Westwood Cabinetry: A commitment to quality craftsmanship and customer care

Westwood Cabinetry


And from its roots in B.C.s Okanagan Valley to homes and developments across Canada and the U.S., Westwood is proud to be a multi-generational, woman-led company committed to quality, service and community.
President Angela (Angie) Norman says it all started with her father Nick Grasa, a Croatian immigrant who brought his craft to Canada and made the Okanagan his home, and continues today with her and her team’s commitment to continuing her father’s legacy of quality craftsmanship and customer care.
“My dad came to Canada from Croatia in 1958, at a time when it was part of communist Yugoslavia, and he came here to build a better life,” she says.
“He was a journeyman cabinetmaker and he and two friends decided to flee Yugoslavia and made their way to Austria on foot and then from there to Canada.
“That’s where he met my mother, who had come to Canada from Germany.
“My father lived and worked in Alberta until the early 70s and over the years visited the Okanagan many times and just fell in love with it, it reminded him a lot of Croatia, the natural beauty of it with the vineyards and the rolling hills.
“So in 1971, he decided to move to Kelowna as a finishing carpenter and then about a year later he started Westwood Cabinetry.”
At first he rented a small shop for about a year and then purchased land and built Westwood’s very first building, “which is actually still our showroom today,” Norman says.
“That first building was just over 5,000 sq. ft. and as the company grew over the years, we’ve expanded several times, but this is the exact spot where it all started.”
Norman says during one of their recent renovations of the showroom, as they opened up the ceiling, they actually found her father’s writing on one of the support beams.
“That was a special moment and we made sure we kept that and preserved it,” she says.
 Westwood is located in an industrial area pretty much right in downtown Kelowna, but Norman says at the time her father purchased the property, people asked him why he moved so far from the city.
When he built that first building it was way out of town - there weren’t even any paved roads then - but that’s what he could afford at the time.
Turns out it was a great investment because Kelowna has grown up all around them and today their location is close to the centre of town.
“So essentially, we are right now in the centre of everything,” Norman says.
Over the years, the original building has grown to 55,000 sq. ft. and they also have a 28,000 sq. ft. warehouse right next door and Westwood employs about 160, including subcontractors such as installers.
“My father started out here building and selling kitchens and we’ve never really changed from that business model,” Norman says.
“After having worked as a finisher in Kelowna for a year my father had met many contractors and developers and that was an opportunity for him to build them kitchens. He had one of those wood-paneled station wagons and a trailer and that’s how he shipped kitchens and cabinets. He would go to the site and measure, then build it in the shop and deliver it himself.”
Another reason her father chose Kelowna - in addition to its beauty - was that it was located right in the middle of the valley.
“We are centrally located along the lake, which is 135 kilometres long and he thought it was the perfect location to sell to Penticton in the south and Vernon at the north end of the lake. And over time we have grown into a company that now sells well beyond that original base, mainly to Western Canada and the Western U.S., but we also go to other parts of Canada and the U.S.
Growing up in the business
Norman says she grew up in the business and was always surrounded by it.
“I would spend my summers in high school working with my dad and even when I went off to university I would come back and work at Westwood.
“Eventually I said to my dad – I was in university at the time, I wanted to study medicine and had just finished my undergraduate in genetics and cell biology – that I wanted to travel before I go into medical school. So I told him I need a full-time job to earn some money before I can go and travel.
He said, “OK, you can sell cabinets.”
“Of course I didn’t know the first thing about selling cabinets, but he said: “Don’t worry I will teach you.”
“Previously I was always working in the office and filling in for administrative jobs, so this was all new to me, but my dad took the time and taught me to design and sell cabinets and I loved it”.
Norman says once she’d earned enough money she travelled, but as soon as she came back she went right back to work to design and sell for the company.
“My dad passed very early in his life sadly, he passed in 1991. And at the time my mom, my sister, and myself took over the company. At the time I had already been working with my dad for several years.
“So when he passed away we took over running the company along with the great team my father had assembled.”
Fast-forward to many years later, and Norman says she was finally ready to take over the company. Having done her masters degree in business and after years as a director and a mother raising children, and with some members of the leadership team moving on, “it was the perfect time in my life to step into that role,” she says. “I had raised three kids and now I was ready for this and I’ve never looked back.
