Choose the Best Kitchen Cabinets for Your Project!
The best kitchen cabinets for your project are at the intersection of value and expectations. Ultimately, understanding what you’re paying for is actually the biggest secret to selection success!
Sometimes the best kitchen cabinet selection solution is a combination of stock/semi-custom cabinets and fully custom cabinets!
Kitchens are one of the most requested remodeling projects I receive. No matter the size of the kitchen, having the right cabinets for your space makes a huge difference to the look and feel of your space.
So, how do you choose the best kitchen cabinets for your project?
First things first - the cost of your kitchen cabinetry will most likely be around 30% of your construction budget, so let’s play with rough numbers for an example…
Say your kitchen remodel budget is $100,000; then you can expect to spend around $30,000 on your cabinetry. Of course, this is a general rule of thumb, and the more you customize your storage accessories, the stain or paint color, and the more detailed or intricate your cabinet door and drawer style, the more expensive your cabinets will be and may consume more of your remodel budget. But - all is not lost if you decide on fully custom cabinetry, you can certainly make economical selections in other areas (but that will be another blog post!)
Let’s break down what you’re paying for so you can decide what your cabinet priorities are and ensure they meet your expectations!
Cabinet Construction
Most of the time, I specify solid wood (plywood) cabinet boxes/construction, but there are quite a few stock cabinets (available from ‘big box’ retailers) that offer cabinet companies that make their boxes out of engineered wood, also called furniture board, which is still a decent option that offers cost savings. The cabinet is the same material used in most furniture construction today - it’s usually a combination of wood shavings and pieces bound in resin, which minimizes expansion and contraction. Not all furniture board is made equal, so it’s best to order from a reputable cabinet manufacturer to ensure top quality and strength with this material (like Dura Supreme), and a happy medium can be a cabinet box with a combination of the two, which would be furniture board backs and plywood sides.
Cabinet Style
Full overlay or flush inset? If you’re saving kitchen photos to your Pinterest board, you may not even notice this style difference until someone asks you (or until you’ve read this post!), and now you’ll notice this every time you look at cabinets…
Full overlay cabinet doors and drawers will fully overly the face frame or box of the cabinet so you won’t see the cabinet box, and it creates a seamless appearance whether you have shaker doors or slab doors. And flush inset cabinets have doors and drawers that are inset into the cabinet box; it’s a very classic look, but it often costs more, and you can sacrifice some storage to get it because you have to maneuver items in and out working around the frame of the cabinet.
Knowing the pros and cons of what seems to be a purely aesthetic decision can greatly impact your enjoyment of the kitchen and the budget!
Doors and Drawers
Shaker doors are all the rage and they can be pretty economical! Just like white paint colors, you have tons of options that are ‘shaker style’… so it’s important to pay attention to the details. Beyond the shaker design, if you select any beading details (like the fourth image above), this can increase the cost. If you like the look of shaker doors, you can select shaker drawers as well or you can save some money and go with slab drawers (which would be the cost savings option) - or you can have a combination of top drawers with a slab front and all lower, larger drawers with the shaker profile (like the second image above). All of these selections will impact the cost, so it’s good to understand the design details that go with it. In the first and second image above, the homeowners selected beautiful cabinet hardware that worked proportionally with the slab drawer fronts and they make a statement while saving a few bucks.
Finishes
Paint or stain? It depends on the color and the material! Knotty Alder is one of the lesser expensive woods; it adds a country flair, texture, and character. Cherry, Walnut and White Oak and beautiful woods, but they can cost quite a bit more. If you order cabinets with a stock or semi-custom cabinet line, you can pick from their standard array of painted and stained finishes at a reasonable price point and while most of them offer custom color match programs - again - you’ll pay more, sometimes up to 25% more, for a custom color. A painted finish can be an economical way to go, but can increase in cost if you decide to go with a ‘multi-step’ process like a rub through where the top paint layer is rubbed through to reveal a stained finish below (this can be stunning and feel more like an heirloom piece of furniture).
Storage
How many of the super cool accessories do you want? A trash pull out? Roll out shelves? Swing out corner shelves? A mixer swing up shelf? A spice pull out? The goal here is to make sure you have storage that makes life easier and fits in your budget; so I always advise people to make a list of their biggest pain points (can’t access pots in a corner cabinet, can’t find spices, pots and pans are always mixed up, etc.) and that will help you determine which storage accessories will be worth the money - for your kitchen!
Ultimately, the best kitchen cabinets for your remodel will depend on your style, your ideal budget, and your storage needs, but the good news is there are different design strategies that can be combined to get you the best of both worlds - style and storage - at different price points so you can choose the best kitchen cabinets for your project!
If you’re considering a kitchen remodel, pick up the Kitchen Renovation Guide that will be your roadmap to these decisions (and more!), which also includes checklists, spreadsheets to record your selections, and bonus pro tips with real project and detail photos to help you make informed decisions with confidence!