Home building has been a part of Tim Kelley's life since he graduated from high school in 1973. After spending a short time as an electrician's helper he learned how to frame and trim houses from one of the best framing contractors in Oklahoma City. During a short season in college, Tim had the opportunity to learn cabinet building on his days off from classes. It was during this college stint that he learned "Fortran" computer programming - a skill that would become very valuable when he later started his own cabinet business.
Shortly after the birth of his first son, he and his wife, Angie, began building homes in the east Texas area; but after a couple of years, they decided to concentrate on one aspect of home construction - the cabinets. So, in the two car garage of their rented home, they started Kelley Custom Cabinets. Within months space became available in an old schoolhouse in Hawkins, so they made the move. Then in 1982, they began construction of their present facility in the country just north of Hawkins. At that time they changed their company name to Wood Mark Cabinets.
Though building was slow during the oil "bust" of the mid 80's, they kept busy building cabinets and installing laminated plastic countertops in homes and apartments in the Tyler - Longview area. As they were blessed with a growing customer base, they continued to acquire more equipment and to expand their facility to accommodate the growing number of employees. In 1984, they acquired their first "wide-belt" sander as well as their first commercial quality table saw and shapers. This gave them the ability to manufacture raised panel doors and to use the computer programming skills he learned in college. With the purchase of an "Osborne 1" computer and a dot matrix printer he wrote his first cabinet door parts program to generate lists for cutting the individual parts for raised panel doors.
From the late 80's and throughout the 90's, the east Texas area enjoyed tremendous growth in the housing market and the Kelley's continued to expand their facility and add equipment. During this time, they focused on innovation and design; being the first cabinet shop in the area to employ computer aided design in the cabinet manufacturing process. It was during this time that Tim began to take advantage of his broad home construction experience and offer to his customers the service of checking the jobsite for any framing, plumbing, or electrical problems that might hamper the smooth installation of the cabinets into the home. By informing the customer of potential problems, he was able to save them hundreds of dollars in framing, electrical, and plumbing costs by alerting them of problems before the houses were sheet-rocked.
In 2001, a trademark concern (with a company in North Carolina that shared part of our name) prompted a company name change to Texas Wood Mill Cabinets, Inc. Today, Texas Wood Mill Cabinets is one of the largest volume family operated custom cabinet manufacturers in the area, with nearly 21,000 square feet of floor space, a full featured show room, the latest in design software and computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipment, and one of the most experienced staff of cabinet designers, builders, and installers in the East Texas area.
