Where to start before your next built-in or kitchen renovation project

To choose custom or not to choose custom…that is the question (on a lot of people’s minds as they start wading into the vast ocean of renovation decisions before finalizing their project budgets).

So you have a project idea in mind for your home. That could be a small or large built-in project, or it could be a kitchen renovation that you’ve been anticipating for several years and it’s finally time to pull the trigger. That’s really exciting and I hope to offer you some perspective on what your options look like on the millwork and cabinetry portions of your project as you kick off this small or massive undertaking.

There are three major factors to consider when selecting millwork and cabinetry options: Flexibility, Quality, and Price.

If you first consider flexibility, you need to assess your space (or planned space) and determine what sort of constraints you are working with. You might have an oddly shaped space, or you might have a scenario that’s just not “standard,” which could be related to ceiling heights, soffits, or weird obstructions, etc., that affect whether or not “standard” sized cabinets will fit in that space.

Standard cabinet sizes usually start at 12” in width and a 24” depth and increase in width by 3” increments. So unless your space accommodates a combination of cabinets that work on those limitations, your cabinets will required extensive use of fillers to fit the cabinets to your space, leaving you with a lot of unusable space in your newly renovated kitchen. This level of cabinetry is typically the most affordable based on the manufacturers available product options to achieve the highest efficiency and yield of their mass produced offering. I’m not trying to knock the mass produced cabinets out there, but you also typically find that the materials and construction in this standard offering are commonly lacking when it comes to material thicknesses, fastener durability, and hardware functionality. You commonly find limited options in this standard offering when it comes to color and finish options.

The next level of flexibility is from the semi-custom line of products on the market. Similar to standard cabinets you are going to find limitation on color and finish options, but you will likely find some upgraded hardware and slight improvements to the construction methods and material thickness of the cabinet boxes, but with sizing options that go down to 1” increments to help fit your space requirements. This is an improvement in the flexibility spectrum which offers you more choices, but ultimately, the limitation here still exists with fixed increments and being able to work around highly unique spaces or customer preferences. This is a product that is often available in kitchen and bath showrooms and through interior designers or contractors. No secret here, but in all of those cases, the showroom, designer, or contractor serves as a product line sales rep and either marks up the price of the cabinets before they sell it to you, or they earn a commission on what they sell from that specific manufacturer. I’ve been absolutely floored to have seen quotes from all of these sources that are at or above custom prices without the benefits of what custom cabinets can offer.

The highest level of flexibility comes through custom cabinetry, which is 100% custom to any given situation. A cabinet can be made at virtually any size (even though, transparently, there are some limitations that arise with certain types of hardware). You can choose finishes in virtually any color, stain, and sheen available through a major paint provider or match the color and style of the other cabinets you already have in a different room of your home. Door styles are also something that you can completely customize to suit your preferences or the need to match something existing in your home. Essentially, if you can dream it, it can be made without the imposed limitations of mass produced product lines. Custom cabinets are typically made (which is true for us at Severn View Custom Woodworks) using all 3/4” premium grade plywood and the highest quality functional hardware available on the market. In my experience, these features are included as standard with custom cabinets. It’s also no surprise that with this level of flexibility and quality, custom cabinets also come with a premium price tag.

Now that I’ve outlined some of the major differences between the available cabinet segments, there’s one thing you probably already noticed, but I want to highlight just incase you missed it.

The price difference to you as the customer between semi-custom and custom cabinets is actually not very big. With semi-custom cabinets, even though you have more options that the standard cabinet offerings out there in the mass market, you’re getting a product that still has a large list of limitations with an inflated price because of the middle man sales structure that these mass market cabinet manufacturers employ to get there product out into the market. So in essence, you’re paying A LOT to get a product that you’re still probably going to have to make a lot of compromises with.

On the other hand, custom cabinets are still slightly more expensive on average that semi-custom cabinets, but can offer you the flexibility and quality that you’re expecting when you making the purchasing the single most expensive element of any home renovation in which you’ll ever invest. One additional benefit to choosing custom cabinets is that the cabinet maker is usually a local shop owner (solopreneur) who is focusing solely on your project while it’s being built, being installed by the person who built them, and is the person who will be picking up the phone or answering the email if you ever call with an issue that needs attention. You definitely don’t get that level of attention or service with a mass produced cabinet manufacturer and I’d say from experience that you’d be lucky to get someone to even respond. In fact, I’ve taken many calls from contractors and home builders with requests to build something custom to match what another mass produced manufacturer messed up or didn’t respond to.

It should also go without saying, that not every custom cabinet builder is the same. You need to do your due diligence when selecting the person to whom you’ll be handing over large sums of money, and have a REALLY good understanding of their track record and reputation in the community where they work. I’ve been called by desperate contactors or designers looking for help who didn’t perform the necessary due diligence on their custom cabinet supplier and ended up in a nightmare scenario where the quality of the “custom” cabinets was probably worse than the junk you would find off the shelf at a big box store, or worse, the cabinet maker ran off with the money and was no where to be found. Please don’t find yourself in that situation.

In conclusion, you need to start with an assessment of your space and it’s limitations, and compare that to your expectations of your finished space. If you have particular tastes that are not easily met by mass produced offerings, you would do you future self a huge favor by considering the minor price increases of custom cabinets over semi-custom line. You’ll thank yourself, later.