ONE MORE cabinet thread, please?
I posted the other day about kitchen cabinets….got some great and very helpful responses. But in reading them all, I am seeing so many names appearing, Plain and Fancy, Merrillat, Wood Mode, Rich Maid, as well as the Kraft-Maid and Medallion I mentioned. Please, can someone enlighten me: what exactly IS the difference? The thickness…
I posted the other day about kitchen cabinets….got some great and very helpful responses. But in reading them all, I am seeing so many names appearing, Plain and Fancy, Merrillat, Wood Mode, Rich Maid, as well as the Kraft-Maid and Medallion I mentioned. Please, can someone enlighten me: what exactly IS the difference? The thickness of the cabinet box? I am talking comparing relatively plain all-wood cabinets here(I am looking at flat-front Shaker-Style) , not ones with a lot of extra molding and finials. I have a quote of about 7100. for I believe 9 cabinets, a few with drawers, some the full 48″ tall, in maple. I do prefer to go the independent small retailer route as well.
I GREATLY appreciate all the Brownstoner help.
Green means, if engineered wood, low or zero offgassing of formaldelyde; if wood, Forest S(ervice?) Certified as being from sustainable harvesting; low-VOC paints if painted, etc. Also bamboo/ wheatboard cabinets.
If you want more information than you can believe go over to the Kitchen Reno threads over on Garden Web.
This article, called “An Inside Look at Kitchen Cabinets” by Fine home building is an excellent primer on why you pay more / less for some cabinets over others. It discusses many of the items on renomandru’s list:
http://www.finehomebuilding.com/PDF/Free/021127040.pdf
What exactly is a ‘green’ kitchen cabinet?
Thanks, Reno, for the very succinct post. Seeing that Scherr’s layout, btw, is very helpful. I did query about them but our contractor’s say they prefer we get cabinets ready-built as the rest of the house is under such destruction (aka demolition and renovation).
I really appreciate your assessment that $788/cabinet is not outrageous, and will use your list here as checklist to confer back with PSKG. I can’t seem to get a quote from any other store or line unless I go in there and as so many other things need addressing (does anyone else realize about the NYS appliance rebate program, only for 2/12-21?) time is of essence.
Thanks again–
In my experience, $788 is cheap money for good cabinets. Anything less than that may be junk, unfortunately, except perhaps Ikea.
The differences you are paying for:
Solid wood vs. plywood vs. MDF.
The quality of the plywood,
Thickness of the materials (doors, cabinets boxes, drawers all can have different thickneses)
If not painted, then the consistency of the wood grain and color (matching).
Custom sizing vs. standard sizing.
The quality of the construction (you’ll find plenty of sources on-line that detail this)
The hinge and track hardware (there are huge difference there).
Details such as softly rounded edges of the drawer boxes.
How many finish coats.
Th depth of the drawer sides (is it a 12″ high drawer with 7″ high sides or 10″ high sides?)
The thickness and composition of the shelves.
The depth of the upper cabinets (11.5, 12, 13″?)
Painting vs. clear coating with or without stain costs about 20% more.
Check out Scherr’s, door style 400.
This is probably going to just add to your uncertainty, but I’d highly recommend Urban Prairie cabinets, which are available through Green Depot. We just had some installed in our kitchen — they are environmentally friendly and quite reasonably priced to boot (though I can’t remember the exact price off the top of my head). Environmentally friendly cabinets can be quite expensive, but I seem to recall that these were about half the price of others we looked at. Take a look at http://www.greendepot.com. Green Depot, which is on the Bowery in Manhattan, also offers a free kitchen design service if you purchase cabinets through them. We worked with Denise, who was very helpful, and bought our quartz countertop and cork floors there also. Highly recommended!
Would you make the same choice again, TradMod? Or have you seen a cabinet you like better for the money?
That’s where I got my cabinets (PSKG) too and they were Medallion as well. They were very expensive but the Plain & Fancy quote for the same number and sizes of cabinets would have cost 30% more and would have taken twice as long. Nobody can tell the difference between Plain & Fancy and my Medallion cabinets. Anyway as for durability and quality we’re very happy. Three years of heavy use by two work-at-home people and no loose hardware or crooked doors or drawers off their tracks or sagging shelves, etc.