Cabinet manufacturer
Wellborn Forest cabinets
Semi-custom, built to order in Alabama. Seven wood species and a match to any paint colour you name.
What Wellborn Forest actually is
Wellborn Forest has built framed cabinetry in Alexander City, Alabama since 1986, starting in a twenty by fifty foot shop and now working out of a 210,000 square foot plant. It sells through independent dealers rather than through a retail chain, and everything is made after you order it. That is what semi-custom means in practice: the cabinet boxes are standard sizes off a price list, but the door style, the wood species and the finish are chosen for your kitchen and built to that specification.
Door styles
25 in the current catalogue, in full overlay and half overlay.
Species
Seven woods plus MDF for paint — oak, maple, cherry, hickory, quartersawn white oak, rustic maple, rustic hickory.
Finishes
Stains, glazes over stain, paints, the Southerly collection, glazes over paint and brushed glazes — past 180 species and colour combinations.
Custom colour
YourColor matches any Sherwin-Williams or Benjamin Moore colour.
Construction
Three series — Elite, Supreme and Classic — which change the box, not the door.
Warranty
Lifetime limited. Made in the United States.
The part you cannot see
Three boxes, one door
The series changes the cabinet box, not the door front. Two kitchens with the same door and the same finish can be built on different boxes, so it is worth knowing which one a quote is written against.
Elite
All-plywood, full overlay only
- 3/4" plywood veneer flush end panels (MDF veneer under paint)
- 1/2" plywood veneer top and bottom
- 1/2" plywood I-beam
Supreme
All-plywood, their best seller
- 1/2" plywood veneer end panels
- Exposed ends must be upgraded to finished or flush finished ends
- 1/2" plywood top, bottom and I-beam
Classic
Entry into the core line
- 1/2" furniture board end panels
- Exposed ends must be upgraded to finished or flush finished ends
- 1/2" furniture board top, bottom and I-beam
All three series share the same drawer and the same hardware: a full-length, four-sided 5/8" solid wood dovetail drawer box with a 3/16" plywood bottom, soft-close full-extension undermount guides with two-dimensional adjustment, a laminated natural maple interior, adjustable 3/4" shelving, and soft-close integrated into the hinge cup with a 110 degree opening and a lifetime warranty.
The honest part
What you are accepting
Made to order means lead time, and it means committing before anything exists. You are choosing a door, a species and a finish from samples rather than walking around a finished kitchen. Wellborn’s own literature says it plainly — view an actual sample for the best colour, grain and finish representation — and that is the right advice. Order the sample door before you order the kitchen.
Wood is not a paint chip. Cherry darkens with age and does it most visibly under the lighter stains, so a cherry kitchen will not look in five years exactly as it looks on delivery day. Hickory runs from near-white to deep brown inside a single door. Rustic maple and rustic hickory are sold on their knots, worm holes and bark pockets — that variation is the product rather than a fault, and no two doors will match.
And the entry series is not all-plywood. Elite and Supreme are; Classic uses furniture board for the end panels, the top and bottom and the I-beam. It is a real cabinet with the same lifetime warranty and the same dovetail drawers. But if all-plywood construction is specifically what you are shopping for, that is Supreme or Elite, and the difference is worth asking about before you compare quotes.
Where it belongs
Kitchens it suits
Kitchens where the cabinetry is the largest single decision — a full remodel, an unusual layout, a colour you have already chosen from a fan deck, or any project where a real wood species matters more than a short lead time.
Door fronts
The door styles we show
Every style below is shown in maple with a wheat stain, because that is how Wellborn photograph the range — it lets you compare the shape without the colour arguing. Filter by species to see what each one can actually be made from.
Showing all 25 door fronts
Shelby
ShakerFull overlay5-piece drawer option
A shaker with a slim, square frame and no bevel at all — the most restrained door Wellborn make. Available in every species in the line including both rustics.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF, Cherry, Hickory, Rustic Hickory, Quartersawn White Oak
Request a Shelby sample
Chiswick
ShakerFull overlay5-piece drawer option
The wide-rail shaker, and the door Wellborn put on their own catalogue cover. The extra frame width reads more traditional than Shelby without adding any moulding.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF, Cherry, Hickory, Rustic Hickory, Quartersawn White Oak
Request a Chiswick sample
Monterey
ShakerFull overlay5-piece drawer option
A shaker with a fine step machined around the panel opening, so the panel sits in a shallow frame-within-a-frame. Subtle in a photograph and clearly visible in the room.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF, Cherry, Hickory, Quartersawn White Oak
Request a Monterey sample
Auburn Plains
ShakerFull overlay
Nearly a slab. A single fine line marks the panel and there is no frame relief to speak of, which makes it the most modern five-piece door in the range. No cherry, and no five-piece drawer front.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF, Quartersawn White Oak
Request a Auburn Plains sample
Destin
ShakerFull overlay5-piece drawer option
A shaker softened by a shallow cove where the frame meets the panel. It takes a glaze well, because there is somewhere for the glaze to sit.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF, Cherry, Quartersawn White Oak
Request a Destin sample
Boston
ShakerFull overlay5-piece drawer option
A flat-panel door with a pronounced coved edge inside the frame. The traditional counterpart to Shelby, and the base for the Boston raised panel.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF, Cherry, Quartersawn White Oak
Request a Boston sample
Hamilton
ShakerFull overlay5-piece drawer option
Close to Boston with a squarer step inside the cove. One of the most-used doors in the line, and it appears throughout Wellborn’s own painted and glazed photography.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF, Cherry, Quartersawn White Oak
Request a Hamilton sample
Outer Banks
ShakerFull overlay5-piece drawer option
A shaker with a crisp square step around the panel rather than a cove — a cleaner shadow line, and one of the newer additions to the catalogue.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF, Cherry, Hickory, Quartersawn White Oak
Request a Outer Banks sample
Vail
SlabFull overlay
A true slab, painted MDF only. No frame, no panel, no grain — the flattest and most uniform surface Wellborn make, and the only door in the line with no wood option at all.
