Kitchen Cabinets: What You May Want To Know About Them
One of the ways to get a stunning kitchen in minutes is to go for kitchen cabinets makeover. Though these cost a bomb nevertheless this upgrade can renovate your kitchen beautifully. Let us take a look at various kitchen cabinet options and some popular brands out there.
Cherry and maple cabinets in traditional kitchens, sleek custom designed cabinets in stainless steel kitchens etc can change the way you cook in your kitchen. After all you are integrating functionality with an aesthetic looking kitchen. But let us take a look at the different categories of cabinets in the market.There are mainly three varieties stock, semi stock and custom cabinets. Let us discuss about their merits here.
- Stock cabinets: These as the name suggests are cabinets which are in stock in your local store. They are available in standard sizes and shapes and as they are already available they are ready for quick delivery and installation. The pros of going for these types are that they are cheaper as they come in standard configurations. Plus they are also mass built which makes the production costs lower. But on the flip side you don’t have many selections of cabinets to choose from. They are all in standard colors and sizes. Plus you need to choose carefully as most of the time inferior quality of stock cabinets may turn up. So choose the cabinets carefully after visually inspecting them.
- Semi stock cabinets: These cabinets offer the price advantage of stock cabinets. The semi stock cabinets are also cheap with the added advantage that they can be customized according to your requirement. So if you wish for height adjustment or deeper cabinets you can choose to get these cabinets altered. The only problem is that you will have a slight delay in getting your cabinets. And also that every adjustment you make will cost more.
- Custom cabinets: for a truly unique look you can opt for custom cabinets. This means you can choose the color, material, shape, size and finish and these cabinets get built according to your features. They cost more but they are well worth the effort as both look and quality is ensured. Just make sure you choose a good branded company.
How do you go about deciding between these three categories?
If budget is a constraint then custom cabinets are out of the question. These are thrice as costly as stock cabinets. So taking budget in to mind you can go for stock or semi stock and be prepared to install it yourself.If you have a time constraint and are not specific about cabinet colors, materials etc then stock or semi stock are better options. Semi stock also provides few adjustments to your specifications.
If budget and time are not an issue then go for custom cabinets as they deliver high quality and good workman ship in to the cabinets. After all these cabinets ought to come for another 20-25 years or so.Framed or frameless?
The above mentioned cabinets can be either framed or frameless. What do these mean? Framed ones are traditional styled cabinets with frames on the front of cabinet. A frame strengthens the cabinets by ensuring that the cabinet box does not stick and it also furnishes a clean look to your cabinet. But on the flip side due to a frame like appearance and a flip on the doors it is difficult to mount roll out shelves or when trying to move shelves there is serious lack of space. The width of a framed box is less you see.So if you don’t want these discrepancies then try going for frameless boxes. These have no flip on the doors and so you can easily mount shelves. You can also move the shelves straight in to the cabinet space as there no obstruction of frames between the cabinets. Such unframed cabinets are strengthened by attaching them to kitchen walls and also pairing them with other cabinets. With such shelves even open shelving is also possible. The only problem with frameless shelves is that they need to be precisely built so that they can be properly attached to walls and to other shelves.
Where to buy from?
Some of the good brands out there are Kraft maid, Masco, Merillat, IKEA, Canyon Creek etc. For custom shaped kitchen cabinets which are cheap you can think of IKEA. For cabinets of all shapes and sizes you can think of Kraft maid. These are readily available in Home Depot or Lowe’s too. For frameless and custom cabinet solutions you can think of opting for Canyon Creek. For impressive and unique pieces you can think of opting for Merillat.If you find these costly and not under your budget then here are few tips for getting cheap kitchen cabinets.
As cabinets can make up to 50% of your budget here is what you can do to lessen your burden.- Choose stock cabinets. Wait for seasonal sales, discounts etc to get good offers.
- Order appliances garage, spice racks, racks for more shelf space. These cost lesser and offer more storage space in the kitchen.
- When selecting cabinets choose cabinets of solid wood as they are built to last longer.
- Check cabinet shops to see if there is any second hand or discounted cabinets available. Who knows if you are lucky you may get cabinets where the orders have fallen through and the customer no longer requires it.
- If you choose custom then try going for engineered hardwood instead of natural wood to bring down the overall cost.
- Last but not the least there is always the yard store for you to buy cabinets from. If you research well enough you may get good quality pieces at affordable rates.