The cabinet choice; it's the biggest decision for most kitchen remodelers

Sunset, Jan, 1989

The least understood part of your kitchen is also the most expensive. You can read comparison reports on appliances, counters, flooring. But what about those pretty boxes-your cabinets? Whether you're building a new kitchen or remodeling an old one, they typically eat up more than 60 percent of your budget.

On these six pages, we show you the three ways you can buy cabinets and the two ways all cabinets are constructed. We also describe the basic cabinet units and how they're modified and organized into a functional kitchen.

Stock cabinets: buy your kitchen "off the shelf" and save-if you're careful

Mass-produced standard-size cabinets are descending in record numbers on the West-the last great untapped market (they've been available elsewhere for years). They're the least expensive option, but, as the name implies, their range of sizes is limited.

Even so, you can always specify door styles, which direction they swing, and whether side panels are finished. And you can often get options and add-ons such as breadboards, sliding shelves, wine racks, and special corner units. Most also have cabinets that can be ordered for peninsulas or islands-with doors or drawers on both sides, and appropriate toespaces, trim, and finishes.

You often find stock lines heavily discounted at some home centers. But buying such cabinets can be a lot like doing your own taxes: no one really volunteers much information that will save you money or clarify your options-and, if you

make a mistake or someone (even a salesman) gives you bad advice, you're still the one who's liable. Knowledgeable people who can help you select stock cabinets tend to be the exception, not the rule.

Custom modular: an industry hybrid offers the best of both worlds

Between stock and custom-made are custom modular cabinets or custom systems. These are manufactured cabinets of generally higher grade with more design flexibisity-albeit at higher cost.

Custom systems offer a wide range of sizes and man options within each size. Roger Steffen of Design Works in Torrance, California, explains: "A good modular shop can do all but truly custom work. We use our own components, building the kitchen from finished units. Modifying modular is sort of the same thing as custom these days."

You can change practically everything on these basic modules: add sliding shelves, replace doors with drawers, set a matching hood unit over the stove, add wire baskets, flour bins, appliance garages. The examples shown on pages 72 and 73 are but a sampling of the wonderfully engineered hardware available. Key to the versatility of these systems is that, if necessary, basic dimensions can be modified to fit virtually any kitchen configuration. Heights, widths, and depths can be narrowed or enlarged so that you can adjust to practically any size.

Though frameless cabinets (see the boxon pages 72 and 73) are sized metrically (standard cabinets are 60 centimeters-about 24 inches), virtually all lines are now sized for American appliances. And they still break into about 3- inch increments, with custom dimensions available. Perhaps more options exist for corners than for any other kitchen space. If you don't use a specially designed cabinet, you'll lose a lot of valuable space. The simplest corner butts one cabinet against another, providing inconvenient access to the corner. Better options include diagonal units with a larger door, double-door units that provide full access to the Lshaped space, and lazy Susans or other slide-out accessories that bring items from the back up to the front.

Handmade cabinets, custom craftsmen: endangered species? Unlikely

"System cabinets are a new world for the West Coast. It's timber country-traditionally the territory of wood butchers," one kitchen designer told us. Look up Cabinets in the yellow pages and you'll see that the industry is still dominated by small custom shops.

Most Westerners got kitchen cabinets by having a cabinetmaker come to the house and measure, then go away and build custom frame carcasses, drawers, and doors-almost an image, one manufacturer told us, "of Gepetto in his workshop." For many years, that's the way things were-with smallish two- or threeperson shops building kitchens one by one. There are still cases in which going to a custom shop may make sense-to match old cabinets or size truly oddball configurations like the curving cabinets on page 69. "The custom shop can do the tricks, the nonstandard, the true custom, the super-complex jobs," says Rob Boynton of Midland Cabinets, in Redwood City, California. His kitchen, on page 73, illustrates the point-with crown molding, and trim sized around appliances, island, and range hood.

But the custom cabinet shop "isn't as custom as you might think," says one "Wood butcher." Many shops buy door and drawer fronts from the same people who make them for stock manufacturers (companies that will reface your existing cabinets also often buy these massproduced parts for the job).