GRADES OF CASEWORK

You will rarely see the word cabinet without the word "custom" in front of it so the word is essentially meaningless with regard to cabinets. There are two main categories: store bought cabinets and cabinets built in a nearby shop.

Store bought. These vary greatly in quality from low end "economy" grade to high end European cabinets. The low end cabinets are obviously competing for cost. They are built in factories by low skilled workers and light weight materials are very important in their construction because transportation is usually a large part of their cost. So you'll find flimsy backs, light weight hardware and uneven quality. If thousands of units are being manufactured, saving a few cents on hinges or drawer track can mean huge savings for the manufacturer. These costs would be insignificant to a smaller shop that has to stand behind its work. Any store bought cabinet has to sacrifice a lot of individuation in the interest of mass production. This is true of the expensive cabinets as well as the inexpensive ones. The high end Euro cabinets will have quality hardware and will be well built although lighter materials will be used because shipping costs are still a factor.

Something important to remember about any store bought cabinet is that there are certain layouts that are very complimentary to the style. Making the architecture conform to the cabinets, as it does in a showroom setting, can make the cabinets look very appealing . Unfortunately in a custom home these layouts are often unattainable. Further, the cabinets are built to a grid of one sort or another and they will usually require large "fill strips" where they meet the walls. The wine rack, optimally placed in the show room may not work in your kitchen, etc. While there is a certain appeal in their immediate purchase there are often delays that exceed the wait for shop built cabinets due to availability of certain pieces. I've seen many jobs held up by these "ready made" cabinets. Jobs I've passed on because they wanted immediate delivery have been stalled because the "ready made" cabinets were delayed from the factory. It's an interesting fact that people can somehow understand a distant factory having weeks long "delivery problems", but are unforgiving of a local cabinetmaker who is three days late.

In my opinion, regardless of the price of ready made cabinets, there is a certain soulessness about them. Expensive European cabinets, which can far exceed the price of shop built cabinets, do have a certain slick appeal yet I don't find them quite as appealing as a nicely designed and built custom cabinet. The shiny, slickness of very expensive Euro cabinets can seem rather cold and I've yet to see an installation that was convincingly unique to a fine home. They simply don't have the fit I like. Any house deserving of the moniker "custom" inevitably has a lot of variation due to that quality. Making something simply work in a house isn't quite the same as making it an enhancement of the uniqueness of a home.

Admittedly there are times when ready made cabinets fill the bill, but I think their place is usually at the low end of the quality scale. The qualities of shop-built cabinetry, in terms of fit and finish, often make them the best and least expensive option. Still, expensive Euro cabinets do have some features that are very slick as only a large factory can produce. In my opinion the superficial bells and whistles aren't what cabinets are about, rather it's how they fit into your life, how you relate to them and how they make your house "your" house and not some model home. A word of caution here: If you do go for one of these glossy, high-tech looks make sure it's durable as if something breaks in a year or two chances are you won't be able to easily replace it. This holds true for most factory built cabinets as their details are often difficult to replicate because the factory may have re-tooled to produce a new line. Specialized tools like cutters for a specific molding or detail can cost hundreds of dollars and exotic processes used to mold laminates may likely lead to difficulties if something needs to be added or replaced a year or two later.

One more word about price. I've seen cases where these cabinets cost more than quality shop built cabinets fit to your home. So check around closely and don't forget sales tax, delivery, and installation in the hard costs of the factory cabinets.

Shop built cabinets. These are built in a shop that is close by and are built specifically for your house or office. Production shops are similar to the factories in approach, that is to say there is little to differentiate one job from the next. You have a choice in styles of doors and drawer fronts, but layout options may be relatively limited. The latest development in most shops is factory made doors. The shop builds the "boxes" (the part of the cabinet behind the doors and drawer fronts) then the doors are ordered from a large supplier to the measurements provided by the cabinetmaker. This has become the rule of late and is very easy to justify as a cost cutting measure. In a sense everyone seems to win--- the doors are accurate and well built and the measurements are specific to the installation. This is definitely preferable to a "store bought" cabinetry. Further, you can choose the finish, which is often not the case with factory cabinets.

But once again there are issues of aesthetic limitations inherent to factory processes which simply can't accomodate large variations in door styles, materials or layout because the production shop is dependent on a limited selection of materials provided by secondary manufacturers. In my opinion, as this process becomes more complex (doors being made by second parties, delegation of the work to large crews, etc.) your wishes remain the one factor that must be compromised. The people doing the work may never have seen the house that they are building the cabinets for or the nuances of its architecture. In short, the more the process is driven by mass production concerns the less amenable it is to aesthetic needs. The work may be quite good technically, but it will usually fall short on inspiration.