#From stock to custom: How to choose the best cabinets for your space

When you open your cabinets. do you brace yourself for an avalanche? If so, maybe it’s time for an update.

“I think cabinetry is the foundation of your kitchen,” says John Petrie, owner of highly rated Mother Hubbard’s Custom Cabinetry in Mechanicsburg, Pa. and president of the National Kitchen and Bath Association’s executive committee. “Everything else is built in and or around the cabinetry.

“An investment in your foundation is wise, and I’d encourage you to choose to get the best for your budget,” he says.

When it comes to selecting cupboards, shoppers can choose from three options — custom, semi-custom or stock.

Custom

Any size, any color, any design, any finish. Dream about it, and a custom cabinetmaker can create it.

Scott Marks and Sharon Morrow hired highly rated True Grain Woodworks in Oceanside, Calif. to design custom cabinets for their San Diego home office space, paying $19,800 for construction and installation. The Angie’s List members shopped for stock cabinets before choosing the custom route, Marks says.

“Over the years, we’d had some closet and cabinet people come in with various degrees of custom,” he says. “Some of the factory cabinets can be nice, but they weren’t what we were looking for.”

The couple completed sketches of what they wanted before calling True Grain owner Steve Medeiros to cut, build, stain and install their design. They say it provides more storage and allows them to work simultaneously. “It substantially improved the office as well as the value of the home,” Marks says. “The ooh and ahh factor from the neighbors is not to be discounted.”

Medeiros says he meets with clients in their homes and creates computer-generated plans so they can virtually see what it will look like before they purchase. He bases his prices on cabinet size, type, finish, installation and extras, such as adjustable shelves or dovetailed drawer boxes.

Handmade custom cabinets don’t sit on store shelves. The time from purchase to installation takes longer than standard varieties and usually costs more than other options. Medeiros’ cabinets take six to eight weeks to complete, and he offers the option of installing unfinished cabinets if customers want to stain or paint them on their own or hire another contractor. He says doing it yourself typically saves 25 to 30 percent of the cost.

“I can’t compete with the big-box stores on price or timeline,” Medeiros says. “The benefit of a custom cabinet shop is if something isn’t right, we can fix it right away.”

Semi-custom

Highly rated Louisville Cabinets Countertops in Kentucky offers custom and semi-custom cabinets. The semi-custom cabinets come sized in standard 3-inch increments like stock varieties, but customers can choose their own stain, style and hardware, says office manager Allison Stein. Semi-custom varieties take about two weeks from order to installation, she says, and cost ranges less than custom but more than stock. Semi-custom prices start with the manufacturer’s base price, and customers can add on custom finishes, closures and hardware.

“A lot of bathroom vanities are great for semi-custom cabinets,” Stein says. “It keeps the cost down if you’re on a budget. If you find something to fit your design that’s semi-custom, then I’d say go for it. If you don’t have a budget, go for custom.”

Stock

Stores and catalogs sell cabinets in basic sizes that go up in 3-inch increments and come in 12-inch or 24-inch depths. They’re priced based on size, color, material type, and range from less than $100 for a single door unit to more than $300 for larger sizes at big-box retailers. They typically aren’t all wood, like custom or semi-custom varieties. “They offer the least expensive price tag with the fewest options for finishes and hardware,” Petrie says. “The difference with stock is that it only has standard finishes. Take it or leave it.”

Stock cabinets are readily available for purchase, delivery and installation. “What they have is what’s available,” he says. “You need to design and build around those stock sizes.” For example, if you have 43 inches of wall space, you’ll have to select a 42-inch cabinet.

Custom construction typically leads to better-built cabinets that are made of all wood, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll hold up longer if not sealed well, Petrie says. The finishes on stock manufactured cabinets are done well, he says. A local craftsman who builds custom cabinets, however, may not have the ability to spray or finish them with as durable of a product that some manufacturers use.

“At the end of the day, you need to establish a budget for your project,” Petrie says. “What’s important to you? In any of these worlds, if you stay with the standard sizes for the majority and customize those things you need to, you can keep your costs down.”