Northbrook developed in two distinct phases. The core of the village the streets within walking distance of the train and the original downtown is dominated by 1950s and 1960s ranches and split-levels with the kind of solid, no-nonsense cabinetry that postwar builders specified. The newer parts of the village, especially north of Lake-Cook Road, contain larger custom and semi-custom homes from the 1990s onward.

The mid-century homes are perfect rollout retrofits those deep, fixed-shelf cabinets are exactly the storage problem rollouts solve. The newer homes typically have decent storage already, but the wide drawer banks and deep pantries benefit from full-extension hardware that the original builders rarely specified.