Most renovation projects include cabinets, and it tends to be one of the line items that receives the largest amount of investment, yet it remains an often-misunderstood category within the project. There are so many options to choose from, so how do you begin thinking about it? Should you choose production, semi-custom or full custom? How do you choose a door style? Why are drawers a better option than doors? If you want a few of the basics, please keep reading and join us as we continue to demystify the remodeling process.
Cabinets are the most agonizing selection that most clients make. Why? Well, there are so many options to begin with! And nobody wants to regret this decision because it is an expensive mistake to make. So how do we help you avoid these regrets? We start by simplifying the selection process for you.
Production cabinets, semi-custom cabinets or custom cabinets?
Your investment in cabinetry is centered around the quality of the product and the number of choices available to you. Here’s a quick, high-level overview of how to navigate these 3 categories and this will tell you where to start.
Production cabinets generally offer few color selections in a particular door style. You get this and you’ll like it type of approach! They make standard sizes in these colors and these door styles and they typically mass produce them. The quality is typically lower because the materials are typically less expensive and as such the price is typically the most cost effective. Production cabinets have their place, especially when a homeowner is making selections for an entire home and they are trying to accommodate hitting a budget for the project.
Semi-Custom cabinetry is where we tend to live most often in our remodeling projects. These cabinet companies use better products and offer more options at a standard price point, but the key is that you can mix and match wood species and colors of paint or stain across many different door styles. And make no mistake… there are many door styles available to choose from. The other nice feature of our semi-custom cabinet company (Shiloh Cabinetry) is that they will customize the size of specific cabinets for us as needed. They will even customize the color and can use any of the Sherwin Williams paint colors upon request. Finally, if we need something to be built that is a bit unique, they will give us a price to create that specific cabinet.
Custom cabinetry is that next step up and in most cases the luxury option. In our day-to-day activities, this is where we go when a client is looking to do something a bit more unique. You’ll see on our website that we have a project where the cabinet boxes were green, and the doors and drawers were stained. This was a custom application and our friends at Crystal Cabinet Works created these cabinets and helped us bring the vision our client had to life. If you want to match the color of your grandmother’s antique furniture piece, then this is the path we must go.
Door Style Options
Once you chosen the level of cabinet, you can move to the fun part. Door style options can be overwhelming, but let’s keep it simple. To begin with, you have flat panel doors and raised panel doors. Do you like flat or raised? Next, we move to the rails. This is the part of the cabinet that surrounds the center panel, and you have 2 side rails, then a top rail and a bottom rail. Do you like them wider or narrower? As you might imagine, wider rails create a smaller center panel in the door, while narrow rails create a larger center panel. Finally, what details do you like on the outside and inside edges of those cabinet rails? You can keep them both simple or jazz them up with details. If you want, there are options where the outside edge is simple, and the inside edge has a bit of added detail. In the end, you might look at a wall of door styles, but they are all combinations of these same elements.
So Many Options
Landing on the door style is a big deal, but your next hurdle is determining how many bells and whistles you might want to include as features in your cabinetry. Everything from spice racks to peg systems that organize your plates and bowls. The choices are endless, but it is important to note that they are not required… strictly optional. Also keep in mind that some can be added later if you are trying to control cost on the front end.
There are a couple I would recommend that you include from the beginning. Consider upgrading to full extension glides so you can pull the cabinet drawers open far enough to see the entire inside of the drawer. Also, keep in mind that you can get soft close hinges for cabinet doors now. We offer them as a standard feature, but I suggest making that upgrade at the time of cabinet selection if your selected partner doesn’t include them as they are a feature you won’t regret investing in.
Drawers Vs. Doors
Just a quick note as it relates to the actual use of your cabinetry. We design a lot of drawers into kitchen cabinet designs these days. And we do so because the size and function of drawers has evolved over the years. Our take is that a standard cabinet door where you stack up Tupperware as high as it will go before tipping over is a thing of the past. That evolved for a period of time into using that standard cabinet and adding roll trays to pull everything out to you, but now big functional drawers are the new roll trays. Gone are the days of opening a cabinet door to reach down and pull out a roll tray. Now, we just open the drawer with full extension glides to see everything in that drawer and it is glorious!
We have only scratched the surface, but we do understand cabinetry selections can still be overwhelming. If you have questions we can answer, please don’t hesitate to ask. We are very happy to help!