When Dan Dilworth first embarked on his journey as a business owner, the guiding principle that always drove him was the desire to provide a one-of-a-kind experience for customers looking to transform their homes with a kitchen or bathroom remodel. His thinking was, as long as homeowners were committing to such a major investment, they deserved spaces that would reflect their personality and could not be duplicated by shopping at the big-box chains.

Three decades later, he is proud to say that Dilworth’s Custom Design remains as bound as ever by those ideals. The company’s custom cabinetry can be a difference-maker, turning ordinary kitchens and bathrooms into extraordinary ones.

“Being in business for 30 years, even from the very beginning I knew I wanted to stay custom,” Dilworth says. “I didn’t want to make mass products like the big-box stores. Every single thing that we do is a one-off; everything is unique to the client’s needs. We don’t have a bunch of cabinets sitting on shelves that we hope one day will sell, and that goes for trims and moldings and everything else too.”

Dilworth’s Custom Design is a full-service remodeling company, handling all aspects of a project from start to finish, including design, construction and installation. The seamless process ensures that things get done on time and on budget, resulting in a space that is truly distinctive.

Clients can get as detailed as they want with their designs and are often left surprised by all the special features that are beyond their imagination.

“Every piece is handmade and most people don’t even realize the things that can be done,” Dilworth says. “It’s everything from having a litter box built into your bathroom cabinetry to having something special for pastas and fruits in the kitchen. The sky is the limit. There used to be a commercial where the client went to their architect and said, ‘Build our house around this faucet.’ We literally do things like that. People pick one particular item and we’re off to the races, working from that starting point.”

The benefits to custom cabinetry include being able to meet each customer’s unique specifications in a kitchen, bathroom, office or any other room, along with a sense of pride in the craftsmanship behind each piece. Additionally, if issues ever arise, Dilworth and his team are easily accessible to solve them.

“We run into things on a regular basis and we usually have a way to overcome them,” he says. “But ultimately, if a cabinet needs to be rebuilt, it’s not like going back to the big-box store and placing a new order and then waiting a few weeks. You just have to make one phone call.”

A large percentage of the projects Dilworth’s works on include painted cabinetry. White kitchens continue to be in high demand, with greens, blues, grays and even bolder choices rising in popularity. “We recently did a kitchen with shaker cabinets and a beautiful island, and the colors we used were a Sherwin-Williams superior bronze with the perimeter in Sherwin-Williams shiitake,” Dilworth says. “For that particular job I told the customer, ‘I’m earmarking your project because this is something I would like for my kitchen.’”

Door styles also run the gamut, with an emphasis on traditional but also requests for transitional and contemporary. “Raised panel or shaker are the two main styles of traditional doors, but even within each of those, there are different things you can do to the outer edge of the door as well as the inner edge,” he says. “Some clients don’t worry about picking all of the little details, but to others they are very important.”

Dilworth’s is a family business, with Dan serving as owner/CEO, his brother Dave as director of sales and design and his brother Ben as shop foreman. Each department continues to grow and the company is also playing an important role in the community by partnering with the local vocational-technical school and grooming the next generation of skilled workers in the industry.

Many homeowners have decided to move forward with renovations as they’re spending more time at home, and those who choose Dilworth’s receive an experience that is unmatched.

“We have definitely seen a big push on the remodeling side,” Dilworth says. “We have seven crews on the road every day right now and have for a while. People see the value we can offer, not only with custom cabinets but the process that we have, and they’re willing to wait if they have to, and it’s going to be worth the wait.

“It is tempting to be drawn to the contractor who can start in a month, but he can start in a month for a reason. Our process is smooth and we control the schedule so much better than the average company. Our promise is once we start your house, we’re going to stay until it’s done.”

Dilworth’s Custom Design
175 N. Whitehorse Road | Phoenixville, Pa.
(610) 917-9119
DilworthsCustomDesign.com

Published (and copyrighted) in House & Home, Volume 21, Issue 7 (March 2021). 
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