Remodeling my Kitchen Part Deux - Cabinets

[CPA]

After much contemplating, reviewing, speaking with remodelers, checking out costs, I've almost convinced myself to build my own kitchen cabinets - either the whole cabinet (frame, face and door) or just the frame and transfer current face and door. First reason is the cost. I can't believe how much cabinets are, and while I want a good product and install there are just too many horror stories out there to convince me that a "professional" doing it is the only way to do it. Second is time. I can't be home much, if at all, so most of the day the home will be left open to strangers.

Anyone successfully build their own cabinets? Any general thoughts or tips in doing so?

 

[highland145]

I did the 2 cabinets in the upstairs bathroom. Not difficult if you have the tools...saws, plate joiner, pocket jig, clamps. I didn't know what the measurements should be (toe kick, height, depth, ...) so Lowe's gladly let me measure their stuff. 😛 I ordered the doors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3zh2cMmsNM

I paid...a lot...to have the kitchen cabinets built. Seriously doubt I could match his quality of work.



I hear it's best to use cardboard and particle board. You know, the good stuff.😛

 

[Jimzz]

Depends on what level if quality/look you are going for. Unless you want top of the line and have the tools and experience I would not build.
IMO RTA cabinets offer the best bang for the buck. They have a lot of different grades now from builder to premium.

Ikea is the most common and there are places that make doors for them as well. So if you do not like the face Ikea offers others have ready to go doors.

 

[vi edit]

Yeah, I would seriously look at Ikea cabinets. They are very highly rated, easy to put together and offer a nice variety of styles and sizes. Also nice since they are flat packs and you can stack them in most SUV's easily.

 

[Micrornd]

You're going to find that you can't match the price of commercially made cabinets (quality of materials, workmanship, etc.) IF you add in any value for your own time.
Will you have to buy tools?
Do you have the time and patience to build your own?
It all adds up.

You know your own abilities.
Quality kitchen cabinets last a long, long time.

Are you prepared to look at your own work every day for the next 20+ years without regrets?

I'd recommend you look at local cabinet shops, not box stores, look at their finished products.
In most cases they will be cheaper, of the same or better quality, and have the same or more options than box stores.
Usually prices are negotiable too.

 

[CPA]

Yeah, I would seriously look at Ikea cabinets. They are very highly rated, easy to put together and offer a nice variety of styles and sizes. Also nice since they are flat packs and you can stack them in most SUV's easily.

My home interior is not conducive to white cabinetry. I know they carry a darker wood, but what I found online does not give me enough options of style in the darker wood.

 

[CPA]

You're going to find that you can't match the price of commercially made cabinets (quality of materials, workmanship, etc.) IF you add in any value for your own time.
Will you have to buy tools?
Do you have the time and patience to build your own?
It all adds up.

You know your own abilities.
Quality kitchen cabinets last a long, long time.

Are you prepared to look at your own work every day for the next 20+ years without regrets?

I'd recommend you look at local cabinet shops, not box stores, look at their finished products.
In most cases they will be cheaper, of the same or better quality, and have the same or more options than box stores.
Usually prices are negotiable too.

I have a local cabinet maker coming in Thursday, one who deal with Amish cabinetry next Wednesday, and one who does complete remodeling with custom cabinetry built in their own shop also next Wednesday. Just think all three of them are going to charge an arm and a leg.

As for the value of my time, doing things around the house is what I do with my time. In the last 10 years, I've built an outdoor kitchen, a 500 sq foot deck with jacuzzi, laid bamboo floors and remodeled my master bath, including tear down to the studs. If I wasn't doing something like that, I'd just be playing video games all day. 🙂

I have most of the tools, and this would be a good excuse to buy a new table saw 😛

 

[highland145]

I have a local cabinet maker coming in Thursday, one who deal with Amish cabinetry next Wednesday, and one who does complete remodeling with custom cabinetry built in their own shop also next Wednesday. Just think all three of them are going to charge an arm and a leg.

As for the value of my time, doing things around the house is what I do with my time. In the last 10 years, I've built an outdoor kitchen, a 500 sq foot deck with jacuzzi, laid bamboo floors and remodeled my master bath, including tear down to the studs. If I wasn't doing something like that, I'd just be playing video games all day. 🙂

Told the wife she had a $12K budget for the kitchen. She spent $10k on the cabinets.....It's nice and she did a good job with the colors. ended up with $22K out of pocket.

I have most of the tools, and this would be a good excuse to buy a new table saw 😛

Sounds like a done deal. Get to work.

