Kitchen cabinets - buy or build?

[Chip Lindley]

...As a side-question, does anyone make large-scale solid-wood cabinets anymore (ie no plywood)?
Thanks -
Jake

Better case goods are plywood. Cabinet-grade plywood is much better (and lighter) than MDF or particle board! Most raised-panel ends on exposed uppers and lowers of nice, upscale Big Box Store cabinets are overlays attached to the plywood box. Nice for looks, but it is only a facade. I doubt you will find "solid-wood" cabinets but from a high-end cabinet shop. Perhaps the Amish, or a small independent, part-time cabinet maker (like ME!) who enjoys the challenge of the work, at the expense of maximum profit.

For the prices custom cabinet shops and big box stores charge for their cabinets, I dare say you can save some money IF you are looking at solid wood, raised-panel doors, and end panels. But, if you are looking at painted, faux-raised-panel MDF doors and casework, probably not--especially as cheaply as the Chinese can be made to work! Once you have made your own kitchen, or parts of it, you will gain a new attachment to it. After all, the kitchen is the center of activity in many homes, and you had a great part in providing a newer, nicer kitchen space.

If you hate your entire kitchen layout, eventually a total gut is the only way to go. But, if you are fairly satisfied with your layout, cabinet refacing is the least invasive of all solutions! Solid wood faceframes can be refinished by painting, sanding and staining, or veneering over them with same wood as the new doors. New raised panel doors and drawer fronts installed. If your drawers and shelves are flimsy, they can be replaced with something more livable too. Dovetailed drawers are fun to make and very sturdy. Crappy drawer slides can be replaced now with full-extension units which can be re-used later.

Besides cabinets, there is countertop to consider. A new surface adds as much as new cabinets do. A great upscale look can be achieved using granite or quartz squares rather than expensive slab. Or, ceramic mosaic tile can add a very nice look, with a hardwood edge to match the cabinetry.

Enough ceramic or travertine tile for a kitchen floor won't set you back much. Neither will tongue & groove hardwood. You can wait until last to do the floor!

A facelift would be a great learning experience to get you ready for that whole new kitchen later on. After making and installing your first kitchen-full of raised-panel doors, new drawers, and tiling a countertop, all that remains to tackle is casework next time around. The learning curve will be pretty flat.

Just food for thought! Best of Luck!

[Rob Vicelli]

HI Jake, I am currently in the process of building our kitchen cabinets. It does take time!!! I started off with a 6 ft hutch and the wife really like it so on we go. building for me does not take to long, it is the finishing for me (Wife choose chocolate finish..takes about 7 steps). Anyway my approach is to complete the uppers completely and store in basement. Then on to the lowers, when they are finished we will do the install. I am using pocket screw construction and sommerfeld tounge and groove. I still take pride in the project even though is is just cabinets (no disrespect to cabinet guys, I could never build them for someone else), you know that feeling when you have guests over and they say 'You built that". That makes ya feel good

[John TenEyck]

I really liked Jim Topin's book on Traditional Kitchen Cabinets, or something like that, even though I built a modern design kitchen. Think long and hard about whether or not you want to be schlepping around dozens of sheets of plywood or whatever. You're talking a ton of materials, or more. I built my kitchen, all 27 cabinets. Never again. If I every do another I'll have someone else build the boxes and I'll just make the part that shows. It took me about 2 or 3 months of nights and weekends to make the boxes and drawers - stacked everywhere in my basement. And as much as I enjoy making furniture, there was little pleasure in making those boxes. But I did enjoy using them w/o any doors or drawer fronts - nice easy access - until I got those built and installed - six months later. I came away from this project with real respect for guys who do this for a living - and glad I don't have to.

[Ray Newman]

Jake: after reading your initial post, it sounds to me like you have stated the reasons why you do not want to make your kitchen cabinets, but you just have not realized it yet.

[Mark Blatter]

I suggest that biggest issues you will have are finishing and hardware. You likely do not have the proper tools needed for installing all the glides, hinges, etc. like a shop has, so it will take longer and you will pay 2 - 3 x what they will pay. You will also likely need to brush on the finish coats, unless you are good at spraying and have the room, tools, etc.

I spent the last two years running a custome shop and I believe unless you really know what you are doing, and the time it will take, you will regret the decision to do it on your own. I know your wife will unless she is really.....I mean really patient.

Two suggestions.

1. Contact a custom shop and see about them building them for you, then you installing them. That would save you some money and still be part of the process. Also, depending on where you live, I know many custom shops are begging for work. You could likey get the job for 20% less than you could two years ago.

2. If you are comfortable in finishing work, find a custom shop with a CNC and have them design and cut out the parts. Take all of it home and assemble it all yourself.

Good luck whichever way you decide.

[frank shic]

the whole point of me getting into woodworking was so i could build kitchen cabinets. i built face frame cabinets using advice from danny proulx's and udo schmidt's books. this time around i'm going to build beaded inset - good luck getting these made cheaply by a cabinetmaker lol. the kreg beaded face frame jig arrived in the nick of time! ikea's kitchen cabinets assemble quickly and install easily as a lower-cost lower-labor alternative. the hardware as a previous poster mentioned is blum who manufactured special hardware just for ikea.

