Staying Small, Thinking Big

Based in Loveland, Colorado, Colorado Cabinet Makers is a custom cabinetry shop serving residential clients. Founded in 2014 by husband-and-wife team Jim and Tracey Cover, the company has stayed about the same size to remain connected to clients and daily operations.

“We’re a small to medium-sized shop with 15 total people in the company, but we try to run it like a small shop where we have a personal relationship with each client and design their product with them, in front of them on the computer, if need be,” says Jim Cover, who has owned four woodworking businesses.

“It’s definitely more fun this way. If you get too many people, you lose the personal touch. And with 10-11 people in the shop, I can still meet with all the clients and get to know the projects and not just be trying to shuffle paper and do all the busy work.”

Jim serves as president and Tracey as vice president of the company, which focuses on craftsmanship and client relationships.

Jim started his first shop in 1984 in Bozeman, Montana, after leaving Montana State University’s mechanical engineering program to pursue woodworking full time.

“I realized I didn’t want to be an engineer and quit school to be a woodworker and started a furniture shop,” he says.

Over the years, he owned four different shops, one in Montana and three in Colorado. As those businesses expanded, he sold several of them before launching Colorado Cabinet Makers with Tracey in 2017. Tracey, who also attended Montana State University, has a legal background and moved to Colorado in 2000. Their paths eventually crossed, leading both to a personal and professional partnership.

“One of the thoughts, after having shops with 60, 70 people, was that I wasn’t having fun. The fun factor was gone,” Jim says. “Furniture was a thing in the ‘80s and ‘90s. I was a furniture shop, but by 2000, the furniture industry had gone overseas, and I decided to make furniture for the kitchen instead. Since 2003, it’s mainly been residential kitchens and other casework for homes.”

Today, the company operates from an 11,000-square-foot facility. It began in a smaller building with three to four employees before growing to 15 staff members, including 10 production employees, three handling engineering, sales and design, and the two owners.

“One of the challenges is to not get bigger, because I didn’t want to have another 30 to 40-person shop. I wanted to try to keep it manageable where Tracey and I could meet with clients and enjoy the process,” Jim says. “Beyond that, you get into more management, more expenses, you’re wearing lots of hats and there’s no fun factor. We’re in our 60s now and you have to retire at some point.”

Most projects come from the company’s network of contractors and designers. Colorado Cabinet Makers completes 60 to 70 projects annually, with about half being new construction and half remodels. The company primarily serves residential clients, with only one or two commercial projects per year.

The company’s reach extends throughout Colorado’s mountain communities, including Edwards, Vail, Breckenridge and Beaver Creek. In areas such as Loveland and Denver, the company works with a select group of builders.

“We mostly serve central Colorado, with about 50 percent around the Front Range and the balance up in the Vail Valley and Summit County,” Jim says. “We’re doing most of our work in Vail, just because of the relationships we’ve built up. Our contractors and designers are up there. Also, the affluent customers are up there. Even when the economy dips, the people that live in the resort areas and have second homes up there are still remodeling and building.”

“The Greater Denver area is an untapped market. There are millions of people. We’re a small shop, so there’s plenty of work out there if you’re good at what you do and do what you say you’re going to do. There’s a lot of competition in central Colorado. Within 20 minutes of us, there’s probably 10 to 11 shops bigger than us.”

The Covers purchased their current facility in 2022, a 40-year-old building about eight blocks from where the company began.

“We were outgrowing the last building, but also, having done this for a long time, owning the property is a huge advantage,” Jim says. “As you get a little older and you actually want to build equity. If you’re just renting all the time, you’re just throwing money away, so being able to purchase was a big deal.”

The facility features a showroom. As a custom shop, every product is unique, and the displays serve as inspiration for clients.

“Not all of our clients get to visit the showroom. Some of our work is a couple of hours away and pretty remote, so about 50 percent of our clients come here, and we sit down and do the designs, and people tour the shop,” Jim says. “Most customers, when they see the shop and that Colorado boys and girls are making their product, they’re sold.”

About half of the projects are driven by architects, designers or other influencers working with clients. Direct homeowner projects typically come through word of mouth.

“We’ve been in the Colorado area for a long time, and my phone tends to just ring a lot. So word of mouth is our biggest advocate,” Jim says.

Serving clients from across the country, many with second homes in Colorado, the company sees diverse styles.

“If they’re from the East Coast, they’ll bring their desires for that style. We do a lot of flat panel, white oak, walnut. We still do a lot of paint — probably 30 to 40 percent of our jobs are painted some color,” Jim says.

While many homeowners arrive with inspiration boards and online references, the company focuses on translating those ideas into functional spaces.

Business is up 15 percent compared to last year, continuing annual growth of 10 to 15 percent since the company’s founding, according to the Covers.

The owners say they’re proud of their employee retention, experiencing little turnover during the past decade.

“We’d like to see a little bit of growth next year, get our people more skilled so they can make more money in the shop, and continue to offer more benefits to them,” Jim says.

After more than four decades in the industry, Cover says one lesson stands above the rest: enjoy the work.

“You can get hung up on the money and the profit margins, but at the end of the day, I want to be a good cabinetmaker, try to enjoy the process, try to see the customer as a friend and someone I want to make happy.”

Learn more at coloradocabinetmakers.com.

Originally published in the August 2026 issue of Woodshop News.