 

[CPA]

Told the wife she had a $12K budget for the kitchen. She spent $10k on the cabinets.....It's nice and she did a good job with the colors. ended up with $22K out of pocket.



Sounds like a done deal. Get to work.

How big of a kitchen, how many linear feet of cabinets?

 

[vi edit]

Another option is to check around with the depots/outlets of the big cabinet companies in your area and see if they have any returns/misorders that will work for some of your kitchen and then have them order the rest. You can get cabinets for pennies on the dollar that way.

It's how I redid an old kitchen of mine.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=E46BB480E134A82A!135&authkey=!v5!UKAxmzXA$&ithint=folder,jpg

That huge cabinet opposite my refriderator only cost me $75 that way. The whole kitchen cost me about $3k. That's only with particle board though. Add another 20% or more for ply construction. We wanted something that looked nice so we could sell.

 

[vi edit]

Other ways to cheat is to do your own trim. That's what I did. I used basic pine moulding all around and was able to closely color match it. I did the whole kitchen trimming for about the price of one piece from the cabinet company.

 

[CPA]

Another option is to check around with the depots/outlets of the big cabinet companies in your area and see if they have any returns/misorders that will work for some of your kitchen and then have them order the rest. You can get cabinets for pennies on the dollar that way.

It's how I redid an old kitchen of mine.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=E46BB480E134A82A!135&authkey=!v5!UKAxmzXA$&ithint=folder,jpg

That huge cabinet opposite my refriderator only cost me $75 that way. The whole kitchen cost me about $3k. That's only with particle board though. Add another 20% or more for ply construction. We wanted something that looked nice so we could sell.

That looks great. Thanks for sharing. Will definitely look around.

 

[highland145]

How big of a kitchen, how many linear feet of cabinets?

Not sure but small. The kitchen is 10X14.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2333744

 

[highland145]

snip

That is nice. Was the baby included in the sale?

 

[Humpy]

Anyone successfully build their own cabinets? Any general thoughts or tips in doing so?

For about a decade I had a small shop and built 2 or 3 kitchens a year in my "spare" time. It is pretty easy to build good cabinet doors. After meticulous planning, the most challenging part was getting consistent high quality finishes in a shop environment.

There is so much competition and stuff available that I wouldn't recommend building your own unless it was for personal reasons. I could get high quality parts for the cabinet boxes CNC'd, and delivered for less than I could buy raw material in small quantities (I used a company called CabParts). Same with pre-finished drawer boxes. There are a bunch of manufacturers of custom sized doors, raw or finished.

In the end, it's pretty hard to compete with mass produced stock cabinetry. If you need higher quality or customization you can start to save some money by sourcing the parts and assembling it yourself if you have the confidence that your fuck ups won't negate the savings.

 

[Micrornd]

I have a local cabinet maker coming in Thursday, one who deal with Amish cabinetry next Wednesday, and one who does complete remodeling with custom cabinetry built in their own shop also next Wednesday. Just think all three of them are going to charge an arm and a leg.

As for the value of my time, doing things around the house is what I do with my time. In the last 10 years, I've built an outdoor kitchen, a 500 sq foot deck with jacuzzi, laid bamboo floors and remodeled my master bath, including tear down to the studs. If I wasn't doing something like that, I'd just be playing video games all day. 🙂

I have most of the tools, and this would be a good excuse to buy a new table saw 😛

You sound like you have a good handle on it :thumbsup:

Hopefully their prices will surprise you.
Especially if they include installation.

Don't forget to factor in down time for the kitchen if you do it yourself.
Not having a kitchen is only a little less inconvenient than not having a usable bathroom.

Heck, it only takes 3 days on TV :sneaky:

 

[CPA]

You sound like you have a good handle on it :thumbsup:

Hopefully their prices will surprise you.
Especially if they include installation.

Don't forget to factor in down time for the kitchen if you do it yourself.
Not having a kitchen is only a little less inconvenient than not having a usable bathroom.

Heck, it only takes 3 days on TV :sneaky:

Believe me, that is my biggest fear, but one positive is that I can do it in stages.

In any case, I hope you're right and that I get a decent price. Can't afford the $45K I was quoted by a custom remodeler.

 

[Stopsignhank]

Just remodeled out kitchen. Let me tell you soft close doors and pull out shelves are THE way to go.

