Layout
Sink bases, dishwasher and refrigerator openings, a microwave shelf and a coffee station are laid out against the plumbing and electrical rough-in, then drawn on elevations for approval.
Office Millwork in Austin: Breakrooms, Reception Desks and Conference Rooms
Austin Elite Cabinets designs, builds and installs office millwork in Austin, TX, and is a trusted Travis County casework specialist for tenant suites and corporate floors, specializing in breakroom cabinets, reception desks and conference room credenzas. We offer high-pressure laminate coffee bars and wood-veneer wall paneling.
- Free in-home design visit
- Shop drawings you approve
- One firm written price
Step 1 of 3Your project
Book a free design visit
About our office breakroom & reception millwork
Our team provides built-in storage walls and copy room cabinet runs, delivering polished front-of-house millwork for visitors and the same drawing-first discipline for both residential and commercial projects. Before anything is cut, our own installer measures the suite, you approve every elevation on shop drawings, and the finished work carries a written warranty.
From a 36-inch accessible transaction section at the reception desk to a full floor of breakroom, conference and workroom casework, our team handles every detail. Serving Austin, Sunset Valley, Shady Hollow and West Lake Hills, we install after hours so your staff arrive to a finished room.
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.
Measured in your homeEvery run, wall and ceiling measured on site, never from a plan
Shop drawings firstYou approve the drawings and finish before anything is built
Same crew, start to finishThe people who measure are the people who install
One firm written priceThe number on the quote is the number at install
Office Millwork We Build: Breakrooms, Reception and Conference Rooms
Office millwork is the woodwork a company is judged by. A client sees the reception desk first, a candidate sees the breakroom on the tour, and the board sits at the conference credenza. We build all three, plus the storage nobody sees.
- Reception desks and check-in counters with a transaction ledge, a lowered accessible section and cable management for the monitors behind it.
- Breakroom and kitchenette cabinets with sink bases, appliance garages, coffee bars and open shelving.
- Conference room credenzas and media walls sized around the display, the AV rack and the cable runs.
- Wall paneling and feature walls in wood veneer or laminate behind reception and in executive offices.
- Workroom, mail and copy room casework with sorting slots, paper storage and counters for equipment.
The buyers are facility managers, office managers, tenant representatives, and general contractors carrying millwork on a finish-out.
Reception Desks and Accessible Transaction Counters
A reception desk is the one piece of office millwork that a Registered Accessibility Specialist will measure with a tape. Section 904 of the 2012 Texas Accessibility Standards sets the counter rules, and the knee clearance rules govern the space beneath a forward approach:
- Parallel approach: a section of counter at least 36 inches long and no higher than 36 inches above the finish floor, with clear floor space alongside it.
- Forward approach: a section at least 30 inches long and no higher than 36 inches, with knee and toe clearance beneath.
- Knee clearance: at 27 inches above the floor, knee space must run at least 8 inches deep.
Most reception desks carry a raised transaction ledge for privacy. The accessible section has to be a real, usable part of the counter, not a shelf tucked behind the desk, so we draw it into the elevation from the first sketch.
Breakroom Cabinets, Coffee Bars and Work Surfaces
Breakrooms take kitchen-level abuse from people who do not own the kitchen. We build them to be wiped down daily and repaired easily.
Accessible work surfaces
Where an accessible work surface is required, it sits between 28 and 34 inches above the floor with knee clearance below, which means a section dropped below a standard counter height.
Reach
An unobstructed forward reach runs from 15 inches up to 48 inches above the floor, so the cups, supplies and the microwave that everyone uses belong inside that band, and overflow storage goes above it.
Construction
Plywood at the sink base handles leaks better than particleboard, and high-pressure laminate faces shrug off coffee and cleaning spray.
Installing Millwork in an Occupied Office
Most office millwork is installed in a building that is open for business, often on a floor where the tenant is already working.
- After-hours and weekend installs keep noise out of the workday.
- Building rules first: freight elevator reservations, loading dock windows, certificate requirements and floor protection are confirmed with property management before delivery.
- Phased rooms: we can finish reception on one night and the breakroom on the next so there is always a usable front door and a place for coffee.
