I'm in LA. Been building custom cabinets and furniture for 25-30 years and I have a hard time understanding your assessment. Fist off don't really know what is meant by "all wood". If you mean the boxes are solid wood too then that's not a good idea at all. As far as " doors bought somewhere else". I've made plenty of custom doors myself over the years for different reasons but there's nothing wrong with buying doors from a wholesaler manufacturer. If it's one of the better places like the one I deal with and they're on top of their quality control it's fine. There is no way a small custom shop is going to match the machinery and precision of those places. The only problem I have is they all offer the same door profiles. I usually invest in the cutters and have my own custom design run so I'm not doing the same door as everyone else. Melamine vs. plywood. Again there is nothing wrong with a good quality melamine like a "Panolam" product. I'm doing three kitchens right now two are melamine one plywood. I wouldn't say the plywood is any better. A good quality melamine with 2mm edge banding like I'm doing right now is the same construction as all the high-end Euro kitchens in the westside showrooms. I've seen ok Chinese stuff and crap chinese stuff. I've never seen high-quality Chinese stuff though. One of the kitchens I'm doing is for a "flipper house". It's a 5 million dollar flipper house but there is still a budget they are trying to meet. The quality for price of this kitchen is not something that the Chinese could match.

I never understand this claim that all wood can be a problem. Our home was built in 1949 and all original wood cabinets in laundry/pantry room function perfectly, doors close tightly yet open easily, and have no warping or anything. Same with the original all wood, knotty-pine (or maybe knotty alder?) kitchen cabinets that were moved to the basement workshop. We have a rental built in 1953 with all the original all-wood cabinets in kitchen and laundry room and all also in perfect shape. In both the last two, the doors slide perfectly without sticking and no fancy drawer-sliding hardware either. Just wood drawer boxes into wood openings.

That said, I'm not opposed to good particle-board or MDF. I'm guessing, just like anything, there's good and bad plywood, good and bad particle-board, etc. And, of course, the construction itself will have a big impact on longevity.

Ditto what Live_wire_oak said.

If you're worried about water damage, choose cabinets that sit on metal or plastic legs.

Why do you need 48" drawers? What about stacks of 24" instead? Or 36" with a 12" pull-out.[
[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/custom-antique-pine-mantel-traditional-kitchen-new-york-phvw-vp~98975)

[photo of 24" drawers under 48" stovetop[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/custom-antique-pine-mantel-traditional-kitchen-new-york-phvw-vp~98975)

For some reason I couldn't post the pic myself. It wouldn't download through the photo link for some reason. Sorry.

I bet when quote #5 comes in, that "all wood" is going to incorporate some plywood. And there's nothing wrong with that.

I know you, I think. Sort of. If we are in the same area as I think, yes, I find that anything involving remodeling costs twice what it should. Maybe it is the constant influx of people and new houses. I never finalized any quotes with the import RTA people, but kitchen businesses were quoting me about 12-14k, including an all-custom guy (if you think you might want to go with a local shop there are a couple I found that looked interesting, though I hadn't vetted them yet.) We decided to do pantries in IKEA and Barker's Cabinets RTA for the rest for a total of about 8k and we'll assemble and hang them ourselves. I just got a quote of $2500 to move a fridge into a pantry -- just a very limited amount of framing adjustments and drywall. I think we'll do that ourselves too, aside from electrical. lol. I don't mind paying fairly for work but I don't think basic carpentry should get $100+/hour either.

If you need custom sizes, you might take a look at Barker as mentioned above. We need custom depth cabinets for our sink run and I suggested barker to our GC (who was a cabinet maker before he became a GC) and he was impressed with the price for the specs. He has placed our order, but we don't have cabinets yet so I can't comment on the product personally. Lots of positive reviews on here in the past though.

Sheesh! I hate in when I have a cold. I'm looking through the thread for the TV Fairyland cabinets (blush). LOL

"Fairyland": clickbait for LLass. :)

Fori- That is SO true :)

Not exactly related but I have been amazed at all the custom cabinets or "custom cabinets" I have seen that come as individual boxes. Like a stack of 24" drawers and a stack of 35" drawers and they are their own boxes.

