Caroline Castrucci’s phone buzzes and pings incessantly as she tries to show off the sparkling new showroom her company – multi-award-winning Laurysen Kitchens – has just opened after spending more than 50 years at its original Carp Road location.
It’s a sign of the frenetic activity that has followed the vivacious designer and daughter of company founder John Laurysen as she and the team have worked to get both the showroom opened and an expanded production factory built amid construction delays and circumstances that have repeatedly hampered the move.
“It just seemed that at every turn there was something,” Castrucci says.
The new showroom on Colonnade Road opened May 2, about a year later than she first thought, although some of the finishing details were still a month or two away from completion. The factory in Carleton Place, meanwhile, began expansion in 2022 to accommodate the Carp Road factory equipment and then some, jumping from 23,000 to 110,000 square feet, about 87,000 of which will be for production with the rest for offices and another showroom. It’s also about a year behind schedule and now expected to be complete by the end of this year.
It’s fitting, perhaps, that these changes are happening as Laurysen celebrates the milestone of its 55th anniversary, although that was not the intention. The move has been years in the making.
Laurysen at 55
The business was born of necessity. Founder John Laurysen, who had picked up cabinet making skills in the Dutch army, emigrated from The Netherlands in 1960 and initially found work for local kitchen companies. When he was let go on his birthday in 1970 and with a family to support, a couple of customers followed, saying they had signed a contract with him, therefore he needed to be the one making their cabinets, Castrucci says.
“I remember going with my dad to Pascal’s on Merivale Road and he bought this little Rockwell table saw and the next day he was making kitchens in the garage.”
Two years later, the business relocated to Carp Road and built a 10,000-square-foot factory while the family and a small office found a home in the house on the property.
Castrucci and her brother Bill Laurysen spent summers as children — “younger than what’s allowed now,” she says — helping out and gradually learning the business, which they now run (she’s CEO and he’s COO), along with Bill’s sons Corey and Michael Laurysen.
As the third generation involved in the company, Corey and Michael feel the responsibility and pride that go along with running a successful family business that today numbers about 130 employees.
“When businesses start getting into generations, you become like a steward for the possibility of the next generation,” says Michael Laurysen, who is vice-president of operations.
Yet they’re also mindful of the “three-generation rule” — a common observation that the third generation may struggle to maintain a business. Corey Laurysen, who is vice-president of sales and service, acknowledges the added pressure but adds: “Pressure makes diamonds. So, we look to thrive and build off the legacy that has come before us through Bill and Caroline and John and (his wife) Adri.”
Over the years, the company survived a devastating fire in 1987 that destroyed the original factory, working out of three converted barns rented from a local farmer until a new, 55,000-square-foot factory could be built.
Just as devastating was the untimely death of founder and family patriarch John Laurysen in 1994 at age 58, leaving Caroline and Bill to lead the company into its 25th anniversary year and beyond. Corey and Michael, following summer job stints growing up — just like their father and aunt before them — officially joined the ranks by 2010.
It’s too soon to say whether the fourth generation will follow in the family footsteps. “We would love for my daughter and Mike’s son to join the business, but there’s no pressure on them,” Corey says. “Seeing where this industry has gone since we started, I can only imagine where it is going to go by the time my daughter’s of age to start working here.”
A track record of winning awards
Laurysen Kitchens has been winning awards since the mid-’80s, amassing more than 80 in that time. In just the past year, for instance, there were five wins for a mix of kitchens and bathrooms at last fall’s Ottawa Housing Design Awards, seven trophies at this spring’s Design Excellence Awards put on by the Ottawa chapter of the National Kitchen and Bath Association, and a national Canadian Home Builders’ Association award for the kitchen of the 2024 prize home in the CHEO Dream of a Lifetime lottery, among others.
“It just really represents us well and shows what’s possible with Laurysen,” Corey Laurysen said following the Housing Design Awards wins. “It doesn’t matter what type of project it is; we can find a solution.”
The company has also proudly supplied the cabinetry for all but one of the CHEO lottery dream homes since 2017, winning awards for them each year along with the home’s builder, Minto Communities, and the interior designers.
The new showroom
More than double the size of the old showroom, which had gradually taken over the Carp Road house and squeezed the family out of it, the new one is 11,000 square feet with an industrial vibe, featuring an exposed ceiling and polished concrete floors.
There are 11 kitchen displays showcasing a variety of styles — each one designed by one of Laurysen’s designers — as well as bathroom vanities, closets, a mudroom, laundry room and home office. A myriad of accessories and accent lighting options abound, as do funky new features like invisible cooktops. Laurysen is also branching out to offer appliances for sale.
“If we’re going to show an appliance, we may as well sell it,” says Castrucci.
The pièce de résistance is an elaborate demonstration kitchen with copper accents in the middle of the showroom designed by multi-award-winning Laurysen designer Wael Bakr. Castrucci plans to hold cooking demonstrations, possibly paired with a restaurant and the LCBO and raising funds for The Food Bank.
“It’s going to feel like a kitchen-family room.”
The factory, meanwhile, will greatly expand Laurysen’s facilities and make room for new finishing equipment.
“We hope to improve the quality and increase capacity at the same time,” says Michael Laurysen.
So, what’s next for Laurysen?
“Take a breath and enjoy it,” he laughs. “And keep moving forward.”
Corey Laurysen agrees. “It’s getting people coming to see what Laurysen can really offer … truly what is possible with kitchen cabinetry and not just being that Ottawa household name, but make Laurysen a name synonymous (with kitchens) across Ontario and the rest of Canada, and maybe even into the U.S.”
Asked what she thought her dad would think of the company today, Castrucci says: “I think he would be so proud…. He always had plans to grow the business. He was never one to sit back.”
Maybe not, but after the whirlwind of the past several months, she might want to.
This article ran in the Ottawa Citizen on June 14, 2025.
