Rollingwood · West Lake Hills · Sunset Valley · Shady Hollow
Custom Cabinets in The Hills, Planned Around the Gate and the Golf Course
Austin Elite Cabinets builds custom cabinets in The Hills, TX, as a trusted Travis County woodworking specialist, specializing in club-home kitchen remodels, drawer-based layouts and full-access frameless cabinetry. We offer roll-out pantry shelves and wine and bar cabinets.
- Free in-home design visit
- Shop drawings you approve
- One firm written price
Book a free design visit
Cabinetry for The Hills homes
Our team provides cabinet planning that puts everyday items between hip and shoulder height, delivering easier-to-use kitchens for homes and solid, well-fitted casework for both residential and commercial projects. We build only from shop drawings you have signed, our own team takes every measurement on site, and the installation carries a written warranty.
From replacing a single door-and-shelf base with a stack of deep drawers to rebuilding a whole kitchen, our team handles every detail. Serving The Hills, Lakeway and Steiner Ranch, we schedule each visit with you in advance, including the days you are away.
Why Austin Elite
How We Work
No catalogue boxes and no handoffs. The people who measure your room are the people who build and install it.
A Cabinet Job Inside a Gated Village
The Hills sits within the Lakeway area but is its own municipality. It incorporated in May 1997 as a Type B general law village, after residents of the Hills of Lakeway voted overwhelmingly for it, and it is almost entirely single-family homes. Its one business is The Hills Country Club.
What makes a cabinet job different here is what did not change at incorporation. The roads stayed private and the gate stayed staffed, and because a city cannot own private roads or run gate security, the Hills of Lakeway Property Owners Association kept both. It also kept architectural controls. So two things shape a project before anyone talks about door styles: getting a crew and a delivery through the gate, and knowing whether any part of the remodel touches what the association reviews.
We plan both with you in advance. Visits and deliveries are set up with you ahead of time, and if your remodel includes exterior changes that fall under the association's architectural controls, we provide the drawings and dimensions you need for the submission.
Club Homes From the 1990s and 2000s, Now at Remodel Age
Construction in the Hills of Lakeway began in the early 1980s, around a club whose first course was the first in the Austin area designed exclusively by Jack Nicklaus. Most of the homes, though, went up in the 1990s and 2000s, and they range from around 1,800 square feet to well over 8,000, on lots from a quarter acre to two acres. Many face the golf courses and the surrounding Hill Country.
A kitchen from that period has usually had twenty or thirty years of use. The typical signs are raised-panel doors in an orange-toned oak or a dated glaze, soffits above short upper cabinets, a cooktop island with little seating, and a builder-standard interior of fixed shelves behind doors. The boxes may still be serviceable. Whether they are decides between a reface and new cabinets, and we check at the measure rather than guess.
Cabinetry That Is Easier to Live With
The Hills draws families, golfers, part-time residents and retirees. For many owners, the reason to redo the cabinetry is not the look. It is that bending into a deep base cabinet and reaching for a high shelf has become a chore. Custom cabinetry can fix that without making the kitchen look like a special-purpose room:
- Drawers instead of doors in the base cabinets. A full-extension drawer brings the back of the cabinet to you, where a fixed shelf makes you kneel.
- Frameless construction. Without a face frame, the whole opening is usable, which matters most in drawers.
- Pull-outs and a corner solution. A lazy Susan or pull-out in the blind corner ends the reach into the dark.
- Storage moved to the middle band. Everyday dishes in drawers and a pantry with roll-outs, so less lives on the top shelf.
- Soft-close hardware and easy pulls. Larger pulls are easier to grip than small knobs.
- Lighting under the uppers. Good task light on the counter makes the room easier to use at any age.
None of this has to look clinical. The same cabinet can be a painted shaker or a stained walnut slab. The difference is inside the box.
Bars, Wine Storage and Rooms for Entertaining
Club homes are built for guests. The rooms that get cabinetry after the kitchen are usually the ones that serve people: a wet bar off the living area, a butler's pantry between the kitchen and dining room, wine storage, and a built-in in the room with the golf-course view. We design these with glass-front uppers, a sink base, space for an undercounter refrigerator and closed storage for glassware, and we coordinate their finishes with the kitchen so the house reads as one piece.
