FindItMore | Your kitchen cabinets say a lot about your sense of style and how you feel about your kitchen space. They are considered as the centerpiece of any kitchen since many of the other decisions in your kitchen will be based off your cabinet choice. Therefore, it only makes sense to choose the right one that best suits your personality – all without sacrificing your budget.
However, aside from your style preferences and budget, there are other things you know before you purchase cabinets for your kitchen space. Without a concrete plan, the process of finding the right kitchen cabinets can get very complex and confusing.
To help make the process easier, we detail in this post the steps to follow if you want to find the right kitchen cabinets for your home.
- Know If You Need New Cabinets or Refacing Will Suffice
First and foremost, you need to know if you really need a new line of cabinetry or you just need to update the looks of your current ones through refacing. If your kitchen cabinets are still in good condition and all you want is to spruce up your overall kitchen space, then perhaps refacing is the best option for you.
Refacing only involves re-skinning your current kitchen cabinets with a new finish and replacing the doors. There are other refurbishments too, such as upgrading the existing hinges and knobs or adding a new door-mounted basket into the cabinets. These upgrades are drastically less expensive and much quicker to execute than replacing your existing cabinets.
- Know What Makes a Good Kitchen Cabinet
When looking for new kitchen cabinets, you must first create criteria based on the qualities of well-built cabinetry. It is ideal to choose kitchen cabinets that can offer standard features such as:
- All-plywood construction
- Full-height back panels
- Soft-close hinges
- Undermount, soft-close drawer glides
- Hardwood dovetail drawer boxes
- I-bean construction
- Face frames
- Lifetime warranty
- Set Your Budget
It’s imperative that you establish a budget from the get-go. While you would not have a realistic idea of the costs until you have researched the options in the market, just setting ballpark early on will give you a rough idea of what you can pay for.
When setting a budget for a kitchen cabinet purchase, there are several cost considerations you need to keep in mind to keep it as realistic as possible:
- Cabinet removal – Around $300 depending on size & weight of your older cabinets
- New cabinets – Around $500 to $1,200 per linear foot
- Materials – Costs may vary
- Additional features – Costs may vary
- Cabinet installation – Around $100 per cabinet box
- Molding and trim – Around $70 per 8-foot section
- Finished ends – Around $75 to $175 each
- Labor – Around $70 to $100 an hour depending on the location & demand
Other factors that can affect the final cost of the purchase can include the location of your home and delivery charge.
- Determine Your Storage Needs
The adage “function over form” is very applicable when choosing cabinets for your kitchen, as you need to decide on your storage needs first before you can decide on the aesthetic factor. That being said, knowing how much things you would store inside your cabinets rather than in somewhere else will help you determine the amount of space you will need.
For instance, if your countertop is full of “stuff” which you don’t often use, or you don’t necessarily need quick access to, then it’s better to move them inside your kitchen cabinets so you will have more working space for your daily kitchen activities.
- List Your Style Preference
Once you have determined your storage needs, you can now decide on the style you want your kitchen cabinets to have.
There are several factors you should consider first, though, to ensure that your kitchen cabinets are aesthetically pleasing and not sore to look at. Definitely, these include the current décor and layout of your home and kitchen, so make sure to choose a line of cabinetry that matches its environment to ensure its maximum visual appeal.
Here are some other things you need to consider when deciding on the style of your kitchen cabinets:
- Door styles – Can include Flat Panel, Raised Panel, Slab, Mullion and Accent Doors.
- Hardware Styles – Can include Ceramic and Glass Knobs, Plain Knobs, Ornate Knobs, Elongated Knobs, and Decorative Knobs.
- Colors and Finishes – Can include Thermofoil, Birch, Hard Maple, Laminate, Red Oak, Plantation Wood, Rustic Hickory, and Cherry.
- Molding and Details – Can include Light Rail, Dentil, Scribe, Crown, Outside Corner, Riser, Base, Toe Kick, and Fillers.
- Research Options In the Market
Now that you have a list of things to look for in kitchen cabinets, it’s time to dive into the market and search for models and makers that offer the features you want. You can start your research using the old-fashion way: visiting home centers, lumberyards, local cabinet makers, and kitchen design firms. Otherwise, you can visit different manufacturer websites and compare different cabinets that you think match your criteria.
If you are refacing your kitchen cabinets, you can easily find different kitchen cabinet refacing companies on the internet and book for consultation through their website as well.
- Shortlist Your Options
Compare your list of kitchen cabinet style and preference with the information that you have gathered about each cabinet model you have researched. Cross out those don’t meet your preference and budget requirements. From the rest, select the kitchen cabinet that you think best expresses your style, satisfy your storage requirements, and meet your budget as well.
Overall, choosing the right kitchen cabinets for your home require careful planning and consideration for design, materials, and budget. Regardless you have just recently moved in a new house, remodeling your kitchen space, or trying to uptick the value of your property, following these steps will help you find the best kitchen cabinets that meet your goals.
