Most homeowners only dream about their ideal kitchen. Rarely do we get to design our own kitchen unless we build a new house or remodel the kitchen. Having built a custom house and remodeled several kitchens over the years, I thought this would be easy but it's not. The kitchen cabinet plans for my new house are more challenging because there are so many gadgets for cabinets today.
Learning so much, I wanted to share my journey designing my kitchen. Where did I start? When I visited my builder's home gallery they didn't have many options (what you see on the wall below). In fact there were only two “free cabinets” that were included with the base home price. They were partial overlay doors and white (black or gray) weren't available. To get the white, wood cabinets I wanted would cost $8,900 which was ridiculous!
Kitchen Cabinet Plans from Your Builder
If this happened in New Hampshire, it would be easy to head over to Middleton Building Supply in Rochester, NH. As I'm still in the process of moving to Florida to be close to my granddaughter, I had no idea where to go to research alternatives to what the builder was offering. Thankfully in today's world there is Google which gave me several kitchen and home improvement showrooms to visit.
Central Cabinetry
Central Cabinetry is a local company that offers kitchen design services, stock and custom cabinets, custom countertops and kitchen and bathroom remodeling services. Their display (below) confirmed my suspicion that the builder excluded today's popular colors (white, black and gray) to force home buyers to pay upgrade prices.
Central Cabinetry provided me with an estimate for the same cabinets offered by the builder … in the color I wanted, white! Here is a breakdown on the costs to any homeowner with exception of an open, full depth cabinet over the refrigerator ($683). For a fair comparison, this was changed back to a full depth cabinet to save the cost of matching interior walls.
Click to see the kitchen cabinet plans provided by Central Cabinetry, Orlando FL.
| Stain Finish | Paint (White) Finish | ||
| Kitchen cabinets w/crown molding | $6,013 | $6,614 | |
| Master bathroom cabinets | $848 | $933 | |
| Guest bathroom cabinets | $516 | $568 | |
| Subtotal | $7,377 | $8,115 | |
| Cabinet installation | $1,238 | ||
| Total cost | $8,615 | $9,353 | |
ProSource of Orlando
ProSource of Orlando is a local showroom (150 across North America) that leverages volume purchasing power for the benefit of builders, remodelers and their homeowner clients. They offer flooring and all the products you need to create or remodel kitchens and bathrooms.
The kitchen designer at ProSource who is much more familiar with production builders, gave me multiple quotes to help me decide if I should pay the builder upcharge or replace the “free cabinets”. What an amazing experience this has been as I'm learning so much more than I expected …
They provided me with estimates using the same kitchen cabinet plans and manufacturer, Aristokraft, offered by the builder. Then they recommended another brand, Diamond Vibe, that offers higher quality cabinets at a lower price, plus a lifetime warranty.
Click to see the kitchen cabinet plans estimated by ProSource …
Aristokraft Cabinets
Door style: partial overlay
Wood type: birch
Construction: standard
Finish: Umber paint
Price: $2,937
Door style: full overlay
Wood type: laminate
Construction: all plywood
Finish: white
Price: $4,641
Door style: full overlay
Wood type: maple
Construction: all plywood
Finish: white paint
Price: $6,500
Diamond Vibe Cabinets
Door style: partial overlay
Wood type: maple
Construction: all plywood
Finish: stained
Price: $4,580
Door style: full overlay
Wood type: maple
Construction: all plywood
Finish: white painted
Price: $5,882
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