By Sondra Barr
Transforming homes is all in a day’s work for Jayne Bahoura, owner of Platinum Cabinetry & Stone, LLC. It’s a job that has become increasingly challenging with supply chain and staffing issues across the state and beyond. Yet, Bahoura remains steadfast in expertly navigating her customers through the design stage all the way through installation with a refreshing candor that generates outstanding results and customer satisfaction.
A one-stop source for all your kitchen and bath needs, Platinum Cabinetry & Stone offers a wide range of quality all-wood kitchen cabinets. Featured cabinet lines include StarMark, UltraCraft, Norcraft, Fieldstone, Envoy, and others.
“A majority of what I sell is American made. I feel it supports our economy and supports us. I also like them because they offer better warranties, and they support their products,” explains Bahoura, who focuses on beautifying customers’ homes with functional design.
“There are a lot of things you can do in design that really have a wow factor in terms of when you take a picture,” she explains. “The thing is, if you’re living in the house, does it have function? I really try to thread the needle with clients in terms of looks and function.”
Bahoura points to a design quirk in Valley homes that makes proper cabinet layout and design so essential. “At the end of the day, if you’re someone who uses your kitchen and you’re cooking and doing, you want it to be aesthetically pleasing, but you also need it to have function. In a state where we have basically no basements to store pots and pans, storage is at a premium. That makes the design of your kitchen and its storage capability very important.”
When Bahoura moved to the Valley in 2002, she was in the granite countertop business and would go out to builder jobs and noticed their lack of attention in the layout, functionality, and design of kitchens. “They looked terrible with things in all the wrong places,” she says.
After pointing out the design flaws and walking her clients through how to alleviate them, word spread, and builders started hiring her for design work. Soon, Bahoura was ordering cabinets for them. She decided to open Platinum Cabinetry & Stone in 2014.
“I do the design work, cabinetry layout, explain cabinet features, provide 3-D drawings, and give clients ideas on how they can flip the switch on their layouts to make them more functional. Sometimes we go as far as to recommend taking down walls or relocating things. It just depends on the age of the house, its bones, and what you can and can’t do,” she says.
From there, Bahoura goes through the lineup of different cabinets. “Cabinets are like cars, there are many makes and models. Depending on what you want in terms of quality, color, and design, cabinets all have different pricing. You work with the customer to get within their budget and still give them the function and idea of what they have in their heads as close as possible to the budget they have.”
It’s no surprise Bahoura uses a car analogy to describe cabinets. Her childhood was spent working on Soap Box Derby Cars with her father, which was the catalyst for getting into the field of construction.
“We would make the molds and build the cars out of sticks and epoxy them together. There were shaping and design elements to the process. Then, I would sand, prime, and paint the cars. I was only 4 or 5 and my dad and I would try and create these aerodynamic shapes,” she says. Around 15, she progressed to helping her dad with plumbing and electrical tasks.
When Bahoura started in 2004, there were contractors in Arizona who wouldn’t even work with her because she was a woman. “They would tell me, ‘Send your husband.’ My husband didn’t have anything to do with the business, but if I wanted the business, I would have to send him or send one of my workers,” she describes.
Although woman-owned construction businesses have become more common, occasionally Bahoura still must prove her construction skills, even going as far as cutting a counter slab for a fabricator. “I had to work my way into gaining their respect by proving to them that I could do exactly what they were doing.”
As her company’s name implies, Platinum Cabinetry & Stone also sells an impressive selection of quartz, quartzite, granite, marble, limestone, and soapstone.
“We’ve had a full fabrication shop since 2004. We fabricate and install our products and do everything from fireplaces, barbeques, kitchen countertops, waterfall edges, bathroom vanities, backlight bar areas, you name it––even pieces as art. We’ve even done underlighting, where you light up the whole countertop, so it glows.”
Platinum Cabinetry & Stone is located at 20811 N. Cave Creek Rd., Ste102. To learn more, visit platinumcabinetsandstone.com.
This content is sponsored by Platinum Cabinetry & Stone.
