We just started our blog to be able to relay answers to some of the questions that we receive on a daily basis about our kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities.  We are also going to use the blog to highlight industry trends, successfully completed kitchen renovations and anything else we come across that might be a useful resource for our customers.   To start off the blog, I would like to show you a very successful renovation that we received before and after pictures of.  This is from a couple in Philadelphia that did the entire kitchen themselves using our Marquis Cinnamon Cabinets.  I think you will agree it turned out great.

 

One of the key selling points of our kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities has always been the fact that they are made from solid wood on the face frames and doors, and they use 3/4" plywood for the sides of the cabinet- creating a really strong box.   I have heard people complain about the strength of the cabinets that are sold at the big retail stores, but I learned something new the other day.   We had a customer contact us about buying the Chestnut Glazed Maple Cabinets.  The first thing he aske was how much weight they could suport.  I thought it was a strange question, so I asked why..  apparently, the name brand manufacturers will not honor the warranty if certain types of countertops are installed.   This customer in particular was told that if he had concrete countertops installed, it would void the manufacturers warranty.  I couldn't believe that these hundred million dollar companies wouldn't stand behind their product.  But it makes perfect sense... they are using particleboard or fiberboard for the sides of the cabinets.  Either of these materials would buckle under increased weight because they are not made of a solid material.    With our plywood sides it creates a much sturdier frame to support any countertop surface.  So when you are out there shopping for kitchen cabinets, make sure you check the quality of the cabinet construction!

A good friend of mine recently bought the Marquis Cinnamon Cabinets for both their kitchen and bathroom.  They have an old rowhouse from the 1900's, and as you can imagine, none of the walls are straight or plumb.  They initially thought it would take a day or two to install the entire kitchen, but they made the fatal mistake of not prepping the walls.....   with an older home you can almost guarantee that the floors and walls are going to be straight, level, or plumb so you can save yourself a whole lot of headaches and aggravation by taking some steps to prep the room.   The most important thing you can do before even bringing the first cabinet in, is to find all of the high and low spots on the floor, and any waves in the walls (check out our installation and assembly section for additional instructions).   By doing this, you will know where you might run into problems.  If you want to make sure that your cabinets are all level and straight, your best friend on this project is going to be a pile of shims.  When all else fails- shim, shim, and shim again!   By taking the time to prep the room and mark your low spots, it will help have your sanity when installing your kitchen cabinets and ensure a successful project.

According to the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, Americans will spend over $295 Billion on kitchen renovations this year.    For homeowners that spend less than $15,000 on their kitchen, they can expect to see a return of 99% on their investment.  With those kind of numbers, there is no other room in your house where you could expect to see the same kind of return on your investment.   Kitchen Renovations account for 70% of the home improvement projects, and that is for a reason.  By installing new kitchen cabinets, you can not only change the look of your kitchen, but also increase the value of your home.

In today's market, homeowners want to create a custom look in their kitchen to separate the look of their house from their neighbors.  A lot of the big name cabinet manufacturers have started creating customized pieces to be used in conjunction with their cabinets to create the look of furniture.   While we stick with the basics when it comes to accessories in order to keep the costs down, there are still a lot of customized looks you can create for your kitchen when using any of our cabinet styles and a little bit of creativity.  Since we also offer the stain formulas for our cabinets, a lot of customers will actually create their own accessories and simply stain them to match the cabinets.   Here is a good example of a customer that used a combination of our Chestnut Glazed Maple Cabinets  and a little creativity to build a custom island for his kitchen.

 

 

It is amazing how many customers I talk to think they need to have their kitchen professionally designed in order for it to look nice.   While it may seem like an overwhelming task, it really isn't.   While we do offer a 3-D design service, I really don't recommend it for customers unless it is for a new home where it is hard to picture where the walls and kitchen cabinets are going to be.  If you are doing a basic kitchen remodel, with some accurate measurements, you can easily design and select your own kitchen cabinets.   If you go to the Kitchen Resources section of our site, you will find some easy to use templates that will help you with your kitchen design.

 

Once you have the exact measurements for your kitchen, it is now time to decide what type of kitchen cabinets you will need.   Do you need a lot of drawer space, or more shelf space?   Did you want 30" wall cabinets, or do you need the extra space of the 42" wall cabinets?  How about the corner.... do you have room for a lazy susan, or are you going to use a blind base or wall cabinet?   Once you have the measurements sketched out and you have an idea of what you will need, our staff can help you pricing out and making sure that all of the measurements add up.  The nice thing about our kitchen cabinet lines is that we use the same standard sizes (in some cases more) that a Lowes or Home Depot would use.   That being the case, you could easily take their free design service and apply it to our product line.  

So the next time you hear one of your neighbors saying they are going to hire a interior designer for their kitchen, or paid for a 3-D design service you can save them the time and money by showing them how to do it themselves

I thought I would share an e-mail that I received on Thursday.  I had been working with a customer in Ohio who was going to be remodeling her entire kitchen and one of her bathrooms.  She was on a 3 week time crunch so she was nervous about making sure that all the kitchen cabinets and the bathroom vanities were in stock.  I gave her a quote and we ended up saving her a couple hundred dollars versus the local supply store.   Even though we were saving her money on her kitchen cabinets, I never heard from her again...   on Thursday, I received an e-mail from her and she needed some help.   She ended up ordering her cabinets from a brick and mortar store because she was nervous about having problems with the order.   Four weeks later, (remember her time frame was three weeks), she received her order and some of the cabinets were missing and some of them were incorrect.   She was asking for my help to correct the problem.  

This is a great example of why ordering from the direct importer/manufacturer can not only save you time, but also save you the frustration of dealing with the retail stores.   Since we typically deliver in under 2 weeks, she would have had time plenty of time to confirm that everything was ready for installation when her contractors were ready to install.  There is a happy ending to this story... since we have all the cabinets she needs, we are going to expedite the replacement cabinets to her house so that she can finish off her kitchen installation.

One of the biggest questions I get from customers is "Can we buy some of the stain to match the cabinets or to use on trim molding"?  This is a common request when buying any cabinets, even the kitchen cabinets sold in your local home supply store.   The problem is, most companies do not offer the exact match for all of the cabinet styles that they carry.   You usually have to buy a basic color and hope that you can blend it in to match.   With both our kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities we offer the exact stain formula which can be taken to Sherwin-Williams and reproduced.   This makes it very easy to create a custom look by using items that we may not carry, or something that you want to build yourself.   So if you have any creative ideas for your kitchen you can still easily use our kitchen cabinets to build the kitchen of your dreams!