Wanting to remodel your kitchen or considering it in the near future? With the realization that your home may not be worth what it was three or four years ago, it still may make sense to go ahead and improve your space. Whether you want to remodel for resale or you have come to the conclusion that you will be staying put for a while, you will need to make many decisions.

Budget

Regardless of which group you fall into, the first thing that should be addressed is the budget for the whole project. A good rule of thumb is for a total cost of around 15% of your home’s current value. This number should cover cabinetry, countertops, appliances, hardware, flooring, electrical, plumbing, and installation. If you are remodeling for resale, your total percentage may be less. If you are creating your dream home, you may opt to increase the budget. The caveat is that you should not over-improve and turn your house into the most expensive one on the block.

Concealed drawer guides.

Quality slide-out shelves.

Economical drawer guides and pin nailed drawer joints.

Quality dovetailed drawer joints and ¾” wood drawer construction.

Third-party self-closing hardwear can be added to any cabinet door.

High quality corner cabinet lazy Susan with substantial rails mounted on individual shelves and ball-bering plate.

Another option for a corner cabinets is to have drawers custom made to fit the space. Drawer fronts can be a welcome change to swing-out cabinet door.

What should be the largest portion of your overall budget? When you stand in your kitchen or look at photos of kitchens, what takes up the most visual space? In most cases this would be the cabinetry. Keeping this is mind, you want to allocate a large portion of your budget to cabinetry,  – somewhere between 40 and 50% – especially if you plan to be there five years or longer. The percentage may be less if you are remodeling for resale, but the cabinetry should be considered as the one item you don’t want to be replacing, especially if this is your dream home or you want to be environmentally responsible.

Choosing a Cabinetmaker

Cabinetry is available at all price points and quality levels. There are national cabinet manufacturers and local custom cabinet makers. National manufacturers offer a wide range of cabinet options, from off the shelf to fully custom. Each manufacturer tends to specialize in a specific type of cabinetry, some offering just stock cabinets while others can build almost anything that the designer comes up with. Custom cabinetmakers also vary widely in what they offer. Some build very basic cabinetry while others do exceptionally creative work. In addition, there are options for wood species, door styles, finishes, and construction methods.

The choices can be confusing, but remember that, as a rule, you get what you pay for. An inexpensive cabinet is just that, not built to last, something you or the next homeowner will most likely need to replace sooner. An expensive cabinet will typically be crafted like fine furniture with an heirloom quality, hence the high cost. How do you wade through all the options and find the price and quality that works for you and your budget?

Visit a Showroom

Get a feel for what’s available by visiting a variety of places that design and sell cabinetry for the home. These places range from big-box stores to cabinet showrooms. Any place that sells cabinetry should have a variety of quality and price levels. Check out the displays, and be sure to open and shut the drawers and doors. What do they sound like? Do they operate smoothly? Are the drawer guides visible or concealed? Run your hand over the doors, examine the joints in the doors, and feel the edges. Are the joints tight and well sanded? Is the finish smooth and free of imperfections? These are the things that you will look at and use every day. If you aren’t happy with the way these items look and feel in a showroom, they won’t look or perform any better in your home.

Look inside the cabinets and inspect the interior. A lower-priced cabinet will have thin vinyl covering the interior. And there may be no back to the cabinet, possibly just a nailer strip for installation. A better quality cabinet will have a melamine interior on surfaces, including the back. The best cabinets will have a wood-veneer interior. Take a look at the shelves. How thick are they and what are they made of? Cabinet shelving typically ranges in thickness from 1/2” to 3/4”. The thicker the shelf, the more weight it will hold, and flexing won’t become an issue. Can you tell what material the shelf is made out of:  furniture board, medium-density fiberboard, or plywood?

Asccessories

Are there accessories to look at? Many showrooms will show different base corner solutions. Blind corners and lazy Susans are typical. Some manufacturers have added corner drawer cabinets to the mix. In all of these cases look at what the accessories are made of. Are the lazy Susan trays plastic, attached to a pole? Higher quality cabinets will have wooden trays or a wood-and-chrome combination tray mounted on a shelf with a ball-bearing plate underneath. The pole Susan has a tendency to tilt and sag over time, especially if the weight on the trays is not evenly distributed. A basic blind corner cabinet will be just that, a big deep cabinet, hard to access without some type of pull-out mechanism. The more elaborate the pull out, the more functional it will be, but also the more expensive.

Open a cabinet with two doors. When the doors are open, is there is a 2” to 3” vertical piece of wood dividing the opening? If so, this is for structural support as well as a landing spot for the doors when they are closed. This is often seen in lower-priced two-door cabinets regardless of cabinet width. While this vertical piece provides structural integrity, it also interferes with the accessibility of the interior, cutting access in half. Better quality manufactured cabinets will have a center stile only on cabinets over 36” wide. Look at the door itself. If there is a flat panel in the center, is it 1/16” to 1/4” thick or does it look like a raised panel on the back side? The thinner product will typically be a veneer panel, while the reversed raised panel will be made of solid wood. The veneer panel will be less expensive, but there are things to be aware of. Veneer does not age in the same manner as solid wood. If the frame of the door is solid wood, and the center panel is veneer, you could end up with a two-tone look over time.

Inspect the drawer boxes. Are they wood or melamine? Are the sides pin nailed or dovetailed? The better drawer box will have four sides, dovetailed, with the drawer front attached to the front. Sometimes a cabinet will have a three-sided drawer box with the drawer front acting as the fourth side. This is not as strong and durable as the four sided box, over time the front can work loose and fall off. What are the drawer guides like? Are they mounted on the sides? Do they open all the way, or do they stop with the back third of the drawer box hidden by the countertop? The best cabinets will have an all-wood dovetail drawer box with full extension and undermount guides that close quietly by themselves.

Ask Questions

Talk to a designer or salesperson in the showroom. Ask questions about the box construction. What is it made of: particleboard, furniture board, or plywood? What thickness? Consider the type of countertop you want. A box constructed with lower quality materials may not be able to support the weight of a stone top. Ask about the length of the warranty and how that particular manufacturer is to work with if problems arise. Reputable companies and cabinetmakers stand behind their products; the better quality cabinets will have a limited lifetime warranty on their product.

You also will be selecting a door style, wood species, and finish. Each option affects the price. Cabinet prices increase with choices such as an elaborate door style, an exotic wood, or a complex finish. With all of these details to consider, it makes good financial sense to work with a qualified kitchen designer. A good designer can offer creative design solutions so that you get the most functional layout that looks fabulous, reflects your lifestyle, and stays within your budget.

After spending the time to research the cabinetry options, coming up with a great design, and staying under budget, a final consideration is the installation. The key to a beautiful kitchen is how it all comes together. A qualified installer can make or break the project. But that’s a whole different topic.

Wendy Anderson is the General Manager of Craft & Design and has been in the cabinetry industry for over 16 years. Anderson can be contacted at 503-545-7088 or wendy@mscor.com.