Von Löwen Designs

Before anyone gets ready to start a kitchen remodeling project and begins sorting through what can frequently appear as a never ending selection of cabinetry, it can really help to acquaint yourself with both general kitchen remodeling and basic cabinet terminology. There’s no need to get to carried away, but if you know a little bit more about the language, communication becomes easier and more effective and will help with your research or when talking with kitchen designers or cabinet makers.

Check out my Kitchen Remodeling Glossary to get familiar with some typical terms (or when you’re having trouble sleeping) and then amaze your friends, designer, and contractor with the plethora of knowledge you have at your finger tips.

If your interested in learning more about how to make your kitchen remodel as green and eco-friendly as it can be don’t miss my posts Greening Your Kitchen Remodel and Green Remodeling In Practice – Part I and Green Remodeling In Practice – Part II for other interesting tidbits and relative information you might find valuable.

And if you’re really enthusiastic – don’t miss the many glossaries and other useful remodeling information I’ve painstakingly added and have available in my Lexicon.

Including my:

• Kitchen Remodel Calculator
• Earth Friendly Consumer Glossary
• Green Building Glossary
• Aging-In-Place Checklist
• Indoor Air Quality Glossary
• Solar Glossary
• Lighting Glossary
• Window Glossary
• Carpet Glossary
• Soundproofing Glossary
• Landscape/Xeriscape Glossary
• Construction Glossary (under construction)

A part of kitchen cabinetry that tends to get misunderstood often involves the terms stock, semi-custom and custom. Contrary to what many people think, these terms are not related to the quality of cabinets but rather, how they’re manufactured.

• Stock – Stock kitchen cabinets are pre-manufactured in specific sizes, typically 3″ increments, with few if any options for modifications other than some limited choices the manufacturer might offer. They are off-the-shelf products in a limited range of styles.

• Semi-Custom – Semi-custom cabinets are like stock in that they’re also pre-manufactured but come with a wider array of options and sizes than pure stock cabinets. With semi-custom you have some ability to pick and choose various details to tailor an otherwise pre-built stock cabinet. In other words, you have some customization choices.

• Custom – Custom kitchen cabinets are built to the designer’s or customer’s specifications, with no limitation on size, style choices, wood grade or finish. They are truly made-to-order. They may be simple or they may be ornate, but the difference is that they’re made to suit your specific design requirements, in whatever size, form, finish, colour and material you so desire.

Think of it this way – basically stock cabinets are like the car you buy right off the dealer’s lot. You have to take it for what it is, with no ability to choose any options or upgrades.

Semi-custom cabinets are similar to the car that you factory-order through the dealer, with the ability to specify colour, motor and other options. It’s still a Toyota or Ford and it’s mass-produced, but you have a list of options to choose from and have some say in the makeup of the final product.

Custom cabinets are analogous to walking into the dealership and having them build a completely new car for you, per your design, from the ground up with for the most part having no boundaries whatsoever.

If there’s anything to take away from this discussion on stock-semi-custom-custom cabinetry, remember that we’re talking about how the cabinets are manufactured and not about quality or decorative style. Custom kitchen cabinets don’t necessarily imply quality kitchen cabinets. Hand-built, made-to-order cabinets can still be poorly constructed. Conversely stock cabinets that are produced in mass quantities and limited sizes can also be manufactured with solid construction and quality materials.

The overall quality of kitchen cabinetry is usually closely linked to the cabinet’s construction, meaning how they’re put together and the materials they’re being made from. You’ll be wise to pay close attention to these key features, particularly if you expect to live with your cabinets for a long time. Kitchen cabinets, particularly the drawers, take a lot of punishment so paying for some durability is a wise investment.

Key points to be aware of include the following:

• Materials – They include particle board, MDF (medium density fiberboard), plywood, solid wood, metal and laminate/melamine (the laminate or melamine is laid over the particle board or similar substrate).

• Construction and Design – Kitchen cabinets are constructed in one of two different design styles – framed or frameless. Framed cabinets employ a wood frame that outlines and mounted to the front of the cabinet box, if the door is mounted flush with the face frame the door style will be referred to as ‘inset’. Frameless cabinets do not have this feature, (no face frame) thus the name.