A bar in a club home works hard for a few hours and then sits closed, so we think about what it holds between parties as much as during them. Adjustable shelves behind glass suit stemware of different heights. A drawer lined for bottles keeps them flat. A closed base beside the sink hides the ice bucket, the shaker and the spare napkins. Where a bar sits in a room with a view, we keep the uppers low or open so they frame the window rather than block it.
What Sets the Cost of Custom Cabinets in The Hills
We quote each home after measuring it, because the variables below change the total more than the size of the room does.
- Reface or replace. Keeping sound boxes and changing doors, drawer fronts and veneer costs less than new cabinetry.
- How many drawers. A drawer-based layout uses more hardware than doors and shelves, and it is usually worth it.
- Linear footage. Extending uppers to the ceiling after removing a soffit, or enlarging an island, adds boxes.
- Box construction. Plywood costs more than particleboard.
- Doors and mounting. Raised panels, shaker and slab doors differ, and inset is more work than overlay.
- Species and finish. Paint, stain and multi-step glazes each carry their own labor.
- Accessories. Pull-outs, roll-outs, lighting and soft-close hardware.
- The existing room. Soffit removal, drywall and floor repair, and removing and resetting a countertop.
The free in-home measure is where we see all of this and give you a number you can plan around.
From the First Visit to the Last Hinge Adjustment
We start with a measure at your home, arranged through the gate with you. We look at how the kitchen is used, check the condition of the existing boxes and talk about what is hard to reach today. Then we draw the design and send shop drawings for your signature. Nothing is built before that. Once the cabinetry is ready, the same people who measured come back to install, level and scribe the boxes, and set every door and drawer. We finish with a walkthrough and a written warranty. If you spend part of the year away, we can plan the work for the weeks you choose.
Where We Work Around The Hills
The Hills uses the 78738 postal code, is served by Lake Travis ISD and shares services such as the Lake Travis Community Library with the City of Lakeway around it. We cover the whole village, including the homes along the Flintrock Falls course and the rest of the Hills of Lakeway, and the neighboring Lake Travis communities. Call to set up a measure.
The process
From First Measure to Final Hinge
Four steps, and nothing is built until you have signed off on the drawings and the price.
Free design visit
We measure the room, talk through how you use it and look at door styles and finishes together.
Drawings and a firm price
You get shop drawings and one written price. Nothing is built until you sign off on both.
Built to your measurements
Boxes, doors and panels are made to the dimensions taken in your home, not to catalogue sizes.
Installed and adjusted
The same crew installs, levels, scribes to your walls and adjusts every door and drawer before we leave.
Rooms We Build Cabinetry For
Questions
The Hills Cabinet Questions
How do you get into a gated community like The Hills?
We schedule every visit and delivery with you in advance so the gate expects us. If you will not be home, tell us how you would like entry arranged.
Does the property owners association need to approve a kitchen remodel?
The Hills of Lakeway POA handles architectural controls. Cabinetry inside the house is interior work, but if your project changes the exterior, check with the association and we will supply drawings for any submission.
Can you make my kitchen easier to use without it looking like a medical space?
Yes. Deep drawers in place of base cabinets, pull-outs in the corners, a roll-out pantry and good under-cabinet light make the biggest difference, and they can sit behind any door style you like.
Should I reface or replace my 1990s cabinets?
Reface if the boxes are solid and the layout works. Replace if the boxes are damaged or the layout is the problem, such as short uppers under a soffit or no drawers. We tell you which at the measure.
Can you remove the soffit above my upper cabinets?
Often, yes. Soffits in homes of this age sometimes hide nothing, and sometimes hide ductwork, plumbing or wiring. We look before we plan, and if the soffit can come out, taller uppers can use the space to the ceiling.
What affects the price of custom cabinets?
Reface versus replace, the number of drawers, linear footage, box construction, door style and mounting, species and finish, accessories, and how much of the room needs repair once the old cabinets are out.
Can you do the work while we are away?
Yes. We plan the schedule with you, arrange entry the way you want it and walk you through the finished work when you are back, or with someone you name.
Do you build wet bars and wine storage?
Yes. Bars, butler's pantries and wine storage are drawn to match the kitchen so the rooms feel like one house.
What warranty comes with the cabinets?
A written warranty, handed over at the final walkthrough.
Talk to us about cabinets in The Hills
Free in-home design visit across Austin and the west side. We call you back to set a time.
Calls only, we do not receive text messages.