A client in Tacoma asked for a cabinet with no visible fasteners at all

I was doing a kitchen estimate last month and the homeowner showed me a picture from a magazine. He pointed at a drawer front and said, 'I don't want to see a single screw or pin, not even from the inside.' I spent the next 20 minutes explaining how we'd have to use specialized sliding dovetails and hidden dados for the entire case. It really made me think about how much the 'clean look' trend is pushing our joinery skills. Anyone else getting wild requests for totally fastener-free builds lately?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_joseph3d ago

Oh man, that's the dream request right there! I just finished a built-in bookshelf project where the guy wanted the same thing, zero hardware showing even on the back panels. We ended up using a ton of blind dados and those tricky sliding dovetail keys (the kind you tap in from the top before the final shelf goes on). It adds so many hours to the job, but man, the final look is crazy clean. Clients see these photos online and have no idea what they're actually asking for.

reese_lee293d ago

@the_joseph, how do you even begin to price a job with that much hidden joinery?

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