Economical kitchen cabinets

[Mrs. Mucket]

I think I've seen discussion of this before but can't find the thread. We are looking for an economical source of sturdy cabinets for our kitchen. We don't need fancy doors or finishes--in fact we prefer rustic and casual--but we would like strong cabinets that will last. We don't have the skills to build our own but we would be able to assemble them and/or finish unfinished ones by staining/painting. It is new construction, not a remodel, but the layout is pretty well set in "stone" (drywall/wiring/plumbing is done). Anyone know of online or mail order sources? Either complete cabinets or boxes sold without doors would work. Thanks.

[HermitJohn]

I hope someone can help you, all the "unfinished" and "economy" cabinets I've seen have been particleboard carp. About quality you would find in an older mobile home if you get my gist.

Really isnt that hard to build cabinets if you arent worried about funiture quality looks. Had carpenter friend back in 80s that built new cabinets for his old farm house out of CDX plywood. Thats el cheapo half inch plywood meant for sheathing if you dont know. He did very nice job of it though for sure kinda rustic. Short of sawmilling your own wood cant get much cheaper than that and lot stronger than any kind of economy preassembled cabinet. But for sure lot more labor and time than installing prefab cabinets.

I suppose if you arent sure of your carpentry skills, you could buy the unfinished el cheapo cabinets and just use the fronts and replace any particleboard with plywood, using the particleboard as a pattern.

[TnAndy]

You say you don't have the "skills", but you can assemble/finish ? Heck, if you can do that, you can build your own. The casework is fairly simple......I use 3/4 birch plywood, which gives you a far superior case to anything you'll buy commercially.

The hardest part is building doors, and there are plenty of places online you can order doors of about any kind you want, then mount them to your cases.

Spend 20 bucks at Amazon:

[Darren]

Add my vote to the do-it-yourself suggestion. Cheap nowadays means particle board with a plastic veneer. The problem is anchoring them to the walls. Over time the anchors tend to pull through the particle board or the sides separate from the back panel. The cabinet, if you're lucky, starts to come off the wall slowly. If you really load the cabinets they might fall off sooner and faster as in no warning until it hits the floor or you.

Even the high dollar stuff these days will eventually treat the owner to the experience of pulling the front off a drawer at some point when they try to open it. Seen it happen many times. Never slam one of the drawers closed either. That will start the process of separating the drawer front from the drawer.

[Wolf mom]

If you've got the time, take a woodworking class at your nearest community college.

I recently finished one. Although I didn't make a kitchen cabinet, I made a small cabinet with drawers, doors, top & bottom moulding. Some in the class did make a cabinet so they could make some kitchen cabinets for their house.

If I can do it anyone can. I must say that you do need to be able to measure & cut very close. To me, that was the hardest part.

[Jolly]

Originally Posted by Mrs. Mucket

I think I've seen discussion of this before but can't find the thread. We are looking for an economical source of sturdy cabinets for our kitchen. We don't need fancy doors or finishes--in fact we prefer rustic and casual--but we would like strong cabinets that will last. We don't have the skills to build our own but we would be able to assemble them and/or finish unfinished ones by staining/painting. It is new construction, not a remodel, but the layout is pretty well set in "stone" (drywall/wiring/plumbing is done). Anyone know of online or mail order sources? Either complete cabinets or boxes sold without doors would work. Thanks.

Find a decent cabinet man in your area and tell him you want stain grade or paint grade ( a little cheaper) birch plywood cabinets and poplar drawer fronts. If you want to save a little money and time, have him use thermofoil doors (you'll replace those in 15-20 years, but they'll work).

Have him build the boxes and set them in place. Have him come back after you've finished the cabinets and the doors, so he can hang the doors.

I think you'll be surprised at the price.

[chewie]

you can get good cabinets on craigslist. we did, they are great. we had looked at a few others as well, so it wasn't just a one-time thing finding some. we had to kinda play around with the arrangement cuz they came from a house not exactly 'shaped' like ours but we got it to work great. ours are custom made, oak, with lazy suzan cabinets, pull out shelves, corner cabinets, and a few other upgrade types. all for less than $900. we couldn't have built what we have for less, plus we didnt' have that extra time involved. at least check it out, nothing to loose in looking.

[whatrset]

When we remodeled the kitchen in this traler housr we when with some IKEA cabinets and hardware. Total cost was under $1500 and it was a time saver. The kitchen we are planning in the new addition/House will be made by hand from trees grown on the property, so the price will be much less, but the time will be much more.

