1. Replace or Reface?

If you are working with a limited budget, cabinet refacing may be the best option for you. Refacing kitchen cabinets involves retaining the old cabinet structure and replacing the cabinet doors and drawer fronts. The exposed face frames from the old cabinets are covered with wood or veneer to match the exterior of the new doors and drawer fronts. In addition to the giving your old cabinets a "facelift", trained kitchen refacers can also update your drawer glides with roller glides, install interior slide out drawers and lazy Susans, and add other modern conveniences. For refacing to be an option for you, you need to be content with the location and size of your existing cabinets, and the old cabinets need to be structurally sound.

There are three categories of resurfacing materials:

• Laminates are available in a number of colors and simulated wood grain. However, the veneers are not flexible, so they can only be applied to flat doors and drawer fronts. Laminates tend to be the least expensive of the three finish options.
• Rigid thermofoil (RTF) uses a flexible vinyl foil that is pressure-molded over fiberboard doors. Its flexibility enables it to be shaped in a range of cabinet door and drawer styles, including arched doors, cathedral doors, raised panels and eyebrow raised panels. RTF comes in a fewer solid colors than laminates, but its wood grain versions look more realistic than laminate wood grain versions.
• Wood veneer is the high end of refacing finishes, both in terms of its natural attractive appearance and also in terms of its price. The wood veneer is available in oak, birch, cherry, walnut and other popular woods. Wood veneer refacing costs 15%-30% more than plastic laminates or RTF, but are still significantly less expensive than replacing your cabinets with new cabinets.

If your old cabinets are in poor condition, if you want to rearrange your kitchen, or if you're just ready for new cabinets, read on to learn about the most important factors.

2. Get Help with Cabinet Design?

The first step to getting new cabinets is to develop a plan.  You can get help for your plan from these sources:

Kitchen Designers: You can hire a kitchen designer (these folks are used to designing fairly to very expensive kitchens)

Kitchen Contractors: You can have your kitchen contractor/remodeler help you plan the design in addition to doing the installation

Kitchen Design Software Packages: You can use kitchen design software, which is commonly available for sale or as a free service from many stores that sell stock cabinets.

3. Get Help with Cabinet Installation or Do It Yourself?

If you are an experienced do-it-yourself handyman with a history of successfully completing advanced projects, you may choose to install your own cabinets. The most common type of kitchen cabinets installed by homeowners are stock cabinets. Stock cabinet companies or the retail outlets that sell stock cabinets often have online software to help you design your kitchen and order the appropriate stock pieces. If you are planning on ordering semi-custom or custom cabinets, the expertise level required to order the cabinets increases as do the risks for making mistakes. Unless you are very experienced at measuring, ordering, and installing semi-custom or custom cabinets, we recommend that you work with an experienced kitchen remodeler.

4. Stock, Semi-Custom, or Custom

Stock cabinets are the best choice if you want to replace your existing cabinets but are working within a relatively small budget. With stock cabinets, "what you see is what you get". Each brand manufacturer of stock cabinets offers a range of cabinet sizes (many of the sizes are standard), and a limited number of styles and colors. The only modifications to each cabinet would be the addition of a limited number of convenience features offered by each manufacturer, like a lazy Susan. In addition to lower prices, another advantage to the standardization of stock cabinets is speed: you can purchase stock cabinets from stores like Lowes and Home Depot in one or two days (if you are satisfied with the brands, styles and colors they keep in-stock), or you can usually have stock cabinets shipped to you within two weeks of ordering them. The quality and prices vary significantly, and will cost between $70 and $270 per linear foot.

Semi-custom cabinets fall between stock and custom cabinets, and represent some of the best features of each. Like stock cabinets, semi-custom cabinets come in standard sizes which saves time and money over custom cabinets. Like custom cabinets, semi-custom cabinets have a wide range of finishes and hardware to fit the buyer's tastes. The result of a semi-custom cabinet installation is a highly customized look that is done faster and for less money than true custom cabinets. If your kitchen's shape is very unusual and does not work with the standard sizes, or if your design vision requires more customization than is possible with semi-custom, then custom cabinets may be your best choice.

Custom cabinets are built to order and your design, so you get the exact sizes, styles, and features that you desire. The options available to a buyer of custom cabinets seem almost infinite. Careful measurements of your kitchen are taken, your cabinets are designed (custom cabinets are often planned by a professional kitchen designer or a very high-end contractor), and then the cabinets are ordered. Custom cabinets often take six to sixteen weeks and can cost between $300 and $1,200 per linear foot.

5. Brand

Many of the kitchen cabinet brands specialize in either custom, semi-custom, or stock. The breadth of the product lines and the number of styles and features offered vary by manufacturer: some brand manufacturers try to offer customers almost any style, while other brand manufacturers try to gain a name for a few special styles or designs of cabinet.

6. Style

In most homes, the style of the kitchen relates to the style of the rest of the home. If your home is strong influences of Spanish design and architecture, it would probably look and feel odd if you installed a Japanese influenced kitchen.
There are common methods on finding styles that appeal to you: look through designer magazines and books, web sites, catalogues, and show rooms. If a kitchen designer or contractor is involved in your design, they may suggest specific show rooms that are well-suited to your style and budget. If you do not know that much about design you might want to get some advice from a professional or a knowledgeable friend: whatever design you choose for your kitchen cabinets should not clash with the design or your house or your home decor. It can take a trained eye to anticipate what cabinets will complement the rest of your home.

7. Materials

With custom cabinets, with so many options, the challenge is to figure out what materials you want. Solid wood is a very common material for custom kitchen cabinets, but you also find wood veneers, laminates, and lacquer finishes as custom finish options. Handles and pulls can also come in a wide variety of styles, sizes, metals, and finishes.

With stock cabinets, it is important to make sure you are getting high quality workmanship, even if you are getting it at a reasonable price. If you are buying solid wood or wood veneer, examine the finish carefully and the quality and consistency of the wood grain across multiple cabinet modules, if possible. Look at the wood from varying distances and, if possible, under several lighting conditions. Look beyond the front of the cabinets:

• Are the drawers glued or stapled together, or are they joined in a more effective manner?
• What kind of roller hardware enables the drawers to slide?
• Do the doors and drawers close completely, or are there gaps?

Try to get an overall impression of the cabinets, as well inspecting the details close up.

8. Timing

If you are purchasing kitchen cabinets as part of an overall kitchen remodel, it is very important to consider time and sequencing. As we have already mentioned, it can take from one day to sixteen weeks to get your kitchen cabinets, depending on what you're buying and the kind of company that you are buying from. In addition to having a space plan for you kitchen remodeling project, it is equally important to have a time plan. You need to make sure you are ordering all of the materials for your redesign, including cabinets, so they arrive in time for their sequence in the remodeling project.

9. Cost/Budget/Investment

The costs of upgrading your kitchen cabinets varies widely, from $3,000 or $4,000 at the lowest end for refacing, to upwards of $100,000 for the highest end custom cabinets in a large kitchen. If you can afford a kitchen cabinet budget $15,000 to $35,000 for most sized kitchens (including materials and installation), you will have many options and get results that will be pleasing for most consumers. When you spend money on your kitchen in general and your kitchen cabinets specifically, you should get both personal and financial benefits: a better functioning kitchen and more enjoyable home, as well as a home that has increased its resale value. The kitchen cabinets should stay in balance with the other elements of the kitchen, and the kitchen should stay in balance with the rest of your home. If you live in a modest home, you might enjoy the addition of a luxury kitchen, but you are more likely to recoup your investment if you add a mid-range kitchen that is in balance with the rest of your home.