top of page

The Toro Story

Avi Gordon

Avi Gordon, an avid surfer with roots trailing across the US, grew up in Chicago, Virginia Beach, VA, and Miami, FL. With just the right blend of urban and beach town exposure, Avi’s interest in architecture gained some traction. He graduated years later with a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture and pursued a career designing commercial and private residences while living in San Diego – a surfer’s paradise. Avi’s interest in cabinetry began when he found a niche designing kitchens for client homes. “Most architects are not kitchen designers,” he said. “They get an overview of the working triangle,” which references the area of the kitchen that gets the most use between the dishwasher, sink and refrigerator, “but they don’t look at the kitchen as a kitchen designer does.” He continued, “They are looking at the bigger picture and designing a house down to the tiniest details like trim work and the rise of a staircase, but still they are focused on the whole house, not the kitchen as its own entity.” 

Spending most of his formative years as a design professional in Southern California, he was inspired by the laid-back beach culture and mid-century modern design he encountered throughout his years growing up and wanted to create designer cabinets that people would love that provided a pop of color and a Mid-Century aesthetic. As an East Coast native, Avi found himself back in Virginia Beach, where he met his wife, Heather.

Avi Gordon in Kitchen

Heather Gordon

Heather grew up surrounded by 50’s jukeboxes with real records inside and knows all of the words to just about every oldies song out there. “We acquired our first jukebox at an auction when I was about ten. My dad restored it and then we began renting them out for parties.” “It was always a party at our house.” “My father’s aunt was an architect and our home was made for entertaining. It was a modern home, but the jukeboxes brought in a retro-cool vibe.” 

Professionally, Heather is an international award winning graphic designer with a history developing corporate identities, publications, and promotional materials for both private and corporate clients. She loves color and injects them wherever she can into her daily life. She is a Virginia Beach native, but as a designer has lived in both Richmond, VA and Orlando, FL where she worked for a national golf publication. “It was cool to see my name in the masthead of a magazine, even if my parents were the only ones who paid attention to it, but my work was included in almost every issue, so it was a really rewarding experience. Plus, I learned how to play golf while I worked there.” After moving back to Virginia Beach, she was the marketing coordinator for a local hotel and then found herself teaching one college class per week. Slowly she moved into a teaching roll as a full-time faculty member of the college and continues in that roll today. She also works behind the scenes for Toro making marketing materials, working on the website, fielding inquiries and conducting introductory client meetings.

external-file_edited.jpg

Toro Is Born

As an artistic pair, Avi and Heather formed Toro Kitchen Cabinets, LLC and developed branding for Toro as their first project together. “Toro is a love story; it’s a combination of artistic vision, a passion for color, and the maturing of a budding relationship,” explained Heather. “With Avi’s architectural abilities and my passion for design, we have the ability to create just about anything! Our home is a combination of many projects that we have created together; you can’t walk into a single room and not see something we made, shelves, a giant wood wall, paintings, shutters on the front of the house. Yes, we also have Toro Cabinets in our home. We use some of the prototypes as furniture pieces – a 42 inch drawer base serves as a dresser in our daughter’s bedroom.” Heather continued, “I think it’s amazing that Avi has created a line of cabinets. Not just anybody has the patience for this process. It took two years of trial and error, thousands of hours behind the computer, and plenty of phone calls to manufacturers and engineers. We even took a trip across the country to introduce our cabinets to the mid-mod mecca of Palm Springs, CA.” When it comes to working as a married couple - two creatives, Heather comments, “there are occasional creative differences between us, but we navigate through them and come out on the other side with an amazing result.”

toro-129.jpg

Anatomy of the Toro Kitchen Cabinet

Toro Cabinets are unlike any other cabinets on the market today. They blend natural materials – steel and wood – to create a cabinet that has long lines, smooth rounding curves, and a bright palette of door colors to choose from. “The carcass (I know, it’s a terrible name for it), is the box of the cabinet, while the door is a separate component,” Avi explained. The carcass can be stained one of three colors or coated in a designer white, high-gloss laminate finish. The box is meant to show through in-between the gaps (the reveal) of the face frame between the doors and drawers. “It’s a design detail, an accent that can complement or contrast the door depending on the color combination you choose,” Heather says. Clients can choose between an all-wood box stained in a rich dark mahogany, a medium ash gray, or a natural maple finish. Then, of course, there is the white, which is a very popular choice. “It really makes the colored doors pop, but still keeps a nice light feeling.” There are also a series of handles and legs to choose from. “Clients don’t have to use the handles we picked out, but we think they accent and compliment the era of metal cabinets while being appropriately modern.” Just because the cabinets are styled after cabinets created in the fifties and sixties doesn’t mean they have to function that way. The hinges and slides on the doors and drawers is top-notch. “We use Blum hardware, which is industry standard for high-quality soft close movements. Everything about these cabinets, from the weight of the door to the glide of the drawers and the solid craftsmanship of the individual components, comes together to create a work of art, something that any homeowner would love to have in their home - and a real conversation piece.”  

​

toro-127.jpg

The Client Experience

Toro is based out of Virginia Beach, Virginia, but they work with clients all over the country, and they ship direct. When it comes to the process of creating a client’s kitchen, it’s pretty simple. Initial contact will most likely be with Heather. She will gather information and guide you to the next step, which is the design process with Avi. Once Avi becomes involved the project becomes more focused. “Avi is the technical one, he gets involved in all the details, beginning with the measurements, and he’s really particular - they have to be very accurate.” explains Heather. “He will lay out the space on the computer and place the cabinets so that the client can really visualize what it will look like.” Designing the kitchen is an involved process, and there is a design fee. The design fee does credit toward the purchase price, when the client places an order - so it shouldn’t be a roadblock if someone intends to follow through. 

​

Once the client approves the layout, they then it's time to talk about colors and nail that down. We send people to Prismatpowders.com - that's where we get the powder from so it makes sense to look at their website and choose from their library.  Everyone loves to see the colors., Choose as many swatches as you like, the color on screen is not exact, so we recommend ordering more than you think you need.

 

Regarding the timeframe from order to delivery, “the cabinets are made to order. We don’t have a warehouse of doors and cabinets, available. We manufacture for the demand and that makes the process take a little longer than average. We are looking at a six month production schedule. It takes a long time, because not only are the doors metal - but they also have to be powder coated and assembled after that. There is a front plate and a back plate and a core that has to be sandwiched together. It’s not a simple task - there is a lot of craftsmanship behind each door that is produced,” she explained. “We love providing a quality designer product to our clients. When we hear how much they love their kitchen, or how many things they can fit in their drawer (like 8 place settings of China with room!) it makes us feel proud and happy that our customers are happy. 

To get started with your Toro Design contact Avi & Heather email avi@torokitchencabinets.com, call 757-412-5774, or schedule an appointment.  

Book Your Spot

Get in Touch

123-456-7890 

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Youtube

Contact Us

545 S, Birdneck Road Suite 115

Virginia Beach, VA 23451

757-774-3033

© 2024 Toro Kitchen Cabinets.

All Rights Reserved.

My Kitchen Redesign

Thanks for your message!

Questions?

Call or text

757-774-3033
bottom of page