Choosing Kitchen Cabinets - A Few Basic Rules

Choosing kitchen cabinets deserve more attention, more estimation and more consideration than any other part of the kitchen. After all, you have to store your kitchen gadgets, appliances and accessories in these cabinets, which means that the way you organize your cabinets greatly affects the total look of the whole area. Thus, the better your choice of kitchen cabinet, the better your kitchen in particular and your home in general will look.

Know Your Budget

Your choice of the types of cabinets will affect your budget. You can choose from either custom cabinets or semi-custom cabinets or stock cabinets that have different price tags to them. Your cabinet contractor should be able to tell you the price ranges for each type.

If you are doing the kitchen cabinets as a do-it-yourself project, then you need to canvass the stores and shops specializing in these types of woodworks. Know, however, that custom cabinets are the most expensive option with prices starting at $400 for laminate types to over $1,000 for solid wood cabinets.

If your budget for cabinets is on the mid-range, then semi-custom cabinets will cost anywhere from $300 to $500. For the least expensive cabinets for the kitchen, stock types go for $70 to $360 depending on the materials.

Keep in mind that it is often not the expensive price tags that matter most but the way you present the kitchen storage in such a way that these appear functional, stylish and durable. And to make your cabinets really stand out, even when you initially opt for the stock kinds, are cabinet inserts. This way, you add a touch of your personality to what otherwise would be standardized fixtures.

Measure Your Space

You have to measure your kitchen space especially when you are engaging in a DIY project. This presupposes that you already have a preliminary design of the kitchen cabinet, including its cabinet inserts and kitchen gadgetry like appliance lifts. Your designs can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be.

To measure your space for the cabinets, you can adopt these steps and tips to do so:

• Draw a simple but legible map of your kitchen with the proposed cabinets included.
  

• Starting at the door and working around the kitchen, you must measure all the walls in a clockwise manner while taking note of corners that do not have a 90-degree angle. You must take measurements of the ceiling height, door height, floor to sill, and sill to trim.

• Make sure your measuring tape is as taut as possible since even a little sagging can render the measurements incorrect.

Just remember the carpenter’s adage about measuring twice and cutting once when it comes to kitchen cabinets. Also, if you are thinking of incorporating kitchen gadgetry like appliance lifts and slide-outs, you must account for these in your measurements, too.

Check Your Options

You have three options to choose from in kitchen cabinets – custom, semi custom and stock.

Custom  cabinets are designed to specific measurements and features specifications as provided by the buyer. You can choose from a wide variety of features, designs, materials and colors that, of course, comes with the expensive price tag. Also, when you avail of custom cabinets, ask for things like glass inserts and slide-out gadgetry, which are good features to include in the cabinetry design.

Semi-custom cabinets have predetermined common measurements but are manufactured with the specific sizes provided by the purchaser. Stock cabinets only come in standard sizes and are the least expensive of the choices. You can, however, be more creative through the subsequent addition of slide-outs and custom-designed inserts when you have the money later on. And then there is the wide range of accessories to choose from when purchasing cabinets. You have cookbook rack pull-downs, under sink storage and knife rack pull—down, inserts and slide out gadgetry, to name a few.

Indeed, when it comes to purchasing cabinets, you have to think things through. After all, you have to spend for them, use them on a daily basis and live with them, so to speak.

Summary:

When purchasing a kitchen cabinet, you have to consider three important things – your budget, your kitchen space and your kitchen needs. With the various options available, this should be an easy task.

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