My custom cabs are all one piece. I have an 8 ft wet bar, 20" deep, it has 2 stacks of 3 drawers and a sink "base" but it is all one unit. My builder didn't build 3 separate bases and then attach them.

The cabs I took out were custom built 22 years ago and they were the same.

Every time I see "custom built" (especially on HGtv) and they are bringing in single units I yell at the screen "those aren't custom!!!"

Texas Gem: Imho, that's a good thing.

During the 80's the former owners of our house had a "real" custom kitchen (such as yours) built into place. While the kitchen is extremely sturdily built, it's also the least practical kitchen I've ever had the misfortune to use. As there are no sidewalls between doors, none of today's super practical interior organizers can be retrofitted without major carpentry work. The corners are huge black holes with doors too narrow to fit corner pull-outs and so are essentially a waste of space as the openings can't be widened.

To me, custom implies quality not just of construction, but also quality through adaptability. Times change, people's needs change. Custom fitted kitchens, no matter their sturdiness become obsolete as everything about them is non standard and specific to the original space and can't be adapted.

Now that we're finally ready for a remodel, nothing of our kitchen can be reused. Such a waste!

In the meantime, also during the 80's we installed Ikea cabinets in our old house. They have held up nicely and the current owners were able to take them down intact. As they are RTA, they were able to modify/customize some of them as needed and installed them without problems in the garage and basement.

Give me individual cabinets over a built-in custom kitchen any day.

Modellie- for me, custom means built for the exact space with no waste. I have bigger drawers with more useable space then if I had 2 separate stacks each with their own side walls.

I have 23.75" drawers instead of having to get 21" stacks and use fillers.

As for your old cabs, donate them to habitat for humanity! I'm sure someone will find a use for them! ;)

Texas Gem: Maybe I did not make it clear. They are not individual cabinets, they are custom built-ins and cannot be disassembled successfully or re-installed anywhere. Cabinet runs of up to 15ft. in length and everything glued to the countertops. Without cutting these things apart, there is no way to even get them out of the house.

We volunteer at Habitat from time to time, checked with the Re-Store, they took a look and politely declined the donation. They don't see a way to successfully disassemble, transport and re-build our kitchen either. The only thing they're interested in are the heavy duty drawer boxes. The rest is junk.

Sorry, but I have site-built cabinets like that, and I can't wait to get rid of them. For example, the entire sink side is one big cabinet with many doors, so basically anything stored on that side of the kitchen is really stored in the under-sink cabinet. Gack. No thanks.

writersblock: Yes, same here. Thank god for the dishwasher that creates a barrier between the sink and more shelves and drawers on the other side.

I don't think custom necessarily means either individual cabinets or the continuous kind that Texas gem is describing. We have original site built cabinets that date from the 1920s and some that likely date from the 1930s. They are as Texas gem describes. Btw, ours can't be removed and reused elsewhere really. They rely on the walls for structural integrity and are just piles of cut wood if you take them out.

I think custom simply means made to order and to fit a particular space with all dimensions adjustable. People tend to assume that custom means quality, but I don't think it is really part of the definition and is only sometimes part of the package. You could build custom cabinets out of cardboard. They could be frameless or inset or continuous or really anything you can imagine that is possible within the constraints of the material used.

Huh, I guess there really are many different ways to do custom.

My original ones from 22 years ago were easily removed and reused. The longest section was a little over 10 feet long.

Neither they or my new ones were built on site, they were built at my cab makers shop and delivered on his trailer.

Not sure if that's what you mean by site built or not.

All I know is I'm happy with mine the way they are, its exactly what I wanted. I suppose as long as we all get what we want, it doesn't really matter what they are called.

you guys with one big cabinet w/ many doors-- You should be able to use a system like blum metabox to create drawers. (I guess you'd do interior drawers, so that you could keep the same doors on the outside. But you could also do regular drawers, if you were replacing your doors or something.)

Metabox's glides can attach to either cab sidewalls - or - to the back and front (frame) of the cabinet. So as long as there is a strip of frame where doors meet, you should be able to install metabox drawers. (And honestly, if there isn't a strip of frame where the doors meet- that should be an easy thing to add.)

