Kitchen Cabinets
If you’re starting from scratch in the kitchen and need to replace the cabinets, you need to know that all cabinetry is not alike. There are several types of kitchen cabinets available, and the choices, from least expensive to the most expensive are:
Production
Production-grade cabinetry is good quality cabinetry at a reasonable prices. Mostly framed construction, it doesn’t always offer a large style selection, with minimal choices in finishes and accessories. Production grade includes the standard offerings at Home Depot, Lowes and Ikea. Delivery time for production grade cabinetry is normally less than one month.
Semi-Custom
Semi-custom cabinetry is similar to production-grade in quality, but expands the offerings of styles and accessories. Some customization is available with this grade of cabinetry, but the options will raise the cost, sometimes significantly. With any custom options, the delivery time goes from less than one month to nearly two months.
Popular
With popular-grade custom cabinetry, there’s a significant cost increase of production and semi-custom cabinetry, and most of the increased manufacturing cost is put into the cabinet’s exterior looks. Additionally, there is a wider range of styling, woods, finishes and stains available. Usually, both framed and frameless cabinets are available from the same vendor. These cabinets are higher quality and can be used in other rooms besides the kitchen. Because of the customizations, delivery time is normally 8-12 weeks.
Furniture
Furniture-grade cabinetry focuses on quality both inside the cabinet and out. This grade is known best for its unique styles, numerous painted and unusual glazed finishes, excellent interior accessories and deep lines for furniture applications. Most brands have excellent literature and advertise in national consumer magazines. Delivery time runs from 10-20 weeks.
Luxury
Luxury-grade cabinetry offers the leading edge of new styles and materials, incorporating the widest selection of functional interior accessories and state of the art hardware systems. Surprisingly, there is very little customization due to the engineering production methods. Delivery time is similar to furniture grade cabinetry, running 10-20 weeks.
So, as they say on television, “What’s in your wallet?”. If your answer is like many of ours these days, it’s “not much”. So what’s a gal or guy to do if you need kitchen cabinets and your kitchen makeover is a budget project? Shop around, both online and in person. Check out the newspaper classified ads as well. With home foreclosures unfortunately on the rise, homeowners are clearing out their homes of fixtures when they’re selling or in the foreclosure process. So keep your eyes open for bargains and keep shopping until you find kitchen cabinets to fit your style and budget.