Available in MDF
Request a Vail sample
Lincoln Road
SlabFull overlay
The slab door in real wood. With no frame to interrupt it the grain runs unbroken across the whole face, which is the entire reason to specify it in quartersawn white oak.
Available in Oak, Maple, Cherry, Quartersawn White Oak
Request a Lincoln Road sample
Santa Fe
ShakerFull overlay5-piece drawer option
A stepped bevel runs around the panel, giving two shadow lines instead of one. Available in six species and it has a raised-panel sibling if you want the same frame with a shaped centre.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF, Cherry, Hickory, Quartersawn White Oak
Request a Santa Fe sample
Chesapeake
ShakerFull overlay
The only beadboard door in either range — vertical beads machined into the centre panel instead of a flat field. Cottage and coastal kitchens, and a genuine nuisance to dust.
Available in Oak, Maple, Cherry
Request a Chesapeake sample
Knoxville
Raised panelFull overlay
Heavy applied moulding surrounds the panel and repeats on the drawer front. Firmly traditional, oak, maple or cherry only, and no five-piece drawer option.
Available in Oak, Maple, Cherry
Request a Knoxville sample
Boston RP
Raised panelFull overlay5-piece drawer option
Boston’s coved frame with the centre panel raised instead of recessed. The shoulder catches light along its whole perimeter, which is what separates it from the flat version at a distance.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF, Cherry
Request a Boston RP sample
Hamilton RP
Raised panelFull overlay5-piece drawer option
The raised-panel version of Hamilton. Wellborn use it heavily in their own glaze and brushed glaze photography, because the extra relief is where a hand-wiped finish shows.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF, Cherry
Request a Hamilton RP sample
Knoxville RP
Raised panelFull overlay
The most ornate door in either range: applied moulding around a pillowed raised panel, repeated on the drawer front. If you want a formal kitchen this is the end of the scale.
Available in Oak, Maple, Cherry
Request a Knoxville RP sample
Santa Fe RP
Raised panelFull overlay5-piece drawer option
Santa Fe’s stepped frame with a raised centre. A middle position — more relief than a shaker, considerably less than Knoxville RP.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF, Cherry
Request a Santa Fe RP sample
Waverly
ShakerFull overlay5-piece drawer option
A slim-framed flat panel available in all seven species including both rustics — which makes it the usual choice when someone wants a plain door in rustic hickory.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF, Cherry, Hickory, Rustic Hickory, Quartersawn White Oak
Request a Waverly sample
Beecher
Raised panelFull overlay
Hickory and rustic hickory only — there is no maple or oak version. A raised panel built to show off knots and colour swing rather than to hide them. No five-piece drawer front option.
Available in Hickory, Rustic Hickory
Request a Beecher sample
Hartford
ShakerFull overlay5-piece drawer option
A wide flat-panel door with an angled bevel inside the frame, and one of only two styles offered in rustic maple. No MDF option, so this one is not available as a standard paint.
Available in Oak, Maple, Cherry, Rustic Maple
Request a Hartford sample
Madison
Raised panelFull overlay5-piece drawer option
A moulded frame around a raised panel, with matching moulding on the drawer front. The other rustic maple style, and the one Wellborn photograph most often in cherry.
Available in Oak, Maple, Cherry, Hickory, Rustic Maple
Request a Madison sample
Devon
Shaker1/2" overlay5-piece drawer option
The half-overlay flat panel, and the one that shows the most face frame. If you want cabinetry that reads as furniture rather than as a continuous wall of doors, this is where to start.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF, Hickory, Rustic Hickory
Request a Devon sample
Pima
Shaker1/2" overlay
A half-overlay door with a coved frame, in oak, maple or MDF. Simple, and the least expensive way into the half-overlay look.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF
Request a Pima sample
Pima RP
Raised panel1/2" overlay
Pima with the centre panel raised. Half overlay and a shaped panel together is about as traditional as the line goes without moving to applied moulding.
Available in Oak, Maple, MDF
Request a Pima RP sample
Judson
Raised panel1/2" overlay
The half-overlay hickory door, shown here in rustic hickory. Like Beecher it is hickory only, and like Beecher it has no five-piece drawer option.
Available in Hickory, Rustic Hickory
Request a Judson sampleDoor front photography is supplied by the manufacturers and is representative of the profile and the finish, not of a specific door. Wood species vary in grain and colour from piece to piece — the rustic species deliberately so — and printed and on-screen colour never matches a finished door exactly. Order a sample door before you commit to a kitchen.
Also consider
If this is not quite right
Next step
See Wellborn Forest in person
A door front in your hand under your own kitchen lights tells you more than any screen will. We keep samples of both lines at the Granby showroom — bring a countertop chip and a photo of the room and we will put them together.