There's a tutorial here- it's hard to see it, but if you look closely you will notice that the glides are not attached to the sides of the cabinet. They are attached to the back and the frame opening.

http://ana-white.com/2013/12/momplex/kitchen-cabinet-drawers-metabox-installation

"One big cabinet" is not custom it's just one big cabinet. An inefficient and outdated way to build. Twenty two years ago we didn't have the internet either so we'd be sending each other letters to have this conversation.

That was rude and unhelpful.

My cabinets are not "one big cabinet" they were built to my exact specifications and work perfectly for what I want.

My 1954-ish cabinets are the site build kind where they are one unit and the back is the wall of the house, but they still have walls between each "cabinet" the normal way so the sink cabinet grunginess is contained. They are also make out of plywood, except for the face frames, door frames, and drawer fronts. I was kind of suprised by the plywood. I rented an apartment with the original 40's cabinets that were one big open box behind the doors including under the sink. Not a good thing when you have a cockroach problem...

Lavender-lass. I'll try and see if I can get a screen capture of the kitchen in the Flip Flop episode for your TV Fairyland. That one episode caught my attention because everything they did cost 1/2-1/3 of what I'm being quoted for the exact same thing.

I agree with Texas-gem. Custom to me means cabinets designed specifically for my space with quality materials and construction. It should use every space efficiently. It doesn't have to be long runs but not modular boxes.

For example, I've designed a vanity for our powder room so that it's attractive but easy to use for my mother who is in a wheelchair. Someone who is "custom" but only assemble would not be able to make it.

For the kitchen, I've sketched cabinet sizes and internals that need an actual woodworker.

Blfenton - we had 36" drawers and they just fit some of the oversized pots and pans/ wok. 24" split would be too small.

Fori, the all wood is truly all wood. I looked at two kitchens that he built. They were beautiful. The problem is that I have to go through his brother, the GC, who is as flaky as 90% of the GCs I've talk to. It takes up to 10-12 calls to get thru and talk to him. No matter the price or quality, I don't know that I can handle 2 weeks delay for each response.

I'm so over budget from unexpected costs that I have to really shop cabinets now. I possibly have another $10-15k in structural engineering and concrete to pay for. By the end, we may end up with $35-45k in invisible costs that shows nowhere and doesn't include my out of pocket for the remodel/rebuild. That blew out our stairs, bathrooms remodel and landscaping.

My husband suggests buying just anything as cheap as possible so we get a kitchen back and save up to replace the cabinets in a few years. This just doesn't jive with my thrifty soul.

Scrappy25 suggested Omega and they look like a bulk mfg with many options to appear custom or semi custom in regards to sizes. I'm going to visit a dealer next week.

Crl - I looked at Barkers a few weeks ago and was a bit overwhelmed. Also i think they didn't provide the depths I wanted. I'll have to relook. I checked out Scherr today and i went on overload.

I think I burned out from putting my design into CAD the last two weeks. I had to learn more stuff than I wanted to after the city inspector decided to enforce all sorts of extra stuff. They approved over 200 homes including my next door neighbor's for the exact same work but decided to treat my house differently. They even rescinded approvals made 3 yrs ago.

Kimberly, what city are you in? I'm the one hobbling from store to store at Tile Mile with a walker.

Once you have your plan in CAD form or a PDF, send it off to Scherr's. They will do the work and have you an estimate in a week. Then, you can play around with options, finishes and colors. I can recommend them without reservation.

I'm sure they are an excellent manufactures, but I found Barker's to be overwhelming, too.

Don't fail to contact a local custom cabinet shop, too. You may be surprised in a good way.

You may find another route more satisfactory, but I know my GC at first didn't see how to customize depth. But Barkers will customize depth and on second try he found how. I can't tell you how to figure it out on their website as I didn't do it myself.

Kimberly, what city are you in? I'm the one hobbling from store to store at Tile Mile with a walker.

Ah, I'm in the South. I was in a parenting group with a 'Beachem' for many years here. So not the same after all! Good luck with your project.