“At times it was difficult to be sure, we had COVID, and then inflation went out of control and interest rates spiked. And then just as the rates started to come down incentivizing building, we got the tariffs. So we are adapting and pivoting as needed and now we have a war in the Gulf, so it’s all quite challenging.”
Norman says what’s helped Westwood Cabinetry is their diverse product range and the fact they have been able to adapt when and as needed.
“Like any other company that has been around for a long time, we have been through many cycles over the years, experienced many different markets and I think what has kept us resilient through those challenges is that we are able to adjust. We have different levels of cabinetry and we are not just in one segment, not all high end or all low end, we do a range and it allows us to focus in different areas and during different markets.”
Westwood Cabinetry also has different selling channels. They sell retail right out of the Kelowna plant and showroom and they also have retail showrooms in Penticton and Vernon as well as the aforementioned Okanagan contractors and developers.
In addition, the company has a fairly extensive dealer network “and we sell into a multi-unit channel such as multi-family and condos.
“So we look at our sales channels as retail, dealer, multi unit and then commercial.
“We also have different product lines, right from our Essentials, which is a stocked RTA product, for which we also offer assembly and installation.
Our Elements is a four-week product without paint and stain, but we still offer more than 25 door colours.
Our Elite is like Elements, but offered as a stained or painted product.
“And then we have our fully–custom line and that’s really who we are. We are a custom shop,” Norman says.
“So if one had to say who is Westwood, that would be it, we are a custom shop.”
And craftsmanship runs deep at Westwood.
Norman says they are committed to continuing her father’s legacy of quality craftsmanship and the kind of customer care on which he built the company. To delivering superior cabinetry marked by exceptional craftsmanship and innovative design.
Norman also takes great pride in heading a woman-led, multi-generational business focused on timeless values and forward-thinking solutions.
Women in the industry
Walking into a traditional woodworking shop many would expect to see men planing boards, cutting dovetails or shaping table legs. The craft has long been framed as physically demanding, tool-heavy, and therefore male-dominated. So yes, the public image of the woodworker remains overwhelmingly male, but thankfully that is changing fast.
Today, women are building careers across the woodworking spectrum from cabinetmaking, furniture design, timber framing, to restoration, design and construction carpentry.
Social media and online learning have helped expand access to the craft, but a lot of the shift comes from changes within the trades themselves.
As the culture of skilled trades evolves, more training programs and apprenticeships are actively encouraging women to apply. Organizations dedicated to supporting women in the trades have also helped build networks where mentorship, job opportunities and technical advice are shared openly. For many, simply seeing other women succeed in the field makes the craft feel accessible.
Still, barriers remain, but times are changing fast.
Norman agrees the industry is still male dominated, but it is certainly a lot different today than it was when she started her career.
“When I started out and went to a jobsite, I was the only woman there. There really were no women in the industry and at first nobody took me too seriously.
“Here I am, fresh out of university and people thought: “Oh, here comes that young girl.
“But they would give me a chance because they knew my dad and then very quickly realized that I knew how to do it, so that was great.
“I was out there on my own, but definitely now, we are a female-led company with myself and Rishelle Tarr, our director of business operations who is of course also a director of the Canadian Kitchen Cabinet Association Board of Directors. And then we have our director of HR, Lisa Fletcher, and a lot of our designers are women and we also have a lot of women on the floor here at Westwood as well. And we have women working on their Red Seal carpentry in our plant.
And Norman encourages anyone, and women in particular, to give this industry serious consideration.
“I think all the trades, especially with AI becoming so prevalent, that is the place to go for people.
“You can’t replace an electrician or a plumber or a cabinetmaker with AI. So I think there are a lot of opportunities for women in the trades.
The stigma of the old, dusty woodshop is just that, these days most shops are very clean and very automated, Norman says and adds that today, this trade offers just as much to a woman as to a man looking for a good career.
“Sure, it has its challenges, but what job doesn’t. And I for one love the challenges.
“And it is a great industry. Think about it, sure, it’s a cliché that the kitchen is the heart of the home, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.
Kitchens are what gets designed and then everything else follows that. The floor and paint and other finishes, all relate to the kitchens.
The kitchen is open and central, that’s our living space.
Now, more than ever, the kitchen truly is the centre of the home and our lives.