where in the bay area are you?

pinar, I am in fremont area.

bump. Any one?

Hi -

If you're ok driving to the peninsula, we have a couple of shops that we're talking with (but are far from committing to, just so you know.....) DanMar cabinets on 41st St in San Mateo (recommended by our contractor) and Midland cabinets, in San Carlos.

We've had initial discussions w/DanMar - they are a reseller of cabinets, but have lines that will do fully custom work. http://www.danmarcabinets.com/

Midland is 100% custom - their shop is on site, and my husband, who is familiar with their work, says their product is top notch - most of their projects appear to be minimum low 6-figures (errr....just for the cabinets) - ours isn't meant to be, but we'll see how close it eeks up there. We'll be going to talk with them next week. http://www.midlandcabinet.com/index.html

Hope that helps -

I am sorry, I don't know anyone around there.

But my general understanding is that custom cabinets are very expensive in California because their taxes and fees are so much higher due to environmental and other regulations. Unfortunately, it is so much cheaper to get your cabinets made in Pennsylvania and shipped across the country than having them made locally here, even if they weren't custom.

Hope this helps.

Gerberadaisy, Thanks for the names of the cabinet makers names. we would not mind driving to the peninsula if the cabinets are good and affordable. But from what you wrote it kind of suggests they will very expensive (for us). I might check out denmar since the carry medallion.

Pinar, Thanks. Everything is more expensive in california and bay area.

My cabinets should be coming next week. If they are great, I will give you my cabinet maker's info...

Six figures for kitchen cabinets?? Over 100,000?? I can't figure out how that could be. The highest figure I encountered was 1000.00 per linear foot. The lowest was about 300.00.

Francy

I also found that the often shared advice on this forum that local custom cabinet makers can be very affordable wasn't true in the Bay area.

I think land and rents (for shop space) are so expensive here that it really doesn't work out as cheap to go local as in other areas. I wished it were otherwise but couldn't find a good source. The ones I talked to were all the same or more than the semi-custom lines we priced.

That said, if you are considering Medallion, I think you may have a larger budget that we did so perhaps you can still find someone. I'm sorry I don't have any specific references.

Thanks everyone for the input. I should have mentioned our cabinet budget. We are ok with spending about 12000 to max 15000 for the cabinets. We have about 40 linear feet of cabinets so that prbably comes to a max of 350 per linear feet so we may not be able to find a custom cabinets after all. But want to atleast do some research before we make a decision. We got a quote from lowes for diamond for 9000 dollars. We are seriously considering this option but want to check other options before we decide.

Bayareafrancy, Let me know how it goes. i am hoping the cabinets are great.

Gerberadaisy, I too am intrested to see what Bayareafrancy ahs to say so it not a hijact at all. We too love the bay area even if it is crazy expensive.

I'm not sure how much more expensive the "doohickeys" make the cost, b/c we have a doohickey-less kitchen. So I don't think I can be too helpful with information. Back when I was calling around, I found a number in the Good Service Guide for a high end cabinet maker described as "formerly available only to the trade." So out of curiosity I gave him a call. I simply said that I was beginning to price cabinets, and that I would be using a simple shaker style, and could he please give me just a very rough idea of whether or not I could afford his work. He estimated about 1000 per linear foot. I'm guessing that means just the boxes, sans doohickeys.

For around 300 per linear foot, I spoke with "friends of friends..." These were typically "retired" gentlemen who had a passion for carpentry. Again, my cabinet needs are very, very simple. So that might make a difference. Then again, as long as one has the tools and experience, I guess it isn't a big leap from shaker style, to cathedral arches and corbels.

My current guy is doing about 8 feet of cabinetry: 1 door unit, 1 door + drawer, one sink cabinet for Shaw's fireclay, one trash cab, and a dishwasher panel made to look like a drawer + door. He did the demo for me. The cabs will probably be unfinished, paint grade birch with plywood boxes. (Though sometimes he sounds like he might try to prime them if he has time.) His price is 3400.00 for this. So that's a little over 400 linear foot for the bare bones cabinets.

