Carving out a name for himself as a master craftsman, Phillip Connell of Connell Cabinets and Millworks, Inc. is known throughout the region as one of the premiere cabinet makers in the South.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Connell began working in the family business in 1975. By that time, his father, Robert Earl, had moved the 12-year old business from the family garage to the Ford Building in downtown Lakeland.

In 1978, when the new Lanier County High School was built and the old one was vacated, Connell bought the gymnasium and moved the business there. On a tour through his shop, he points out a particularly sentimental location under the old basketball goal, which today is covered with sawdust and machinery. “That’s where I walked when I graduated from high school.”

He’s added several buildings all around the gym to house the various wood working sections of his business, with nearly 75,000 square feet of space dedicated to creating cabinets for kitchens, bathrooms, workrooms, offices, and schools as well as moldings, doors, windows, fireplace mantles, closets, wood flooring and ceilings.

Connell Cabinets can be seen in thousands of houses across the region and his work is in hundreds of commercial buildings as well.

A former member of the Lanier County School Board and a supporter of the Lakeland-Lanier Chamber of Commerce, Connell is known for lending a hand when asked.

So how does someone who keeps such a low profile maintain such a widespread reputation for craftsmanship? Connell credits his customers with spreading the word about his work.

“Ladies are my best allies. I have the best clientele, and today, I could go back to nearly every client I’ve had in the last 30 years, and they’d welcome me.”



— Kay Harris