Every maker or brand prices things differently. The first thing that should be taken a look at is your expectations for your redo. Some people just are in shock as to what things really do cost. The average mid grade kitchen remodel in the US is 55K, with cabinets being 15K-20K for that. One thing to know is that all of those "Top 10 Kitchens" on Houzz are probably 100K+ remodels. Not what your average remodeler in middle America can usually afford. I usually tell people that they'll spend the cost of a new car on a kitchen, what do they want to park in their driveway?

In general, stacked cabinets and glass should be the first thing to be jettisoned. Furniture feet and legs next. Simplify the crown next. Authentic sides in favor of plain sides next. Simple inserts like cutlery drawers that you can DIY or purchase aftermarket next. Complex inserts that are better done by the maker are trash pullouts and lazy susans, and those should be kept until the last possible budget cut. Also, paint is generally at least 20% higher, and glazing another 10-20% as well.

How much are you over your projected budget amount, and what are the details of the quote? Size of the kitchen?

Try to get a comparison quote from a local custom woodwork shop.

I just got a comparison quote, and am still in shock. The local shop's quote is much much lower than the KD's quote, and includes a lot more stuff -- not only quantity, but also quality. The local shop also offers complete price transparency, while the KD only gave us a total amount. The local shop gave us the cost breakdown of everything, w/o being asked. The breakdown even includes the cost of each piece of glass, glides, finish hardware, etc. So there's no doubt we are going with the local shop.

We found our local custom woodshop shop through Google. There are many of such shops around us. The way we narrow them down to one was by looking at the close-up photos of their past projects, and by talking to the shop owner (in a small shop, the owner is usually the one who builds the cabinets). How far away they are from us also played an important role, of course. At first, we had some reservation because there usually aren't many reviews about small shops. But after talking to some random people in the trade (e.g. stone yard people, kitchen appliance people, etc), we are confident we've chosen the right cabinet maker.

This post was edited by ILoveCookie on Mon, Sep 15, 14 at 11:29

Without knowing size of kitchen and species of wood and finish ... it's hard to help you. And what was the quote versus your budget?

The kitchen is about 15 x 10. We don't have an exact for what we want to spend on the cabinets, but we were hoping to spend maybe $10,000-$15,000. The quote is $20,000. We don't have a detailed quote from the cabinet guy. He did put paneled end jams and soft close doors and drawers on it(no specific costs). I don't want the paneled end jams or soft close doors(only soft close drawers). I'd like to know the cost of those things so I can subtract them. I'd also like to look at prices of different crown moldings to see if a simpler one would cost much less or maybe eliminate any crown molding.

As I had said, I know I could get an itemized list of everything from him, but it would be nice to find a website where I could get an idea of what these things cost before going to him for an itemized list. I'd like to start figuring out what things are worth eliminating.

I do not want to get another estimate from someone else, so that is why I am looking to eliminate what I can. :)

Our kitchen is 10 x 10, plus a pantry wall, and our custom cabinets were $20K (installed). I don't have a huge number of drawers, and I made my own inserts. Soft-close doors and drawers; oak partial overlay, uppers/crown to the 8-ft ceiling.

I had heard so many good things about this cabinet guy that I didn't even get estimates elsewhere. With the size of my kitchen, I knew I wanted custom to maximize use of space. I definitely feel like I got my money's worth! He was happy to break out costs for us, from soft-close to door hardware allowance.

Our electrical cost was higher than I expected, but I didn't have a frame of reference for that. We saved money on appliances, and I painted the walls myself to reduce the total overall cost. We did splurge on our countertop, however - we were planning on laminate, but fell in love with a Cambria pattern, and couldn't find anything else we liked half as much.

Good luck!

The expert on what things cost is the person giving you the quote. He is your partner in the project. Treat him as such, and ask him what his suggestions would be to get you at your budget. He knows better than anyone how to accomplish that. Truly, when a customer looks at line item gibberish, a lot of times they want to cut things that are essential to the look or function because they don't understand the nomenclature. Why not ask the expert?

Just for a comparison, our kitchen is almost the same size as yours, 15x11. We paid $10,500 for our cabinets from Barker Cabinets. We had to assemble and install them ourselves. That price included soft close doors/drawers, a floor - ceiling 30" wide pantry with roll-outs, all drawers on the bottom except for our large sink base and the garbage pullout, all trim including crown, light rail, scribe molding, toe kicks, matching end panels...everything. This is 3/4" plywood construction with solid wood doors in natural cherry. If that $20,000 includes installation, I don't think that's such a bad price.

I found it was better to get the basic needs quoted, and if there's room left in the budget, get quotes for the upgrades. Pretty simple way to do it.