Also, the joinery and techniques used to assemble and support kitchen cabinets vary. Structural braces are made from plastic, wood or metal. Methods of joinery include hot-glue, staples and nails, or, more intricate woodworking techniques like dovetails and dadoes.

• Hardware – Drawer slides vary in level of quality (some use ball bearings whereas others use nylon wheels/rollers) and physical location on the drawer (sidemount or on the bottom) which affects available drawer space. Today, soft closing mechanisms are huge and standard features with many cabinet manufacturers for both drawers and doors. Shelf mounting brackets can be either plastic or metal.

You’re not limited on where to buy kitchen cabinets either, they seem to be everywhere these days. You can purchase them from kitchen & bath showrooms, big-box home centers, lumberyards, local cabinet makers, and even online.

How To Determine How Much Cabinetry and My Kitchen Remodel Will Cost.

Determining how much your kitchen cabinets will cost depends on a realm of factors, but the best place to start is by establishing a budget for your new or renovated kitchen. The NKBA recommends a budget of 15 percent of the overall value of your home be allocated for a complete kitchen remodel. There are some general guidelines for budgeting items like cabinets, countertops and appliances so by starting with a budget, you’ll be able to zero in on what you should expect to spend on cabinets.

Industry statistics show that on average, cabinets make up approximately 35 percent of the kitchen budget which is also the largest percentage of overall expenditures for the kitchen; with the cost of appliances around 12 percent and countertops 11. Again there are many variables involved but by using my Kitchen Remodel Calculator as a guide you should be able to determine a ball park figure for what your allowance for cabinetry, as well as other kitchen product spending should be. There’s nothing holding you back from spending more or less but this just means that the other parts of your kitchen design will make up correspondingly higher or lower percentages of the overall budget. So, if your kitchen remodeling budget is $100,000.00, expect to pay roughly $35,000.00 for cabinets. Again, this assumes average statistics.

Once you have an idea of what you’re willing to spend on cabinets, you’ll be better equipped to make choices on the wide range of options available to you.

One final note on costs: as I mentioned in my previous post Kitchen Cabinetry – Design & Remodeling Considerations – realize that between 40 – 60 percent of the overall cost of your kitchen cabinetry will be determined by the cabinet door style you select and your cabinetry’s overall finish; paints, glaze, distressing all add up real quickly. Other factors include the quality of construction and quantity of bells and whistles that they incorporate. Options and upgrades abound and including them in your kitchen design and cabinetry will increase the price. These options include everything from the engineering of the cabinet itself and their organizational upgrades and gadgets, to the actual materials used to construct them. The key is to prioritize what it is you really want and need by asking and answering some straight forward questions I mentioned throughout Kitchen Cabinetry – Design & Remodeling Considerations and making sure those ‘must-haves’ fit into your budget.

Given the number of kitchen cabinet manufacturers, you’re probably asking what the differences are, if any, among them all. In reality, the differences are really found in the same general categories that make them similar. It’s back to the car analogy again: the auto manufacturers all make vehicles that do the same job; they’re just variations on a theme.

How They’re Similar.

• Materials – Cabinets are made from a finite range of materials and finishes so unless someone is making cabinets out of bricks, most if not all will use similar materials (predominantly wood and wood-based products, melamine, laminate and some metals).

• Construction Style – Kitchen cabinetry falls into two basic style categories – framed and frameless. Regardless of which manufacturer you choose, they’ll produce either one or both of these styles.

• Options – Just like with cars, cabinet makers offer a varied array of options and price points.

How They’re Different.

• Stock / Semi-custom / Custom – How your kitchen cabinets are produced will vary among the manufacturers with some offering only custom pieces and others providing only stock or a combination of manufacturing methods.

• Quality – Not all manufacturers are created equal; there are those that offer more premium products in the way of materials, construction, finishes, and options. Some manufacturers offer several product lines with graduated levels of what would be considered quality features (such as better materials and finishes).