- Prefinished pieces: millwork arrives finished and assembled in sections, so the on-site work is setting, scribing to the wall and attaching, with no spray finishing inside the suite.
Tell us your building's working hours and move-in date with the bid request and the install is planned backward from them.
Permits and Plan Review for Austin Office Finish-Outs
Millwork usually rides on a larger finish-out permit, and knowing the review path helps you set a realistic install date.
- Quick Turnaround review: the City of Austin's Development Services Department reviews interior remodels of 5,000 square feet or less that add no new area within one business day.
- Small Project review: interior remodels and tenant finish-outs under 10,000 square feet are reviewed within five business days.
- Larger work: goes through the Commercial Building Plan Review Division, which checks projects against the 2024 International Building Code and local amendments.
- Accessibility registration: finish-outs above the state threshold must be registered with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, and a Registered Accessibility Specialist reviews the plans and inspects the finished space.
Our shop drawings are built from the permitted set, so what the inspector sees on site matches what was reviewed.
What Drives the Cost of Office Millwork
Office millwork is priced from your plans or a site measure, in writing, rather than from a rate on a web page. The main drivers:
- Linear footage and piece count: a single breakroom run versus a floor of rooms.
- Face material: laminate, paint-grade MDF or wood veneer, and whether veneer grain must match across panels.
- Reception desk complexity: curved fronts, transaction ledges, lighting channels and the accessible section.
- Box construction: melamine particleboard or plywood.
- Hardware: locks, grommets, pull-outs and soft-close hinges.
- Install conditions: after-hours labor, freight elevator time and floors above street level.
- Demolition: removing and disposing of the old millwork.
Send the plans, or call for a site measure, and the proposal comes back itemized by room.
Materials for Office Millwork, and Where Austin's Offices Are
Architectural millwork is produced custom for one project, while stock millwork is mass-produced and interchangeable. Reception desks and feature walls are architectural millwork; breakroom and workroom cabinets can be either. Wood veneer carries the brand in public rooms, high-pressure laminate carries the traffic in back rooms, and paint-grade MDF handles shaped profiles.
Austin's office market runs from downtown towers to the Domain and the corridors along MoPac and US 183, and the region hosts offices for companies including Apple, Dell, Google, IBM, Oracle and Tesla. Whether your suite is a single floor or a small professional office, call with the room list, the square footage and your move-in date to request a bid.
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.
Also from our shop
Related Cabinet Work
More of What We Build
Questions
Office Breakroom & Reception Millwork: Common Questions
Do you build custom reception desks?
Yes. Each desk is drawn from your floor plan and finish selections, including the accessible counter section, and built only after you approve the shop drawings.
Can you install over a weekend so the office stays open?
Yes. After-hours and weekend installs are planned with building management, including the freight elevator and loading dock.
Do breakroom cabinets need to meet accessibility rules?
Where the space is subject to the Texas Accessibility Standards, accessible work surfaces sit between 28 and 34 inches high with knee clearance, and we detail those sections on the drawings.
How long does office millwork take from approval to install?
Lead time is stated in the proposal and runs from approved shop drawings and final finish selections. Share your move-in date early and we plan backward from it.
Do you work directly for tenants or only through a general contractor?
Both. We bid to general contractors on finish-outs and work directly for facility and office managers on stand-alone breakroom or reception projects.
Can you build a conference credenza around our AV equipment?
Yes. Send the display size, the equipment list and where power and data enter the wall. The credenza is drawn with ventilated compartments, cable grommets and access panels so IT can reach the rack without pulling the millwork apart.
Can you replace just the breakroom in an existing office?
Yes. A stand-alone breakroom is a common project: we measure the room, remove the old cabinets after hours and install the new run with the existing plumbing and electrical locations wherever they work.
Are you licensed and insured for work in commercial buildings?
Texas has no statewide licence for millwork installers. Send the building's certificate and additional insured requirements with the bid request and we respond to them in writing before scheduling.
Can you match existing millwork in our office?
Often, yes. On the site measure we look at the existing laminate or veneer and tell you whether a match or a deliberate contrast is the better call.
Is there a warranty on office millwork?
The installed millwork is covered by a written warranty, delivered with the closeout documents.
Free design visit
Talk to us about office breakroom & reception millwork
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.