I agree with live_wire_oak. When we remodeled our kitchen, our kitchen designer was really our partner and I worked closely with him to discuss all the options and ways to cut cost, including both cabinet options as well as layout options.

I was on a small budget for cabinets because we did a complete rehaul of our kitchen (I just posted with my kitchen reveal today) so had to consider cost of appliances, countertops, electrical, plumbin, construction, flooring etc etc. I decided to go the semi-custom route because our kitchen was fairly small (11x10) so we didn't have too many options for layout and could make standard sizes work for the most part.

I went with Medallion Silver line (which is their base). What I liked about Medallion is that there is no upcharge for painted white and I absolutely loved their Divinity White color which is almost identical to Benjamin Moore Dove White. Our kitchen includes super susan, all soft close doors/drawers, every cabinet has roll-outs, every drawer has matching fronts, crown, light rail, and finished door panels on exposed side cabinets. Total cabinet cost was $9,800.

Just ask for the detailed list, he can always refuse.
My custom cabinetmaker gave a completely itemized estimate which was very helpful.

I wonder if part of the higher cost is that hickory you mentioned in another post? It's a hard wood - one of the hardest, I was told, and a real pain to work with since it's so hard. It probably doesn't grow as easily as one of the other woods...I didn't price out hickory versus other woods, though, so I'm guessing on this...

I agree--talk to the cabinetmaker. And do tell him why. If he can't afford to do the job at your budget, set him free. And if he wants the job, he'll work with you.

Don't worry--you won't be the first person he's dealt with who was hoping for a lower quote!

Did you tell him your budget? If you didn't share that, he will have no point of reference.

if you want an idea of what items costs you can go online to barker or cliq studios to price your kitchen. it won't be an exact match but will give you a range.
honestly if the cost is a shocker, custom may not be the best fit for your project. there are a lot of wonderful semi custom cabinet companies out there. check out the finished kitchens link on gw and look at the different brands used for ideas.
we spent $8k on cabinets by going with medallion's silverline. we were on a small budget. had we been able to spend $12k i would have looked seriously at showplace or possibly a frameless line.
we had 19 cabinets installed. all bases but 1 are drawers (5 drawer bases) the specialty 2 level cutlery tray and furniture finished ends. no light rail or crown molding. our kd charged us $3200 for install.

Re: custom versus semi custom. The price really depends. We got quotes from custom and from semi custom. Even with my dh's military discount that the semi custom maker offered, our custom maker gave us a better price.

Cabinets cost a lot, no doubt. The whole kitchen thing cost more than we'd anticipated.

What was the final layout that was decided on? Seemed to be about 100 options under consideration and no resolution to that. A good deal of the expense could be due to whatever that ended up being, and the install. Difficult layouts cost more time and effort on the cabinet maker's part. That equals more expense.

I didn't get a chance to read all of the responses, so sorry if this is a repeat. I didn't go custom, but I found out that my original door choice added thousands to the price. I ended up with a simple shaker door for a very reasonable price.

Kathy642:

Instead of an itemized list, you should go back to your cabinetmaker and ask him for everything he can do for 15K then take it or leave it or shop around.

Truthfully, your posting here shows a lack of sales skills on his part. He should have qualified you much better than he has. If you're not comfortable in a particular range, you'll get no quote from me. This saves both of us lots of time.

Like dcward89 above, with a similar sized kitchen, the only way we got to a number close to what you want was by getting Barker cabinets and installing them ourselves. I had a local cabinetmaker's finish person stain and finish the doors and drawer fronts (as a shop-sanctioned moonlighting job). Even with that and some extras (crown moulding, soft close drawers & doors) it ended up in the range you mentioned. Many urban areas also have affordable crews that will hire out to put together Ikea kitchens, which are similar enough in design that they could definitely put together Barker's cabinets.

I second the idea of going to Barker's website and putting together your cabinet order. I did this over and over, making little changes each time, and it really paid off...my kitchen works just the way I wanted it to.

Are these cabinets framed or frameless? Frameless cabinets are less expensive, yet give you more interior room. It's a myth that frameless are less sturdy than framed. A lot of custom cabinetmakers will only do framed - not because framed is better, but because framed is what they know, and what they have the tools for. (As an aside, if you are doing framed cabinets, check the interior depth of the upper cabinets. Some framed upper cabinets are only 10" deep, not enough for many dinner plates.)

If you are doing frameless cabinets, I would shop around for other cabinet lines. It's not necessarily true that custom is "better". I like Live Wire Oak's first post of things that can be jettisoned from the cabinet order to save money.

i respectfully disagree that frameless are less than framed. in my search they were more but i was looking at kraftmaid, medallion silverline, diamond vibe so possibly in comparison to those lines they are more. cabinet lines are all over the place for pricing so you have to look around a bit.