I'll keep you posted on the work...

Six figures just doesn't seem reasonable to me. But then, God is in the details, right? In that respect, I have a godless kitchen!

:-)

Francy

When my friend did her kitchen last year she used Burman Cabinets in Campbell and was very pleased. But they may be a little pricey, I'm not sure. I spoke to them before we had to put our project on hold and they were very nice.

Hi akshars_mom,

Unsure how "custom" you want to go, but one option may be is to look for doing an IKEA box + custom door combo. There is tons of info on that topic, and apparently there are door manufacturers just catrering to that.

If you want to check out local door manufacturers, you may want to check out folks like:
http://www.ciminoscabinetdoors.com/
More names at:
http://www.cabinetdoormaking.com/door_mfg_zone_list.asp?GeoZone=Western-USA

You should visit IKEA In Palo Alto, get a sample cab with door, and see how the hardware goes onto the door. Show it to the door builder and they can do what is needed to ensure your custom door fits an IKEA cab.

I think this would result in a good compromise budget/looks-wise. We did not know of this when we did our remodel, but would've gone this route.

Best,
/venkat

Thanks everyone. Will take a look at the suggentions.

Bayareafrancy, Keep us posted on how things go.Also one more question. How are linear foot calculated in your case.Looks like there are two ways people do it. One is where they calculate just the number of feet on the cabinets and the other is where they caluclate the base cabinets and wall cabinets seperately?

Venkat, Thanks for the idea on ikea +custom door. We are not diy people so afraid that we will mess up the measuremnts . That is reason we would like to go with a place that will help us do this. we may go and take a look at Ikea still.

Don't mean to push IKEA option, but thought I'd mention that your GC can sure install them. Should be a breeze for your GC, if the cab sizes are std (12", 18", 24", etc.). They can take the measurements. If not for buying, visiting their store will get you a basis to judge the pure-custom option.

May want to check out http://www.gaosgroup.com/ in So.SF. They came well-recommended and their pricing came to about ~2/3rds middlee-order cabs from Lowes/HD, for ref. Did not use their cabs tho, but may be worth a try. I think they
build their own boxes but order the doors elsewhere.

/venkat

Our cabinets (currently being installed) are custom cabinets made by City Cabinets in San Francisco (we live in Berkeley). They are cherry and the grain and workmanship (matching grain directions, etc) is fabulous! About 50 feet upper and lower including an island and window seats will be around $20k. What was nice was the opportunity to design everything to fit what I need to store perfectly - to the 1/16 of an inch. Given we have a non-plumb 1928 home, the custom actually cost less than semi-custom or stock and we are getting exactly what we want with no wasted space. A little higher than your budget, but you might use fewer cabinets than we did. Highly recommend.

Thanks Venkat I will check out Gao's cabinets.

Tomalyse: Thanks for the recomandation of City Cabinets. Will call them. We have a total of 41 linear foot if you calculate uppers and lowers seperately and 32 linear feet we cound uppers and lowers as 1 linear feet. Either way what we need is less then 50 linear feet so we might be able to get them in our price range.

Also My husband just talked to a collegue/friend and he gave a referal to a custoem cabinet maker who build cabnets for his kitchen and his brothers kitchen. So will talk to them also. They had about 35 linear feet and the total cost was about 7000 dollars which seems very reasonable.

akshars - since you mentioned you were considering Medallion you should check out Cardinal Kitchen & Bath (510) 792-2100 on Central Ave. in Newark. They are a small mom and pop shop. We ordered through them and they were very reasonable. Par Cabinet Outlet in Union City (510) 475-7277 sells Kemper cabinets (all wood, no particle board) with all the bells and whistles for over 1/3 less than the equivalent in Medallion. But I think Kemper only makes cabinets in 3" increments.

I have heard positive things about Brent's custom cabinets on Osgood and have seen the beautiful results. A friend used Cima Custom Cabinets on Fremont Blvd. and found their prices very reasonable and were extremely pleased with their work.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cima Custom Cabinets

Thanks auntiebubba. Will check them out.

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