Rebecca Olson called us in the fall of 2024 to talk about a building that she was designing in downtown Wagoner.

Rebecca has been our accountant for 5 years and straightened out a mess that our previous accountant had left us with.  So, when Rebecca calls, we pick up.  But this call wasn’t about taxes or payroll.  She wanted to talk to us about Tower Business Complex and what she thought it could do for our community.

The way she described it, Tower was going to be a place where small businesses could get help and grow. She also wanted it to give downtown Wagoner a push. No one had put up a new commercial building here from the ground up in almost twenty years.

We were on board before she finished.

 

What We Built

Two areas: the break room and the reception.

The break room got the refrigerator cabinet, the sink cabinet, a trash pull-out, and storage. We built it in white oak with Shaker doors. The contractor handled the finish along with all the other painting in the building, and the white oak got a natural clear coat, so you can actually see the grain.

Reception got a curved desk with a bank of drawers. That one’s poplar, because it was getting painted.

Thirty-four linear feet all together. We measured in December and installed in January.

 

The Desk

I want to talk about the desk for a minute, because it’s the piece we’re proudest of and it’s not something we normally do.

Rebecca wanted it raised and curved. Curved is one thing. Raised and curved means every angle has to be worked out so the top, the base, and the drawer fronts all agree with each other, and none of that is guesswork you can do at the jobsite. We spent real time on the front end getting the curvature right.

It turned out beautiful. When you walk through the front door of Tower, that desk is the first thing you see, and it looks exactly like what Rebecca described to us on the phone.

 

What Went Sideways

Here’s the part I’d normally leave out of something like this. But if you’re thinking about hiring us for a commercial job, this is probably more useful to you than pictures of finished cabinets.

We drew everything up and the contractor approved it. Then partway through, the contractor changed.

Some of the plans changed too. The new contractor was under the impression we were working from the updated drawings. We’d never seen them. When we went out to measure, the break room wall matched what we had, so nothing looked wrong — but more cabinetry had been added that we didn’t know about.

After everything was installed in January, Rebecca walked through & realized there was nowhere to put office supplies.  Those cabinets had not been on the original plan.

No one had caught it. And by then the countertops were already on, which cuts your options down in a hurry.

So we figured it out. I sat down with Rebecca and we went through how much space we could actually work with, and I drew up a few ideas. Scott got with the contractor to see what was possible with the counters in place. Between the four of us going back and forth, we found a way to run drawers and upper cabinets off the end of what was already there.

Walk through that break room now and I don’t think you’d know. Which is the whole point.

What would we do different? Check with the contractor and the customer that the plans are still the plans. Sounds obvious written down. On a job with four trades trying to hit a grand opening date, it’s exactly the kind of thing you assume.

 

We Draw Everything First

Both of those pictures are from Mozaik, which is what we design in. Every job gets drawn and rendered in 3D before we cut a board.

That’s not for show. You ought to be able to see your cabinets before you pay for them.

 

Why Commercial Is Different

In a house, you learn how one family lives. Where they cook, which drawer’s going to hold the junk.

A building like Tower has tenants no one has met yet.

Those break room cabinets are going to get opened more times in a year than most kitchen cabinets see in five, by people who didn’t pick them out and aren’t going to be gentle. So we don’t cut corners on the parts you never look at.

Our boxes are 5/8″ plywood. Face frames and doors are hardwood. We use Blum soft-close hinges — top of the line for durability and for how they close. Drawer glides are Würth Pro 600, soft-close, rated to hold a hundred pounds and still slide smooth with a drawer full of stuff in them.

Could we buy cheaper hinges and glides? Use lesser wood? Sure. We’re not going to.

If you’re looking at bids from a few shops right now, ask each one what the boxes are made of, what brand the hinges are, and what the glides are rated for. Two quotes can read the same on paper and be built completely different underneath. Anyone proud of their answer will tell you right then.

 

Working Around Everybody Else

Everyone was pushing to have Tower open on time, and we tried to respect the other trades’ schedules the same way we’d want ours respected.

Our first install day we pulled up and another crew was still working in the area we needed to carry cabinets through. So we gave them the day and came back the next morning.

That’s just how a jobsite goes when it’s moving.

 

Local People, Local Building

We’re a family business that started right here in Wagoner. Tower was built so other Wagoner businesses would have somewhere to start.

Being the shop that built the cabinets in it is something we’ll still be proud of twenty years from now.

 

If You’ve Got A Commercial Project

We build custom all-wood cabinetry for offices, break rooms, reception areas and commercial buildings, plus kitchens and new homes, all over Wagoner, Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Muskogee and Eastern Oklahoma.

Call us at (918) 798-0219 and we’ll come walk your space, draw it up in 3D so you can see it, and give you a straight number.

Built by our family, for yours.

 

Questions We Get

Do you do commercial work, or just houses?
Both. Offices, break rooms, reception areas, commercial buildings — along with kitchens, baths and built-ins. Tower Business Complex is a good example of the commercial side.

What are your cabinet boxes made of?
5/8″ plywood, with hardwood face frames and doors. Blum soft-close hinges and Würth Pro 600 soft-close glides rated to a hundred pounds.

Can you build curved pieces?
Yes. The reception desk at Tower was raised and curved. It takes more time up front to work out the angles, but that’s the kind of thing you can’t buy off a shelf.

Do I get to see it before you build it?
Every job gets drawn in Mozaik and rendered in 3D for you to approve. Changes are easy on a screen and expensive after we’ve cut.

Can you work around my contractor’s schedule?
Yes. On new construction we measure once the walls are done and coordinate the install with whoever else is on site.

What areas do you cover?
We’re in Wagoner and we work Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Muskogee, Coweta and around Eastern Oklahoma.

How do I start?
Call (918) 798-0219. First step is just a conversation about the space and what you need it to do.