The Guild: James Stewart & Crew at Kennebec Company
Fine cabinets made in Maine.
A collaborative team of custom cabinetmakers, designers, and engineers, Kennebec Company specializes in hand-crafting cabinets perfectly suited to the architecture of any house, including those with Arts & Crafts leanings. The 50-year-old company was one of the first builders of fully custom, period-inspired cabinetry, using traditional methods such as mortise-and-tenon joinery and hand-cut dovetails.
While all woodworking is still cut by hand, the firm now uses CNC, computer numeric control, and supporting machinery to cut cabinet boxes—the unseen parts of cabinets that demand precision more than finesse. That allows talented cabinetmakers to focus on joinery and wood selection for highly visible and touchable components such as face frames, doors, and drawers.
“If we have consecutive drawers, we make sure the grain follows across—we cut them out of the same board,” says owner and president James Stewart. “The grains are matched, the color is balanced, and stains are applied by hand.” Working primarily in quartersawn oak, cherry, and Eastern white pine, Kennebec’s cabinetmakers hand-select rough wood, then put it through a wood joiner.
The dressed wood is left to acclimate before it’s formed into a door or drawer face. In some cases, the wood is hand-planed rather than passed through a routing shaper. Such attention to detail gives a Kennebec cabinet its distinctive look. Like good furniture, “each cabinet is treated as a work of art.”
Another line is called Simply Kennebec. Cabinets look like those in the Inspired line, but are not as customizable, saving the customer between 20 and 25 percent on a whole-kitchen order. A Simply Kennebec kitchen typically averages $30,000—the starting point for the Inspired Collections. Cabinets come with a standard 3/4" door thickness, which streamlines production. They’re available in a select choice of woods as well as a low-VOC painted finish. “We have customers come in wanting cabinets from the Inspired Collections who end up very content with Simply Kennebec; I’m proud of the quality,” Stewart says.
James Stewart
Kennebec Company
Bath, Maine(207) 443-2131
kennebeccompany.com
Mary Ellen Polson is a creative content editor and technical writer with over 20 years experience producing heavily illustrated know how and service journalism articles, full-length books, product copy, tips, Q&As, etc., on home renovation, design, and outdoor spaces.