[Glenn Vaughn]

We finished adding a wall of cabinets a few months ago. All except 2 cabinets are hung on the wall. We did a pantry with roll-out shelves and a broom closet. Everything is solid wood except the back of the pantry and bottoms of the roll-out shelves. We spent about 5 months working part time on the project. I had no idea of what was involved in building cabinets and just built them in what seemed to me to be logical.. No nails or screws - all dowels (love the DowelMax). Had no issues with squaring the cases. I learned quite a lot from the process. I had never done routing or jointing and many other things that were involved. The total cost was probably more than it would have cost for off the shelf cabinets but they are what the wife wanted and are from wood that could not be found in finished cabinets (Coffeetree). A large part of the cost was powertools that I did not have.

The waste factor using rough lumber was fairly high - around 40%. We could have done better but I was a bit picky about grain matching. It is difficult to tell how many boards are in most of the glue-ups. The plus side is I averaged less than $2.00 a bdft for the wood. The down side is I cannot get any more 4/4 here in Colorado and will have to resaw 8/4 for the next project - veneering the old cabinets to match and making new doors to match as well.

[Mike Goetzke]

I too am currently building kitchen cabinets for our house. My job started last March and I'm guessing I have another 3-4 months left. Ours was a large remodel job - my wife wanted one great room from our kitchen, dining room, and living room. I had to remove several walls (one structural). Then I had to redo lots of electrical, HVAC, and plumbing. I finally got to the cabinets in November. I have an "L" 20'x12' and a 10'x4' island. I'd say I'm about 1/2 done with the cabinets. Like others said planning is essential. I work out of a garage shop and you cut ply for the boxes and in my case I had to topcoat them (prefinished ply is more than 2x unfinished in my area). Then face frames and assembly. I made all the uppers on one wall first then the lowers. I really like woodworking so I'm enjoying it but wish things were going quicker. I planned for the job months ahead of time and purchased a few books to help. I also bought an inexpensive cabinet design/cutlist program called CabinetPlanner. I have also consulted a few very experienced cabinet builders on the forums and they have been very helpful. If asked if I would do it again I would say yes but I probably would hire help for the rough construction so I could concentrate on the cabinets.

Good Luck!

[Bruce King]

When I built my house my big tools were in storage so building my cabinets was not an option but I did the install.


If you decide to buy them you should look into unassembled cabinets fot lots of savings.
I did not know about these at the time but have a neighbor that went this route recently.

http://www.instockkitchens.com/unass...s/info_52.html

http://www.meikitchens.com/parts/pre-assembled.php

[Jim Andrew]

I've built several kitchens, what you need is storage space, so you can build the cabinets before the install. Takes a lot of room to store all the boxes for a decent sized kitchen. I used the jigs from Rockler for hinges and shelf pins, bought the raised panel router set from Freud, and only do square raised panels. No custom shapes. Use the prefinished plywood from Liberty hardwoods, then you only have to finish the fronts and ends and doors, drawer fronts. Very tough finish, and when you put it together, it's done!

[Todd Crawford]

If you have the time - I would recommend building. Nothing like walking past something every day that you're proud of.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...nets&highlight=

[frank shic]

I've built several kitchens, what you need is storage space, so you can build the cabinets before the install. Takes a lot of room to store all the boxes for a decent sized kitchen. I used the jigs from Rockler for hinges and shelf pins, bought the raised panel router set from Freud, and only do square raised panels. No custom shapes. Use the prefinished plywood from Liberty hardwoods, then you only have to finish the fronts and ends and doors, drawer fronts. Very tough finish, and when you put it together, it's done!

this is GREAT advice. i almost went insane trying to do the entire tearout, painting and tiling while simultaneously trying to finish and build the kitchen cabinets. i will never do that again lol

[Jake Elkins]

Thanks everyone for the advice and responses. This is just about what I expected to hear, that these things take time, take space, take money and take some dedication. Time I sorta have, space can be found, however, money is not flowing forth, but I look at this more as an investment (of which I have done much to our house already), as opposed to my furniture which I view as potential heirlooms. I will probably take the advice of some here, and install a hybrid, outsourcing some of the build, and doing some of my own. I just need to do some more research, so thanks again for all the suggestions. This hobby is at times almost a curse - we needed a small, functional bookshelf about a year ago - now the #719 Stickley double door bookcase is still being built. I am sure many on here know how this goes. Thanks again for all the advice.

Jake

[Andrew Gibson]

My thoughts are that I would never attempt in unless I had a place to store all the boxes while I built them all.
As much as I would not want to I think I would have to break out the router and use it for most of the joinery.

My plan is to one day go a totally different route with my kitchen... think Individual pieces of furniture... multiple stations with different counter surfices... nothing built in. I have a lot of design work to do for this one... should end up being something no one has ever seen before.

[Lee Schierer]

I went through the same decision process a few years ago. I wanted to make them and wife said I would take too long. Bottom line is that we bought and I don't really regret that as it would have taken me probably 5 months of weekends to make them and I really, really did not look forward to finishing all of those doors and drawers. That's my least favorite part of this hobby.

Hind sight tells me that I would have had a big problem with staging area as case goods take up a lot of space! The process to build them is pretty straight forward and if you are looking at high end cabinets you can save a ton of $$$. Ours were in the neighborhood of $23K and I could have made them for around $5k-$7. Yep, alot of cabinets and they are all custom cherry wood. I fear that if I had taken on the project, my wife would be enjoying them by herself now as she would have kicked me out before they were finished.

I did the same thing when we remodeled our kitchen. You have to have double the storage area needed for storing the materials and for storing the finished cabinets or you have to live with your kitchen being torn up while you remove and install the cabinets as the new ones are built. We bought high end cabinets and they have performed very well and the rennovation only took a few days, the longest wait was for teh custom fit counter top. LOML was very please with the final design and look.