What To Look For In Custom Cabinets

You went through all of the trouble to envision your dream home, draw up blue prints to match your dreams and finally had your dream home custom built by a contractor you hand-picked. So when it comes time to installing your kitchen cabinets are you really willing to settle for factory stock cabinets?

There are as many types of custom cabinets to choose from, as there are people to select them, with material choices that include glass, wood, metal or plastic. Obviously wood cabinets are the most popular and the most preferred material type for custom cabinets to be built from. And when it comes to wood options your final decision will ultimately depend on your budget, your personal preference and what look you are going for in your new kitchen.

A good place to start is to decide on the type of wood you want. Do you want custom cabinets that are light colored or dark? Lighter colored woods include maple, oak, pine, birch, elm and chestnut and they can work great to make a small space look bigger because they reflect light out and don't draw it in like darker woods do.
If on the other extreme, you're planning a big kitchen and you have a sense of largeness to the room with vaulted ceilings, you may want to go for darker cabinets to create an anchor in the kitchen space and pick a material like walnut or ebony wood that will draw some of that excessive light in.

There are of course as many wood types that fall in between the dark and light colored woods as there are wood material options in the first place, so there are plenty of options available to meet whatever your needs may be.

Other considerations that will affect your cabinet selection include how you plan to finish out your custom cabinets. Are you going to paint them or stain them for example? If you plan to stain them you want to ensure you have a nice quality wood with a good grain finish to showcase. If you plan to paint you can certainly use a lower grade wood on the cabinets since the wood will be hidden behind paint.

Other details that you will need to consider include your hardware decisions. Some people prefer to have pulls on their cabinets while others prefer a clean simple, pull free look. If you opt for hardware you will want to be consistent with your hardware throughout the house including carrying your style into the bathroom and other cabinets as well. If you choose a simple hardware for the kitchen for example you need to stay with that same type of simplicity throughout the home.

Finally plan your custom cabinets around not only your space but your needs and you will end up with cabinets that not only look good, but are practical as well and isn't that the whole purpose of custom designing your home and cabinets in the first place?