• Access to Market – Some kitchen cabinet lines are available through big-box home retailers while others are through select dealers or designers. Other cabinetry is available through the internet with direct delivery to your door. Smaller local cabinet makers may sell directly from their shop.
So what’s the bottom line when it comes down to sorting through all the various kitchen cabinet makers and manufacturers? There’s no right or wrong way to narrow down to a short list of candidates but here are some suggestions:

• Start by saving some ads from kitchen design and remodeling magazines on various manufacturers that appeal to you. Using the internet is a good way to find out more about them since most brands provide fairly good information on product lines, materials and construction. Most kitchen cabinet manufacturer websites will also tell you where you can find their products.

• Next, talk to a designer and go look at some actual product. You can do this by either hiring a professional, visiting a local kitchen & bath showroom or any home-improvement retailer. This way you’ll actually see the differences in methods of construction and quality as well as all the latest and greatest cutting edge features.

• Find some local cabinet makers in your area and visit them as a comparison to the large commercial cabinet makers.

What You Should  Know About Cabinet Warranties.

Virtually all kitchen cabinet makers offer a warranty with their product. If they don’t, that should be a red flag. Cabinets are not a cheap expenditure and they get a lot of use so regardless of where you buy them, make sure you understand the warranty.

The warranties offered by cabinet manufacturers vary with regard to what’s covered, the duration of the warranty and the manufacturer. A good rule of thumb is that cabinet makers who build quality products are not afraid to stand behind them with a solid warranty. The key points to consider are as follows:

• Duration – How long is the product warranted? What you’ll find here are different levels or tiers of cabinet warranty coverage, depending on the manufacturer. Typical durations are 1 year, 5 years or lifetime coverage.

Be aware of what the manufacturer considers ‘lifetime’; some warranties state that a kitchen cabinet’s lifetime is considered to be 10 years. This may or may not be a long time depending on your perspective and how long you plan on staying in the same house or with the same style of kitchen design.

Some manufacturers also vary the warranty coverage within their product lines. Lower-end product lines have the shortest or most limited warranty whereas the high-end line enjoys the longest warranty period.

• Coverage – Find out specifically what’s covered and what’s not. Most if not all warranties will cover defects in workmanship and materials. They usually won’t cover any damage that’s inflicted once the cabinets are in place or the result of improper use or care; or cabinet doors that are built over a certain dimension in width and/or height. Typically manufacturers also won’t cover any materials that do not have a finish or are prepped for paint.

Some makers of kitchen cabinets provide warranty on separate parts of the cabinet like drawers, drawer slides, hinges and similar hardware. These items are covered separately from the more generic coverage on the cabinet boxes and may also have different levels of coverage. For example one cabinet maker offers a 5 year warranty on workmanship and materials and a limited lifetime warranty on the drawers and drawer guides.

• Compensation – What’s actually provided to you should you have a legitimate warranty claim? In most if not all cases cabinet warranties provide either repair or replacement of the defective component, at the discretion of the manufacturer. Some may offer reimbursement of the cost of the parts if they are no longer available.

One thing to keep in mind is that usually only the defective part or parts are covered by the cabinet warranty. There is typically no compensation for any labor or parts required to gain access to repair or replace the defective cabinet parts. Examples would be the requirement to remove countertops or appliances.

The point here is to highlight that while kitchen cabinet warranties are not complex, there are enough differences and nuances between manufacturers and product lines to make it worthwhile to understand them clearly.

Lastly, I think it’s most important here to realize when it’s all said and done that kitchen cabinetry is merely a commodity and there’s honestly much much more to their purchase and your kitchen design than just this. In a real remodeling scenario it’s of course about service, trust, and what takes place (or not) during the post sell process, through your installation and beyond. These are the critical things that hold both legitimate and undeniable value and may be over looked or difficult to put a dollar amount on. Well maybe for the first time remodeler – never the second!

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, so before you leave be sure to visit Von Löwen Designs to view an assortment of refreshing examples in kitchen and bath design concepts, refined palette and interior finishes, and sustainable yet chic, green remodeling ideas that may encourage and inspire your next remodel or home improvement project.