For a homeowner planning to remodel, the cabinetry is a significant part of the investment as well as one of the most visible aspects of the finished project. To achieve the room of your dreams, you may want to explore custom cabinetry. A custom cabinet maker will design, build and install cabinets to fit your space and lifestyle.
While custom cabinetry has a reputation as the priciest option, that’s not necessarily so. Often, the cabinet maker can match a quote from a major retailer. By doing the work in-house, the custom cabinet maker cuts out several steps in the supply chain while offering the client more flexibility over options such as the size of the cabinet, the type of wood, the paint or stain, and the hardware. A custom cabinetry maker can also use higher quality materials since there is no need to cut corners, which a big retailer may do to keep the retail price down while incorporating supplier costs.
The end price to the consumer is generally not influenced by the size of the project, since custom cabinetry costs are primarily based on labor. Homeowners renovating a kitchen or bathroom, building a home office, adding bookshelves or an entertainment center, or carving a mundane laundry room out of a corner of the basement will have as many choices within their budget as a customer with a large-scale project.
For instance, you’ll be able to select upper cabinets 14-15 inches deep instead of the standard 12 inches preferred by large manufacturers. You’ll also be able to choose one of the more popular woods such as maple, cherry, walnut or white oak, or go with a more exotic species. Moldings, ogees and onlays from basic to ornate will also be available, and you can blend interior and exterior features from different models to create your own unique design.
Before embarking on a remodeling project, the two most important things to understand are that replacing cabinets or building and installing new items entails additional steps to be completed by someone other than the cabinet maker, and that it isn’t an overnight process. Plumbers, electricians and other tradespeople will be part of the team and can only do their work at certain stages. The subcontractors’ schedules have to be coordinated, and even a small project could take a couple of months. Unlike most homeowners, a contractor will have a network of reliable, experienced colleagues in various trades to call on and can orchestrate the timing of each phase.
When selecting a cabinet maker, ask for references, and since problems inevitably pop up, be sure to find out how the business responded.
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