Old timer told me to stop chasing perfect grain matches on face frames

Guy named Jerry who's been building cabinets since the 70s told me last month that I was wasting time trying to match every piece of wood grain on my face frames. He said just pick a common orientation and go with it, nobody notices but you. I tried it on a kitchen set I delivered yesterday in Austin and honestly the client didn't say a word about the grain. Has anyone else gotten grief from a mentor about being too picky on stuff that doesn't matter?

3 comments

3 Comments

sagecooper3d ago

That thing about "staring at wood grain instead of building" hits close to home. I used to drive myself nuts matching grain until I realized the only person who ever noticed was me.

the_rowan3d ago

Old timer named Bob told me something similar back when I was starting out. He said I was spending more time staring at wood grain than actually building cabinets. Took his advice and switched to just running everything vertical grain on face frames. Last year I built a set for my sister in law and she didn't even notice the grain mismatch until I pointed it out. She just said the cabinets looked nice and asked where the snacks were.

phoenix_bailey3d ago

Same thing happened to me with painting. I used to spend forever trying to get perfect straight lines with tape until a buddy told me to just freehand it with a steady hand and a good brush. Saved me hours on my last living room job and nobody could tell the difference. Sometimes we overthink stuff that the customer is never gonna zoom in on anyway.