Kitchen Renovation Styles: Choosing Cabinets

Manufacturers of cabinets have guidelines for their offerings. These specifications relate to the sizes of individual cabinets and their configurations. In addition, accessories, amenities and the ability to support the installation of certain appliances or conveniences may or may not be made available during the production of their products and are pointed out in their catalogs and product brochures.

KCC, kitchen renovation company in Mississauga, suggests taking into consideration the cost of upgrading a supposedly lower-cost line before eliminating cabinets where the upgrades are standard. When cost is a consideration, a client can also alter the room to conform to the cabinet category rather than build custom cabinets to fit the room.

Your fee-based designer will have your best interests in mind because their business growth is dependent on your satisfaction through referrals. Their objective is to meet your needs, not upping the cost of the project to increase their profit.

You need someone who can integrate all of the products and services for you.

With the above in mind, we’ll talk about the least costly of the three production styles, stock cabinets, which fall into two groups. The first group is cabinets that are finished and shipped fully assembled from the factory. The second group is called RTA’s or Ready to Assemble cabinets that may be assembled by the final purchaser or by a distributor that sells them to you. I’ll start with this first.

These cabinets may be finished or unfinished and are shipped in a box unassembled from the manufacturer. They can be sold through an importer, wholesale distributor, or retailer. Many of these sellers are found on internet websites. Because they are boxed flat (unassembled), many more units can occupy the same space as preassembled cabinets at a big shipping cost savings.

RTA’s offerings are limited compared with stock cabinets that come fully assembled from the factory. RTA’s can represent an alternative to particleboard cabinets found in many big-box retail home improvement chains; RTA’s are often made out of better materials at similar prices. For the budget-minded homeowner or real estate investor, RTA’s can be a great choice.

Some imported kitchen cabinets have a certification label or stamp on the inside of drawers or interiors. There are a few authorities or American manufacturer associations that certify that wood products meet certain minimum standards. (Rather than spend a lot of time on this, you can do your diligence by researching this on the internet.)

There is an American manufacturer of Ready To Assemble Cabinets that are sold through direct distributors and retail specialty cabinet companies that must be called semi-custom because of the hundreds of styles, thousands of finishes, and the quality of construction.

The manufacturer will build many cabinets to sizes not found in stock cabinets. Some individual outlets for the imports and the domestic RTA’s offer assembly at an additional reasonable charge, which I recommend that you consider. 

Stock cabinets that come fully assembled from the manufacturer offer a basic, limited line of wall and base cabinet units to use to assemble your kitchen. However, these cabinets offer greater choices in door and drawer design, finishes, and cabinet construction than imported RTA’s for the most part. Depending on the manufacturer, there should still be a greater choice of different types of cabinets than RTA’s or the inventoried stock cabinets sold by the big box home improvement retailers.

Semi-Custom means just that, you have a greater choice of everything we mentioned above. There are more styles and shapes in these fully assembled cabinet lines that are the building blocks of your kitchen.

Depending on the particular manufacturer, they will allow you to alter liner dimensions in three-inch increments and some allow alterations as small as a quarter inch. These made to measure cabinets are built by large manufactures at a price that may be considerably lower than a small custom shop. The time from the date of ordering to the day of delivery may be eight weeks or more.

Custom cabinets are made by smaller manufacturers or smaller facilities owned by larger manufacturers as well as local cabinet shops. These companies may make all of the components that go into the cabinets or they may outsource some or many of the components that go into their products. Companies may finish their product in house or send them to a finishing specialist.

Custom cabinets have few limitations. They are built to the designer’s specifications and the client’s wishes by starting with a blank piece of paper. Custom cabinets can run in price from moderate to extremely expensive because of all the variations in costs of the differently used components to build them.