Quality all wood kitchen cabinets online or at big box?
Nannajoe
12 years ago
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robbcs3
12 years agolive_wire_oak
12 years agoRelated Discussions
Custom cabinets less expensive than showroom/big box?
Comments (6)I've roughly compared prices to Brookhaven, Ikea, Scherr's, and a local SF area cabinet guy (I suspect the bay area is as overpriced as NoVA). Very rough comparisons of course because by the time we get a quote we have a new plan but our space is small enough it can't change TOO much! The custom guy was about the same price as Brookhaven BUT did a lot more custom stuff for the price, like weird sizes, custom depths, and creative strange things. His price also included installation, which the BH didn't. I don't think my BH quote included any custom sizes--I think it's possible with that line but the KD at that particular shop kind of ignored our wishes... Ikea was less than a fifth the price, but of course wasn't all custom fitted to our space and doesn't include installation. Scherr's was about 2x Ikea for a paint-ready cabinet. So, fully custom, but unassembled and unfinished. I'm not sure how Brookhaven compares to Kraftmaid on the price (or quality) scale, but I did like that my custom guy would do full custom (very helpful in a small space) as well as installation for around the same price. He sounded a little skittish about frameless though so we may go with Scherr's. They're helpful and have some great customer reviews. If you're willing to do a little DIY OR pay your GC to do some extra work, it might be worth asking them for a quote. Some people here have picked out their cabinets at a bigbox store and then ordered them online for less. So, even if you decide to go KM, you can still shop around....See MoreBuying Kitchen Cabinets Online
Comments (1)It is against the rules, you are right. If people are interested in learning about RTA, they can also visit the kitchen forum where many members have used them for DIY installs as well....See MoreOther cabinet lines comparable to big box brands?
Comments (24)We haven't reached the install phase yet, but are so far pleased with Precision Cabinets in Brentwood in CA. Worth a visit if they are in driving distance. You can see the factory and talk to them in person. They use CalDoors for the doors. They don't offer frameless, but do offer 'mini-frame' instead, where the face frame is just about the size of the wall width. Much more reasonable in price than any of the commission-based lines and completely custom sizing. Very knowledgeable and came to our house 3 times so far (and they haven't started building the cabs yet). Pointed out issues early -- told we needed to make a certain wall an inch longer and why, explained why certain cabinets were deeper than others (for fine details, like having the countertop next to an oven cab die into it instead of stick out), were particular about visual issues (e.g. in our freezer-pantry run they added the same spacing needed on the face frame to do the integrated panel door on one end to the cupboards on the other so it would look balanced), made adjustments 1/8 of an inch adjustments to a lazy susan corner cab to truly center the window after I failed to have the window installed to allow any wiggle room, work with our contractor to design special chaseways to anchor iron steel supports under counter to cabinets and cabinets to floor joists, measured our spice jars so they can build a special recessed wall cabinet to hold them, have experience installing panelled doors on integrated appliances and can do it on a second visit after initial install, etc, etc. They are pickier than me -- it's a great feeling. We were so pleased with their seeming expertise and attention to detail that we are having them do vanities and cabinets in both bathrooms as well. firsthouse_mp used them for their cabinets (with photos)...See MoreThanks to all who advised to check custom against big box
Comments (4)We had our kitchen priced at a big box store. Then we called some custom places. Custom was half the price! The guy we ended up going with is so easy to work with and you don't end up with a bunch of filler pieces because they can just make the cabinet the exact size that you need (true custom places can anyway some order in the boxes and make the doors). The other great thing about our guy is that we went from melamine to solid wood and the price upcharge was only about $500. We went from 36' to 48'' uppers and it didn't add any additional cost. We went frameless and it was the same price, he said it is cheaper to make since it is less material! We had him make us a sample cabinet to get a feel for quality since it really can vary from place to place. His quality is amazing, really sturdy and feels very upper end. Pullout shelves, $25 a piece. Raised panel doors add $25 a door since it is more material. The price difference is amazing and the nice thing about finding a small company that is easy to deal with is that they don't really charge you a bunch more for the trendy stuff just the actual cost diff. in material prices and labor....See Moreangie_diy
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