kitchen cupboards

This is totally not food related other than being a kitchen. I am looking at putting in new kitchen cupboards has anyone else done this? Any advice for the rookie? I don't want to renovate only replace the existing cupboards with new standard size and add a dishwasher. An y words of wisdom appreciated.

Fri. Jan 18, 9:34pm

The price range for this job can be pretty reasonable to outright outrageous! I know people who have gone to Home Depot and have been very happy with the results. They come out to your house, measure and install if you want. I have friends who just replaced the doors and it made a huge difference and it was much cheaper. Or you can get them custom made, which will be the most expensive (duh, right?) Then there are all the options and bells and whistles -pull out shelves, self-closing drawers, glass, inset doors and drawers, etc. - they add up. Any thing you can do yourself will save you money - removing old cabinets, for example.

I guess my biggest piece of advice is to figure out your budget first and go from there.

HTH!

Friday, January 18, 2008, 10:25 PM

My aunt and uncle used home depot too and my uncle installed them. They are beautiful.
When we did ours in this house a friend just replaced the fronts. It looks so nice. They were that fake dark wood and now they are white. It is so lovely.

Years and years ago my mom had the kitchen in our old house redone and she did a few things that I would LOVE to have in this house.
All the corners had lazy susans. (in the cupboard there is a pole in the middle with round shelves attached. The shelf had a 2 inch lip on it so nothing would just fall out. It was so easy to get to things and your corners weren't wasted space.
She had 5 cutting boards put in all over the kitchen. And the back wall was all cupboards on the bottom with at least an 8 foot counter top. She used to make bread there.
Next to the stove there was a narrow tall cupboard for your cookie sheets and broiler pan and such.
She also put formica for the bottom window sill. If you have any windows. That way if it gets wet it is easily wiped up. My dad also used to put plants on the window sills and that water could spill.

Lastly, have fun.
I loved redoing my kitchen.

Saturday, January 19, 2008, 4:05 PM

Oh, I am the last poster and forgot one critical thing.
When choosing a formica if that is what you are going with, be careful.
We chose a lovely burgundy wine color. I love it. But there are two spots on it that something got laid there and we have no idea what it is but it lightened it slightly. There is no way to fix it that I know of. And you don't see it if you aren't looking but I know it is there.
So I would either choose a bit lighter color or one with more of a pattern to it so it would be less noticeable.

Saturday, January 19, 2008, 4:07 PM

I recommend Home Depot as well, whether you have them install or install yourselves or have someone else install them.

We redid our kitchen just over a year ago, and we used a contractor who did the installation, but we just showed up to Home Depot with the measurements of our kitchen, no appointment or anything, and they sat down with us and put our measurements into the computer, and could then show us what options we had with all the different pieces or cabinet types we could install. It was fun, and great to be able to see it. And then we got the computer printouts to take with us, so it was easy to remember what we ordered.

They have 4 different price levels, with many options for color and style in each. We ended up with the second-to-nicest, with maple flat-front cabinets, and we love them. You can go cheaper too, and they'll look nice. You cannot put granite on top of the cheapest cabinets, because they aren't strong enough to hold the weight (they are particleboard on the inside instead of solid wood), but you can put formica, etc., on them.

One other cool thing we did was to go to a granite warehouse for our granite, and we got to pick out the exact slab we wanted, from hundreds of colors and varieties. That gave our kitchen a little something extra, we think, since we went with such standard cabinets.

We also installed a pretty tile backsplash. It wasn't too expensive - maybe $200 - and I don't think it was hard to install (our contractor did ours; my mom was going to do hers herself except she decided she just likes the paint that's there.) It adds some more detail and depth.

Sunday, January 20, 2008, 6:13 PM

drawers under the counters. All drawers, no doors. That's what my mom did. The guy who made the cabinets at first thought she was crazy- he was like "You want drawers behind doors, right?" And she said, "No, I want drawers. Big drawers, that pull out so I don't have to bend over to see what is in them, nor do I have to get down and reach behind a bunch of things at floor level to get something." Everyone who's worked in our kitched loves them. Much easier to access things, you can actually use all the space under the counter, and easier to clean if anything is spilled.

Sunday, January 20, 2008, 6:21 PM

I have the big drawers under the counters for all my pots and pans - I'm a big fan!! :)

Sunday, January 20, 2008, 9:59 PM

6:21 again- my mom has them for pots and pans, for her baking supplies, for her tupperware, the root vegetables, the toaster/kettle/crockpot/teapot, etc., etc., The only doors under a counter is the ones at the sink, for obvious reasons.

Sunday, January 20, 2008, 10:20 PM

We have pull-out shelves in one of our cabinets; the one that has all the pots and pans. I love them, but wouldn't want them everywhere. If you have a smaller kitchen and a lot of cooking supplies, anyway, you can find more places for things in little corners, etc., than in a pull-out shelf.

Maybe a drawer would work, but I wouldn't want to do that, for two different reasons. First, and foremost, putting all drawers in is a bit weird, and I'd be worried about how that would affect resale of my home - if a buyer thought it was weird, they wouldn't want to buy the house, or at least wouldn't want to pay as much for it. Second, I just don't think I could keep stuff organized, and it'd get dirty down at the bottoms of the drawers. I don't think it'd be very sanitary after awhile unless you are very viligent about pulling things out and cleaning.

Monday, January 21, 2008, 10:53 AM

I'm the drawers girl. We have no corners. It's a galley kitchen. It looks slightly different, but it doesn't look weird.

I fail to see how it could be unsanitary. It's cleaner by far. Much easier to see a mess because it's right there in front of you in the light of day than under a countertop, behind things. And if anything does get spilt, it's simple to clean because again, it's right there in plain easy sight.

Seeing as everyone who's worked in the kitchen loves them, seeing as repair guys who have been through the house love the idea (they're also solid cherry cabinets), I highly doubt it's going to negatively affect the resale value. If anything, quite the opposite.

Monday, January 21, 2008, 1:36 PM

10:53am poster here -

I meant corners of cabinets. And there are also obviously corners in drawers. Just not in the pull-out shelves, really; not room to stack little things that may fall anyway.

I also have a galley kitchen, and a LOT of cooking supplies. I was merely stating that the pull-out drawers wouldn't be space-efficient to have everywhere.

As for the drawers, that's a personal opinion. I would never do anything that might be considered "weird" to my home, for fear of lowering the resale value. That being said, taking a risk may pay off. I'm just not the risk-loving type. And as for not needing to bend down to see into the cabinets - I just can't relate. Unless you are a senior citizen or are very overweight or have a bad back/knees/etc., I don't see the problem with the standard. People have been using cabinets for centuries. If you have certain health impairments, then I could see wanting the drawers instead. I just personally wouldn't install them, and I personally wouldn't buy a home that had them, unless it was a really good price. So that's why I'd recommend that the OP not install them. But again, just my opinion.

Monday, January 21, 2008, 3:34 PM

thanks

thanks everyone I'll take it all into consideration. I definitely want some of the bells and whistles like lazy susans and some pullout options.
Thanks
tidyed

Monday, January 21, 2008, 3:53 PM

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