brand, the load rating and how adjustment is handled after install.
Door options and finish
Stock offers a short list of doors and colours. Semi-custom widens it, often with a paint match option and a few wood species. Custom has no list: five piece painted, slab, veneer in a chosen cut with sequence matching across the run, solid wood, fluted fronts, and integrated pulls machined into the door. Valmont cuts, edges and finishes every door and drawer front in its own shop.
Lead time and warranty in general terms
Stock is the fastest, since it is already made: figure on [n] days from order to pickup. Semi-custom is made to order and typically runs [n] weeks. Custom takes longest, because measuring, drawing, approval and shop build all happen before anything is delivered: figure on [n] weeks from sign-off. Samples turn around in [n] days.
Warranty terms differ by category and by maker. Stock and semi-custom carry the manufacturer's terms, which is what you are relying on if a door warps. Valmont's warranty on its own shop work is [warranty term], and hardware carries the maker's own cover.
Who should pick which
Pick stock for a rental turnover, a secondary laundry or a garage wall where the room is square and the date is short. Pick semi-custom when the layout is conventional, the ceiling is standard and a catalogue door is close enough to what you want. Pick custom when the room fights you or the detail matters.
- Ceilings above standard height, or a bulkhead the run has to work around.
- Walls out of square, an old house, or a corner that has to hold two runs.
- Integrated pulls, sequence matched veneer, fluted fronts or a matched millwork wall.
- Appliance panels, a hidden pantry door, or a bank of drawers sized to what goes in them.
- A room where the cabinetry is the finish, not the background.