8 Features of Great Custom Cabinets

 
Custom kitchen and bathroom cabinets are gorgeous, but are going to take a chunk out of your homebuilding budget. And you’re going to live with them for years. Make the most of it with these eight essential features.

1. Designed with You in Mind
   Don’t rush in and let the cabinet-maker throw together a plan for your cabinets. You create them and then plan and work with the shop to refine it. Spend some time analyzing how your kitchen or bathroom is used, what you store, where you like to work. Inventory your small appliances and kitchen utensils, inventory your grooming supplies, linens, and cleaners. Figure out how you want to store them and what kind of cabinetry will best suit your purposes.

   Do you want to leave small appliances (toasters, blenders, hair driers, shavers) plugged in, but hidden from view? Do you want to hide the garbage can? Do you have special linens to store?

   With custom cabinets the possibilities are almost limitless. A well-planned space will serve your for years to come.

2. No Particle Board or Medium-Density Fiberboard
   Nothing ruins a great custom cabinet more quickly than a fine wood facade slapped onto junky glued together wood by-products. Particle board is extremely heavy, does not hold fasteners well, and tends to flake. If it gets wet (as kitchen cabinets might) it swells. This is particularly problematic if you have a three-year-old who loves to flood the kitchen. Trust me on this.
3. Small Toe Kick
   I can barely understand the concept of toe kicks at all. Apparently they are supposed to provide space for your appendages as you work at a counter. Maybe I just have tiny feet—and I do—but when I work at a kitchen or bathroom counter, I never stand close enough for my feet to stick under the counter. And if I try to, I nearly tip over backwards. On the other hand, the toe kicks collect all sorts of crapola that you have to dig out with a broom. And the deeper the toe kick, the more likely it is that someone will damage the bottom edge of your gorgeous new cabinet base unit with the broom they are poking under there.

   My advice, find out how much of the toe kick you actually use and specify that you have no more than you need.

4. Adjustable Shelves
   All the planning in the world can’t ensure that your intended use for a cabinet won’t change over time. If you cabinet shelves are fixed, your storage choices are limited. Plastic clips tend to snap—which isn’t a good thing for the bone china. Get metal clips to hold your valuables securely.
5. Strong Drawer Construction
   Drawers are the easiest storage solution for most items, but their construction is more complex. They need to be strong to take the wear and tear. Make sure the drawer construction is solid. Look for dovetailed joints and a strong drawer bottom. Consider using a metal drawer box in place of plywood or solid wood. They are very durable and you won’t have the problem of the bottom falling out.
6. Full-Size Drawers
   For some reason (skimping on materials?) many cabinet makers create drawers that are only a fraction of the size of the opening in the cabinet. There are inches of dead space on each side of the drawer and usually a significant amount more wasted more in the back. You end up with significantly less storage space than you should. Be sure to specify—in writing—that you expect the drawers to adequately fill the space in the cabinet.
7. Drawer Extensions
   High quality, metal, ball-bearing extensions can make all the difference in whether you love your kitchen cabinetry or hate it. Good drawer extensions will slide smoothly and quietly, without rubbing or catching. Now you have these wonderful, full-sized drawers to store all your valuable stuff. But the back third of the drawer in inaccessible because the drawer won’t open all the way. You have two choices:
   • Use the back third of every drawer to store things like shish kabob skewers and umbrella-topped toothpicks.
   • Get some full-extension drawer slides.

   I suggest the latter. With these little marvels, you can pull the drawer out all the way to the back and access everything—even the candy thermometer—without dissembling the entire drawer.

   For an extra bit of luxury, get your full-extension drawer slides with the soft close feature. This eliminates the drawer banging closed, as it seems to softly suck the drawer back into place.

8. Fine Finish
   A poor finish on your cabinets will look worn very quickly, even with only moderate use. Check for even staining and complete sealing. Rub your hand over the finish. It should be smooth with only a slight grain. The cabinets in our last custom home had a number of problem areas that showed poor finish work within only a year, particularly on the detailing edges. All surfaces must match, with no vinyl veneers or other fake nonsense. As wood ages, the color often changes, mismatches will be more pronounced as time goes on. Particularly check the finished ends, where many manufactures skimp.

   Finally, check exposed portions under upper cabinets and where cabinetry sticks out on islands and peninsulas. In in our last home, the cabinet maker we used for some unfinished space, left the cut ends on the white upper cabinets completely exposed. When sitting in my office chair, it looked dreadful. When I pointed out the problem, he acted as if my request to finish the cuts was completely unreasonable. It wasn’t.

You can get just what you need in your custom kitchen and bathroom cabinets, but it will take lots of planning and communicating on your part to make this a reality.

What features do you demand in your cabinetry? Share you great ideas!

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Tagged as: cabinets, drawers, finish, Interior, kitchen, shelves