Cen Kitchens & Cabinetry is the brainchild of Rachel and Zalman Centner, a creative artisan duo with a shared love for beautiful yet functional design.
The couple’s design and creative heritage is the golden thread to this story: Zalman comes from a family of upholsters, artists, landscape gardeners and upcyclers, while Rachel hails from a family of creative writers and graphic designers.
As the parents of five children, Rachel and Zalman understand family life. They know how a home’s design influences how a family works as a unit – particularly when it comes to kitchens.
The couple started working on small projects for friends and family, building custom kitchen cabinetry and then expanding to creating desks, shelving and storage solutions for any room in the house. Over the years, through word of mouth and reputation, Rachel and Zalman have nurtured the company to what it is today: a kitchen and home cabinetry company that embodies flawless and intuitive design.
About Zalman
Although I trained as a teacher, I’ve always been drawn to the creative side of things, and I’ve always loved the world of wood and carpentry. In terms of cabinetry making, I’m completely self-taught, and learned my craft by doing.
To me, creativity isn’t just a lofty artistic notion: it’s a very technical process that I carry into my design approach. I’m a very visual person, so when starting a project, I imagine myself in the space and then break it down into the elements I think will elevate it. My take? If you really own your craft, you should be able to see the simplicity of the individual parts, and how they fit together as a whole.
About Rachel
I’m the operational brains behind the business, overseeing everything from project management and scheduling to accounts and client management. At the same time, I also have design in my DNA, so I’m able to give creative input to Zalman for the pieces he’s creating.