 

[Zivic]

I redid my kitchen last winter. I found a local guy to build my cabinets. No way would I tackle that job myself. I paid ~ 12.5k for all my cabinets. All 3/4" maple boxes, lowers are real walnut. Uppers are painted white birch I believe (didn't really care what wood, because they were being painted, but pretty sure that's what they are). All inset with soft close everything. Pull out trash, custom depth on the range top.

the sink wall I believe is ~12' worth of cabinets to give some sense of scale

closest bid to his was 20k. Just had the same guy redo my desk cabinets. I would ask around and see what you can come up with.

pics of the lowers:

Uppers and wall cabinets:

the pantry ended up smaller than expected (left of the fridge). There are four pullouts in it, again all with soft close sliders

I did the tile work.

here is the desk cabinets he built and installed for me on 02/8. won't have a top for another two weeks. just had in measured today.

for lulz, here is the old kitchen during the demo:

But again, depending on your budget and quality expectations, I wouldn't tackle cabinet making myself... and just to show I have some handyman ability, here is the table I built.

 

[Greenman]

I redid my kitchen last winter. I found a local guy to build my cabinets. No way would I tackle that job myself. I paid ~ 12.5k for all my cabinets. All 3/4" maple boxes, lowers are real walnut. Uppers are painted white birch I believe (didn't really care what wood, because they were being painted, but pretty sure that's what they are). All inset with soft close everything. Pull out trash, custom depth on the range top.

the sink wall I believe is ~12' worth of cabinets to give some sense of scale

closest bid to his was 20k. Just had the same guy redo my desk cabinets. I would ask around and see what you can come up with.

pics of the lowers:

Uppers and wall cabinets:

the pantry ended up smaller than expected (left of the fridge). There are four pullouts in it, again all with soft close sliders

I did the tile work.

here is the desk cabinets he built and installed for me on 02/8. won't have a top for another two weeks. just had in measured today.

for lulz, here is the old kitchen during the demo:

But again, depending on your budget and quality expectations, I wouldn't tackle cabinet making myself... and just to show I have some handyman ability, here is the table I built.

Nice looking kitchen. A little on the trendy side for my taste, but still a nice look.

 

[CPA]

Nice job Zivic. I am having a local cabinet builder give me a quote as well. Hope to have something from him mid-week.

 

[Zivic]

Nice looking kitchen. A little on the trendy side for my taste, but still a nice look.

Trendy? Maybe the sink, but I actually live on a farm/in a farmhouse. went with something I thought would age well. What's more timeless than inset shaker style cabinets with white subway tile? I would have gone all walnut, but couldn't handle the extra cost so I had to do white. Regardless it is a huge improvement over what I had and I feel it will age well. I wish the rest of my house were as nice... Er I mean as trendy 😉

CPA, hopefully you are as happy with your local guy as I am. Good luck

 

[skyking]

If you don't like the bids you can fly me down for a consult, Kieth 🙂
I will be building my own once I get the rest of the house sorted. I am making true custom cabinetry. This means no box against box against box construction with all those face frame seams. The doors I will hire done by a local cabinet shop; they provided my bathroom cabinet doors.
They will sell me the face frame wood to match at about 70% of what I can buy it for anywhere else. It will be out of the same lot of wood as the doors. I will send it all through their finish shop for conversion coating.

 

[Greenman]

Trendy? Maybe the sink, but I actually live on a farm/in a farmhouse. went with something I thought would age well. What's more timeless than inset shaker style cabinets with white subway tile? I would have gone all walnut, but couldn't handle the extra cost so I had to do white. Regardless it is a huge improvement over what I had and I feel it will age well. I wish the rest of my house were as nice... Er I mean as trendy 😉

CPA, hopefully you are as happy with your local guy as I am. Good luck

White shaker doors, subway tile and a farm sink pretty much define trendy around here. That's not a bad thing, it just means it's a popular look, and a lot of houses have it. I actually have shaker doors in my kitchen, and a 1/2" wide tile back splash that has become all the rage here in CA. In two more years I'll have a trendier kitchen than you.

Though sometimes trendy can be a very bad thing. Do you remember the great white washed oak craze of the 80s? Everything was white washed Oak, floors, cabinets, furniture, even wall paneling. It was horrible. I nailed that shit into houses across the state, and died a little with every inch of it I installed. Thankfully someone, somewhere along the line, realized that it was the ugliest crap ever spewed off the Ikea assembly line and woke up the rest of the country. It's been 20 years and I'm still traumatized over it.

 

[skyking]

I feel the same way about the "golden oak" kitchen I am looking at, from the 90's. At least it looks like wood.