How it All Started
Our slogan of ‘turning ideas into reality’ was just an idea 21 years ago.
It all started when our owner, Nancy Barbee, purchased her home in Meridian Hills. The house had seafoam green wall-to-wall carpeting and seafoam green woodwork – crown molding, staircase, fireplace, door casings – lots of it – but Nancy still wanted the house. “All I could see was what it was going to look like, not what it did look like” she said.
She had her ideas and was ready to see them in her home, but her only experiences were college design classes and in her experience at L.S. Ayres, where she was heavily involved with the Glendale store renovation in the early 80's.
The first project to take on in the new home was a third floor master bath. The contract was signed, plans were set & construction due to start on Monday. Over the weekend Nancy was reviewing the plan and realized that the contractor was planning on moving a wall to add two feet to the bathroom. Well, Nancy had plans for the other side of the wall & didn’t see a need for moving the wall. What did she do – took her own measurements, found paper, pencil & ruler and redrew the plan. A surprised contractor was told on Monday just what she wanted & she expected him to make it fit!
Some time later, her husband was home mid day checking on progress and found the worker scratching his head. David said, “What’s wrong?” Worker says, “It fits”. David says, “So?”
“It never fits!” he replied. Nancy’s drawing was thumb tacked to the wall and they were building from her hand drawing. If you are not familiar with design you should know, it is highly common for designs to be a fraction of an inch up to a couple inches off which can cause major problems, but Nancy’s design just fit. Little did she know her next career was born.
What Happened Next
In the late 80’s, after L.S. Ayres was purchased by May Company, Nancy gave up her retail career & started over in cabinetry design. The work is both creative and analytical, fully utilizing & challenging the brain. That is one of the elements of the job Nancy loves the most. Corsi was the biggest custom manufacturer in town & Nancy was recommended to Pat Corsi by a mutual friend. Ten years later, Pat needed to divest himself of the showroom side of the business due to starting Greenfield Cabinetry as an additional offering. He offered the showroom to Nancy. February 15, 1999 they closed the sales & Nancy, who didn’t consider herself to be an entrepreneur took over Corsi Concepts, keeping all of the existing employees and clientele. Cabinetry Ideas became more than just an idea that day.
Where We’re Going Now
Nancy knows that we can be more expensive than others in the business, but we have high quality products & exceptional expertise.
Cabinetry Ideas has always had a goal of providing high quality service, quality cabinetry, and designs to their clients to make their homes as beautiful and functional as possible. As new age businesses are trying to expand and grow as much as possible, Nancy and her team are continuing to keep their focus on quality rather than quantity, making sure they give each client only the best and the most personalized design.
We would like to take this opportunity to extend our gratitude to all who have trusted us over the years with their homes. We look forward to continuing to provide beautiful personalized designs and services to Indy and the surrounding areas for years to come!
Thank you!
And finally, a family favorite recipe from Nancy’s kitchen to share.