By Clyde Noel

Business Profile

When Kurt Widstrand lived in Los Altos, he played around sculpting objects and making furniture and eventually turned a perfectly good hobby into a full-time business.

Widstrand, a graduate of Los Altos High School, and his partner Peter Leaf started City Cabinetmakers in 1978. They manufacture cabinets for kitchens, home entertainment systems, bathrooms, libraries, schools and restaurants with a showroom in Los Altos.

“Unlike most cabinet businesses, we actually make what we sell giving us an expertise about the wood business unavailable to sales people who just sell and represent other manufacturers,” said Widstrand. “We can actually deliver what we promise which is getting rarer and rarer with some manufacturers.”

City Cabinetmakers’ factory is in San Francisco and they currently employ more than 40 employees. The company can tailor cabinets to the specifications of their clients and provide a resource to better inform clients.

“We like to think of ourselves as an answer to the ’self help’ mentality that has become the standard of the retail world,” said Widstrand. “In an age where metal shop and wood shop are no longer taught in schools, people are much more out of touch about how things are made.”

City Cabinetmakers has completed more than 5,800 projects in the Bay Area in the last 20 years. Examples are on display at www.citycabinetmakers.com.

Widstrand said they now have two subsidiaries in addition to the main business: City Closets and Focus Components. City Closets is a proprietary software system that enables distributors and installers to order, price and generate drawings for standardized storage.

Focus Components is a revolutionary new business that provides powder coating for medium density fiberboard. The powder on the substrate allows for the most durable and environmentally safe “paint” coating currently available.

“We use our in-house CNC (computer numerical controlled) milling and powder coating technology from Morton Powder Coatings. The finish is extremely durable, with a range of attributes and qualities made possible by adjusting the powder formula,” Widstrand said. “Everything is done in a politically correct process.”

The Focus Components Finishing System is one of the most sophisticated and flexible in the United States.

City Cabinetmakers is one of only four shops in California that use the process.

Installations are done by the general contractors or installation specialists.

In addition to information about construction, finishes and types of wood and veneers for different projects, the showroom features examples of various types of cabinets.

City Cabinetmakers is located at 331 First St., across from Draeger’s. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.,Tuesdays through Saturdays.

For more information, call 948-4238.