[SirDude]

Not sure where you are located, but my thoughts in general

1. Ask around or run an ad on Craigslist, local newspaper, etc for a real cabinet maker that's un/under employed to make them for you, like Jolly said. Or even ask around for a retired person who likes woodworking. I know if I still had all my tools set up and was in your area I would make this. That's been my "paid hobby" since 1985.

2. If you live around some Amish areas, ask around for the same as above. As they say, Cash talks! Even more so now.

3. I know in the Chicago suburbs there's KDA Kitchen Distributers of America, maybe changed names, but they offer "dent and scratch" sales every so often. One of my friends did his whole kitchen and mud-room with a set that was returned / rejected by the customer for one scratch. Saved a ton of money. (years ago, that's why I didn't mention the prices)

4. Have you thought about using less cabinets and maybe using some kind of furniture from one of those "bare wood", you-stain-it stores? We talked about some ideas on this thread Old fashioned kitchen counter tops? And I got to thinking, maybe a few cabinets with stuff like a hutch and something for an "island" would do the trick for my place down the road??? Maybe look into some of the country deco magazines for ideas.

Last thing I want to mention, and I'm sure you have a pretty good idea of what the cabinets costs, otherwise you wouldn't be here asking for this. But as with a lot of things, "know before you go", or in this case before you talk with someone.

I say this for two reasons, you'll know what's a good deal, but more so, if you run an ad on Craigslist and you say you want 20 cabinets with doors build for $500, you might get a lot of P.O'ed people calling or emailing you. I see this a lot for the listings for this area. People want their roof re-done for what they feel is a lot of money, but to a pro, it's not even a day's pay and in these hard-times they feel like people are taking advantage of their unemployment or the slow economy. I don't paint houses down here anymore mostly because of this. I don't get mad, and I understand money is tight on both ends, so I just find other things to do.

Anyway, best of luck in your search!

SirDude

[jill.costello]

I'm not sure what your budget is, but these are NICE and CHEAP for being ALL wood and in great finishes! www.cabinetstogo.com

[agmantoo]

I bought a 14 piece set of rather expensive cabinets off craigslist for $300 for a rental. These cabinets were removed to install much higher grade cabinets in a condo. It took 3 trips in the pickup to get them all moved. I massaged the layout to suit my application and had 3 cabinets surplus. I put two of these into the laundry area. Saved me a lot of money and time.

[Cabin Fever]

Since you prefer rustic you might want to consider a couple things that we have done.

The photo below is of our kitchen island. It is simply a 2x4 framed box sided with bead board paneling that is painted. The "doors" are gingham curtains. Many old cabins and homes used this style of cabinets...even cupboards.


Our guest cabin is similar in that the cabinets and cupboards are simple handmade 2x4 "boxes." The boxes are sided with knotty pine paneling.

[lmrose]

My husband built me some kitchen cupboards three years ago. It isn't alot of cupboards but sufficient and what fit in the corner available in my small kitchen. The bottom cabinet is 5 feet long and a 2 foot turn at the corner. That is seven feet with just over two feet taken out with the double sink. The upper cupboards are five feet because I didn't want a cupboard over the sink. The corner cupboard has a glass door.

The cupboards are made of 3/4 inch birch plywood. The 8 doors we ordered made to fit by a company in New Brunswick. They have recessed panels and are made soI can open them with out handles. The counter is slate colored arborite of some kind. The cost was $230 for the doors. $250 for the counter top cut to fit. The Birch plywood was $260 . The double stainless steel sink was recycled and free. The faucet was $79. The total so far was $819.

Then I bought a birch utiluity cart on sale with four drawers and a door that opens to space with two shelves. Half the top is slate. The cost was $179 including tax. It had to be assembled.

We also had to put up new gyprock on the ceiling and parts of the old walls which cost us about $240 more. With paint for the ceiling and verathane for the cupboards my kitchen cost around $1800 so far. The only thing left is a floor covering and to replace the window with a door.

Doing all the work with hand tools and no blueprint it took six months to finish the job working in spare time. The old house is crooked and allowances had to be made as nothing is plumb in this house. I am very happy and thankful to have a kitchen after 22 years without one but I never want to go through this again! It was very stressful!

[Jolly]

Another thought...if your dimensions are not standard, it's a little harder to get stock cabinets to fit.

[willow_girl]

DH#2 and I built all the cabinets in the house we built, including the bathroom vanities. Really, it isn't that hard! You're basically building a box. The top and shelves are supported by 2x4s nailed into the wall studs. We used oak plywood for the cases, and banded the edges with strips of veneer. For the doors, DH used oak lumber to made frames (similar to a picture frame), routered the edges, then and routered a lip in the backside to hold a 1/4" oak plywood panel. Screw-in plastic tabs held the panels in place. We finished all the wood with tung oil.

