How to Cut Costs on New Kitchen Cabinets (8 Steps) | eHow

Go for an inexpensive yet sturdy wood when choosing your kitchen cabinets. Hickory, alder and maple are generally cheaper than oak and cherry cabinets. Walnut and bamboo are among the most expensive wood cabinets.

The cheapest wood cabinets are not solid wood, they are particle board, composite wood and Thermofoil cabinets. However, these cheaper cabinets do not have the longevity of solid wood.

Choose an inexpensive finish on your kitchen cabinets. Some premium finishes will actually increase the cost of your cabinets by 20%.

Generally speaking, stains are cheaper than glazes and paints. Antiquing or distressing the cabinets will add more than glazing and painting.

Purchase semi custom cabinets over custom cabinets. These semi custom cabinets can often be adjusted to fit your needs and may save you about 50% or more of your total cost. The only person who will know the difference between custom cabinets and semi custom cabinets is the person who is paying for them.

Door style has a lot to do with pricing as well. Oddly, a flat door is not always the cheapest door but you can pretty much guarantee that the more detail the cabinet has, the more expensive it will be.

A shaker style cabinet will generally be the cheapest cabinet. That being said, some of the most famous homes choose this type of cabinetry because of its classic look.

Eliminate cabinets you simply don't need and replace them with another type of built in look. Depending on your kitchen layout and kitchen design, a refrigerator cabinet could be replaced by building walls around it with sheet rock. They could then either be pained or decorated with tile to match your back splash. If you are looking for ideas on how to successfully accomplish this look, go to high end refrigerator websites and look at their pictures of the refrigerators in the kitchens. Many of them are shown built into a wall and not in a cabinet.

The same idea could also be used to replace double oven cabinetry. You could get really creative and build one unit for both the refrigerator and the double wall oven.

You will not see this look in any of your kitchen cabinet brochures so don't even bother looking there. The manufacturers want you to buy those cabinets!

Pick your hardware carefully. It is not necessary to purchase your kitchen cabinet hardware directly from the cabinet manufacturer. While some manufacturers will offer a special, generally, these choices are limited and more expensive than if you were to find them on your own in a hardware store or online.

Some metals will cost more than others so be sure to check out your options in other metals.

Ask the salesman for a deal. Many salesmen are able to give some kind of a discount if you simply ask for it.

Shop around. Some semi custom cabinet manufacturers actually sell their product under several names but change them for the individual store.