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Furniture

2011-11-17 11:35:15

Buying new cabinets – series - part 2

Q: How do I narrow down the choices of cabinets to determine what is best for me? What are the differences between them anyway? They’re just a bunch of boxes for crying out loud!

A: I will get back to answering your questions…but before I do…please note, in last month’s article, there was stock art of a bathroom added by the layout and design people of this publication, as there often is, to better enhance the reading experience. In this case; however, although it was a nice bathroom, it was not one from our company. I do not wish to take credit for someone else’s work or imply that it was our own. Additionally, there was some editing of the answer that unintentionally contained some minor technical inaccuracies. These were in reference to obtaining accurate room dimensions. To lay out a room for cabinets, a designer will need the room’s internal dimensions including drywall. The dimensions should include the lengths of all walls, and where there are doors and windows, the overall heights and widths of those including the trim around them. Where the doors and windows are positioned in the walls, (both vertically and horizontally for windows) is needed too. The dimensions with trim are very important to prevent interferences when laying out the cabinets. The height of each room and whether or not the ceiling is vaulted is very important too. If your project is new construction, the design will most likely be created from the floor plans. The dimensions of door and window openings on a floor plan are called “rough openings” and are typically shown as “R.O.” on the plans. Rough opening dimensions only show the size of the hole needed in the wall to install the door or window. The size of trim to be used around them is not indicated, but it will be needed by the cabinet designer. Now back to your questions…last month we talked about the gathering of cabinet brochures and information from different places. Many places will offer two or three brands so if you have visited several places, you will have a stack of brochures all saying great things about their cabinets. There are two major types of cabinets: frameless (sometimes referred to as European) or traditional framed cabinets. The doors on a frameless cabinet are hinged to the interior walls of the cabinet box, while traditional cabinets have solid wood face frames that the doors hinge to. The advantages of frameless cabinets are wider drawers and roll-out trays for a given overall cabinet width, and they are often less expensive than traditional cabinets. Many frameless cabinets have thermofoil (plastic skinned) doors and cabinet boxes, but the nicer thermofoil cabinets can be quite stunning and lend themselves to a modern high end look. Frameless cabinets are also available with wood doors and cabinet boxes for a look very similar to traditional cabinets. Traditional cabinets are much more common and can cover a wide range of budgets. The major manufacturers of traditional cabinets also offer choices of matching specialty pieces (hearths, moldings, valances, turned legs and other trim details) that are not available in thermofoils. Because of this, these types of matching specialty pieces may not be available from frameless cabinet manufacturers for their wood cabinets either. Cabinet boxes and drawer boxes are not created equal. The boxes may be constructed of “furniture board” or “engineered wood,” which is a dense particle board, or they may be constructed of plywood. Plywood is stronger than particle board of the same thickness. Plywood with more layers or plies is stronger and more stable than the same thickness with less plies. The cabinet boxes may use different thicknesses of material for sides, backs, tops and bottoms. The thicknesses used by different manufacturers varies greatly from 1/8” to 3/4” and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know which is stronger. Drawer boxes and roll-out trays that are dovetailed together at the corners can’t pull apart when they’re loaded like a nailed together box can. The quality of the drawer tracks used can vary greatly too. The better tracks will be full-extension with soft-close mechanisms to keep the drawers from slamming when they shut. Soft-close is a feature on many doors now too. This is especially good to have on glass-door cabinets. Q: The sign on the cabinet display at the big box store say they start at $130/foot, but the salesman said the 10 foot display actually costs $5,400. Why is this and how much are your cabinets per foot? A: This is a bit like asking how much a car costs per foot or what does a size seven engagement ring cost? It really depends on what type and how loaded the car or ring is. With cabinets it also depends on how loaded the cabinet is and how tall it is. A three foot wide 30” tall wall cabinet with two shelves inside will cost way less per foot than a 3 foot wide eight foot tall pantry with swing outs and door racks from the same manufacturer in the same door style and color. The cabinet pricing per foot was started by retailers and manufacturers as a way to compare costs of different door styles and manufacturers but it only applies to a specific cabinet layout (the 10’ x 10’ L-shaped one in the line drawing on the sign that lists the price/foot). The total cost of the cabinets to make that specific layout in the L-shaped drawing was divided out per foot. Even though there are no cabinets where there is a window, dishwasher, stove and refrigerator in the layout, those widths are included in the total length to show an even lower cost per foot. The cabinets priced in that layout have no upgrades at all and use the lowest price level of construction available from that manufacturer. The better a cabinet is made and the more features it has, the more it will cost per foot. Every cabinet in a typical kitchen will have a different price per foot unless there are duplicates. Different kitchen layouts using the exact same manufacturer, door style, wood and finish will have a different price per foot when averaged out. That’s the long answer. The short answer is to ask instead “How much will these cabinets cost in my kitchen with the features I want?” To answer that accurately, the cabinet person will need to design your kitchen using the cabinets and features you want. At this stage of looking, you will have probably found a place that has the cabinet line you like or maybe a place with a cabinet designer you like that can help you narrow your choices down further. Discuss with the designer at that place the measurement info you have, the appliances you will be using and the budget you have for cabinets. The budget part is very important to discuss up front because you want to make sure they offer products to work with your budget. You may need to set an appointment to proceed and your first visit could take one to three hours or more depending on the size of your project and how far you have narrowed down your choice of cabinets. More next month…