How to Offset the Cost of Custom Kitchen Cabinets

Many people choose to install custom kitchen cabinets because their kitchens are oddly built or because they have very specific needs for their kitchen space. For some families, the kitchen is the center of the home. If this sounds familiar then you probably already have some experience in trying to make your family's life fit into the cabinets that came already installed in your home. It can be a big hassle!  Of course, custom kitchen cabinets can end up costing you quite a lot more money than stock kitchen cabinets. This is because, in addition to paying for the specific building materials you want, you also need to pay for the hours that go into the building process. A carpenter/cabinet designer does not work for free! Then, of course, you will usually have to pay some money to get someone to install your custom kitchen cabinets and custom cabinetry can sometimes be trickier to install than stock cabinetry.Of course, there are ways to offset the cost of having custom kitchen cabinets designed for you:

• Limit your custom cabinetry to one or two pieces - Many families find that they can do just fine with stock cabinets if they have someone build them a custom kitchen storage cabinet that will house all of the oddly shaped items or act as a pantry—which clears up quite a lot of storage space for other things. Having just one or two cabinets built is far cheaper than having an entire set constructed from scratch.

• Do some of the labor yourself! - If you know how to build things and have some carpentry experience why not build your own custom kitchen cabinets and custom kitchen storage cabinet set? Building your own custom cabinets can save you quite a bit of money—all you have to do is pay for the materials!

• Hire a student - Often students who are studying to become carpenters or designers or contractors will gladly help you put together and install custom kitchen cabinets for a fraction of the price. The work they do on your home will help them beef up their resumes and, if the student does a good job, you can act as a reference for him later on!

• Ask for a discount or trade services - Sometimes custom kitchen cabinet designers will trade their services out for other services or goods. If you have a website, for example, you might offer to run advertising for the cabinet maker in exchange for a discount. If you run your own business, you might be able to trade out your services in exchange for paying a lower out of pocket cost for your custom kitchen storage cabinet. Be creative!

While it does cost more to have someone build you custom kitchen cabinets, the benefits of having the custom cabinetry far offset the cost. After all, don't you want to have cabinets that are perfectly suited to your kitchen and to your lifestyle?