Read Our Story

Our story began in a small farm shop at home on my dad’s farm where old pieces of machinery grabbed my entrepreneurial bent and made me a little craftsman designing and creating toys and small wood items for my siblings and parents. My name is Jonathan and I am the Owner of End Grain Cabinets based out of Penn Yan, located in the heart of the beautiful finger lakes region of New York.

In my upper teen years, I felt that I outgrew my dad’s farm shop and this is when I started my first job at a local small cabinet shop. I made cabinets and furniture for several years and I learned the art of staining, varnishing, painting, final assembly, and installations. 

Several years later I met my artful, adventurous wife Esther. When she was a young girl one of her favorite places to be was in her own little playhouse, designing and imagining her dreams for the future. As a young woman she was naturally talented in visual design and loves to help  create beautiful, functional  designs that fit your personality, taste and style. 

Now as a couple we wanted to pursue our dreams and use our creative talent to build a business that helps people transform their dream projects into reality. The shop I worked for prior was a nice environment, but it wasn’t like owning a business where we could take our dreams and bring them to life. 

At one point, it got depressing when my creativity was constrained by working alone all day in a finish and assembly room at my previous job. I knew I was an entrepreneur at heart, and I didn’t want to dread going to work.

This is when our new business was organized. It was an exciting adventure to finally see our dreams take shape under the work of our hands. We bought a property and opened our shop where we began to build custom cabinets. When we got our first order for a custom kitchen renovation, we knew this was our calling. In the process of deciding to go all in with our business we realized that our customers didn’t want a cheap product, but they wanted a quality product that had great design and desired help throughout the  process of their kitchen renovation. 

As a couple who grew up in an Amish/Mennonite Community, we were not allowed to have access to email and the internet. This made it difficult for us to connect with our clients; however, my husband and I chose to expand our community by adopting practices that helped us get better results.

As we expanded, we were also able to provide 3D rendering to our customers and communicate more effectively with them. At one point, the demand for our custom cabinets outpaced us so we  hired people in our community to help us serve more clients. 

It is satisfying to see the business grow. Stepping out on our own and teaching new people how to build cabinets and hold our business to the highest standard is like scaling the face of a cliff, but by faith we led the business and made an impact. Today, we’ve served over 170 unique customers and have continued to grow. We have repeat customers and we’ve created partnerships with local businesses like contractors and interior designers. 

If you have a cabinet or kitchen project in or  near the Finger Lakes Region of NY, we invite you to please call or contact us to tell us about your vision and we will help you bring it to reality! You can also browse our website to hear from our past clients about their experiences with End Grain. 

We look forward to working with you, building ideas and shaping dreams!