Cabinets again

[Aram]

It's kitchen upgrade time. I saved the threads on cabinet sources but they've expired. Aside from the obvious big boxes, please remind me what the options are. I remember there are sources of doors and drawers if I want to semi-customize. All leads (complete cabs, just boxes, just doors, just drawers) welcome.

BTW I've left a trail of vanities and built-ins, all cherry, flat panel, with inset doors and drawers. I might want to match that.

Thanks!

[RedBob]

Aram, these folks always looked interesting to me, though I never have bought RTA cabinets from them.
Scherrs

Good luck!
Bob

[Bastl]

Conestoga and Walzcraft come to mind.

[toolfool73]

Some of the big companies are KraftMaid, Merillat, Aristokraft. And there are probably dozens of regional companies in your area. If you're not looking for a design/build/install shop, I'd look for a showroom that sells several of the regional brands. Our local showroom sells KraftMaid, Canyon Creek, and Pacific Crest.

[handi]

Any reason you are not building your own?

The boxes are the easy part. You can order drawer boxes and/or doors if needed or build it all yourself.

I have built out two kitchens. Floors, walls, cabinets, drawers, doors everything. I even made my own counter tops. A lot of work admittedly, but I was able to get exactly the kitchen my wife wanted while getting the quality that I wanted.

Downtime for the kitchens were kept to a minimum by building all the cabinets first. In both cases, the kitchen was down for about a week. The drawers and doors came next.

Just my take, having been there.

Ralph

[Aram]

I haven 't ruled it out. It's not obvious that it's worth the hassle, especially for the price I pay for plywood. But I might. Just looking at options.

[Kmucha16]

I forgot to mention this in your appliance thread, but I passed Friedman's on my way home last night and they have a cabinet retailer/showroom in their appliance store also. You might get one stop shopping there.

When we bought our house 14 years ago, we got all our new kitchen appliances from Friedman's. All GE, everything has worked great since day 1. From what I can recall, it was a pleasant experience.

Kevin

[Aram]

Thanks for the lead.

[rwe2156]

You will definitely save money building them yourself unless you just have one or two.

Melamine is very economical but not liked by everyone. I built a large kitchen out of it and I am very happy.

Run the numbers it may turn out if you built the boxes and bought premade fronts you may be better off just buynig the cabs.

[Kizar_Sozay]

I owned a cabinet shop back in the 90s. The boxes were easy but the doors were killing us. We jobbed them out another shop and eventually this guy ended up just doing doors for other shops.

We'd make the face frames and then take him the measurements. Then we'd make the boxes and pick up the doors by the time everything was assembled and we made our own drawers, adding his solid fronts.

One of the issues was you don't want to start with 4/4 material. The doors just don't look right. Our sub would buy unmilled one inch stock. He'd straight-edge each piece as he unloaded and then plane down to 7/8" finish. Then the drum sander, then he'd starting cutting to size. Its been a long time but we paid $7 sf for flat panel and $10 sf for raised panel. Find a local shop and buy the doors.

We used ply for the exposed sides, cutting four ends from each piece, the leftovers went into dividers where the cross grain wouldn't show. Supports and drawer runners were poplar or alder. Shelves were shop ply with a finished edge piece. Never like melamine but it was popular. We used 1/8" ply for backs on the uppers as we didn't like exposed plaster or drywall at the backs. we made our own scribe molding and crown from scraps.