The doors would be the biggest challenge, if you're not familiar with using a router, but you could always hang curtains, a la Cabin Fever. (I like the look of curtains, myself!) Another idea, if you're into the rustic look, would be to use chicken wire in place of the panels, like the old-fashioned pie safes did. You can get an 8 ft. pine 1x4 for less than $3! Get a miter saw, cut the ends on a 45-degree angle, then get a biscuit joiner and some clamps and glue and glue them up! Paint or stain, then staple the chicken wire over the backside, attach some hinges, and you're good to go. (You've got me ready to remodel MY kitchen now!)

Buying new, especially low-end new, is the LAST thing I would do nowadays! I cringe at the quality of the cabinets I see in the big, new houses I clean. In a word, SHODDY! And these are people paying $250,000+ for a house. Tsk tsk.

Another idea: think outside the box a bit. If you DO end up buying cabinets, can you get by with fewer by substituting furniture for some components? For instance, in my last house, I used an antique wardrobe I picked up cheap at an auction as a pantry cupboard. DH built shelves inside ... it worked out great as it was only about a foot deep (no losing cans in the dark recesses of the cabinet!). On a similar note, you could use shelving in place of some or all of the upper cabinets, and a farmhouse table as a freestanding island.

[starjj]

First of all I don't see anyone offering a solution except to say build your own or have someone build them for you. It isn't cheap to have them built by someone (believe me I looked into it).

I also don't like comments regarding mobile homes made by HermitJohn. Now you can all stick your noses up at where people live because this is America and you have that right but it isn't very nice.

I tell you what I did to replace my cheap cabinets in my mobile home. I went with better cabinets but they aren't custom built cabinets. I did what I could AFFORD and they look darn nice and I have tripled my storage maybe more than tripled.

I went with Aristokraft cabinets. I did upgrade to the select instead of standard as they had thicker side walls and shelves and dovetailed drawers. It also included better bracing at the corners, better backs on the cabinets. The drawer guides are also on the bottom of the drawer instead of the sides which makes them sturdier.

Hope this helps.
I went with the birch sinclair in the saddle finish. They are really simple with a square door. I really wanted Maple but it was a LOT more.

[Dixielee]

If you are anywhere near a Habitat for Humanity thrift store, check them out. I bought my oak bathroom vanity with marble sink and very nice fixtures for $30! it looked brand new. I also bought two beautiful wooden file cabinets with drawers that I used to make my desk for $15 each, also looked brand new.

Our Habitat for Humanity has appliances, furniture, doors, cabinets, you name it! Ours always has cabinets and you can choose only the ones you need, you don't have to buy the whole lot. Good luck. I also agree with the Craigs list option if you don't have a good Habitat store nearby.

[chewie]

http://www.countryplans.com/gritter.html

scroll down to the bottom, and there is a very simple but effective kitchen. i think its great!

[FarmerRob]

[QUOTE=TnAndy;4478905]You say you don't have the "skills", but you can assemble/finish ? Heck, if you can do that, you can build your own. The casework is fairly simple......I use 3/4 birch plywood, which gives you a far superior case to anything you'll buy commercially.

The hardest part is building doors, and there are plenty of places online you can order doors of about any kind you want, then mount them to your cases.

QUOTE]

I agree. Invest a few dollars in a "Kreg Jig" http://www.kregtool.com -- they have videos on line to show you how to use their products. This uses a technique called Pocket Hole Joinery. It is kindergarten easy compared to dovetail joints or even biscuit joints. Pocket hole joinery makes a Very stong joint. If you don't like the way the holes look you can fill them will wood filler and sand a little.


Build them out of good quality birch, maple, or red oak plywood.

Someone posted www.cabinetstogo.com -- look at the doors on the cabinets they have and you should be able to duplicate that just from looking closely.

At diy tv network's website they have tutorials on how to install the cabinets--this may be the most difficult part to do well.

[HermitJohn]

Originally Posted by starjj

I also don't like comments regarding mobile homes made by HermitJohn. Now you can all stick your noses up at where people live because this is America and you have that right but it isn't very nice.
.

If you cant admit that old mobile homes were basically particle board with a picture of wood glued to it, then you aint livin in the real world. I made no comment about the people having to live in them, beats living under a bridge, just that mobile homes especially the older ones were made of particle board and other junk materials. For what its worth I am not impressed with new McMansions either. Same mentality goes into their construction, do it as profitably as possible, just that they have higher grade of material to finish them off inside. People that spend ungodly amounts of money on such wonders dont care about the structure itself, just the decorations and the size, so builders get away with building slicked up carp. We are a society that only values facades.