Mitch West with Cupboards Plus can be reached at: 903-963-8606

When deciding on cabinets for our home remodeling job I had to decide between those premade cabinets you see at Lowes and Home Depot and the custom ones you see in those fancy Cascade homes. The price difference is dramatic especially when installing them yourselves. Sure Home Depot and Lowes has custom cabinets also but their prices seem out of this world compared with what you can get with local custom cabinet makers. I had no idea about the cabinet making business, prices, and quality of product our there going into this but I quickly found out a lot.

When picking your cabinet company that will deliver and or install your cabinets you really want to do a little consumer research. Thank goodness you came to this article as I will give you my own consumer research and experience from picking and ultimately choosing a custom cabinet maker in Tyler Texas. What ends up being on most peoples minds when going into the cabinet buying process is what about Lowes and Home Depot cabinets?

The main problem I have with Lowes and Home Depot is that you are locked into a set dimension. Sure you can have custom orders with these home remodeling companies but that is when these companies really hit you on price. So lets say you avoid custom orders with Lowes and Home Depot to keep your costs down. If you have a 38 inch wide opening you may end up only being able to buy a 36 inch cabinet and then buy filler strips so it looks a little better. If you were using a custom cabinet builder in your local area of Tyler you could have the cabinet made to exact dimensions.

A big apprehension I had going into this custom cabinet process was just what type of quality could I expect from a local Tyler company to make something that looks as good as what you see at Home Depot? Well have you been into Don’s TV’s and Appliances. If you haven’t you need to as you will see a whole new level of cabinetry that Lowes and Home Depot just can’t deliver on. The custom cabinets in Don’s were made by Mitch West’s custom cabinet company called Cupboards Plus. I did not realize this back in the day but eventually I came full circle through recommendations from people I know that the guys that did Don’s cabinets are the same guys people were telling me to use.

I met up with Mitch West and one thing that immediately had my attention was the amount of choices and detail I could pick from. There was no end to the amount of wood cuts for the doors, cabinet sides and crown molding. Because of the amount of choices you have available you can get real creative with your cabinets. So my apprehensions were laid to rest as far as what the wood would look like but I was still unsure if they could deliver on the type of stain or paint technique used on the cabinets. I went back to Don’s TV and Appliances to get a second look at just what could be done and there are just as many if not more examples of what type of paint technique and wood stain that can be applied to your cabinets as you will see at Lowes and Home Depot.

Another issue that comes into play is the amount of filler joints you will need to make your Home Depot cabinets look like one piece. You will usually have 5 or 6 cabinets from Home Depot screwed together with many joints between each cabinet to make it look like one piece. With a custom cabinet you can usually have a whole piece per wall with no filler joints needed. The subtle difference in having cabinets with no joints really gives off a look you just would not foresee unless you had chosen to go the custom way. With a custom cabinet you simply can build what you want to exactly fit your kitchen. There are no filler pieces and the quality of wood product far exceeds what Lowes and Home Depot uses for their cabinets.

We had a unique custom cabinet situation as our kitchen was built in 1912 and was originally a small farm house. The slab is a very bad pour and so there are some slopes in the kitchen. The ceiling is also a plank board ceiling and isn’t exactly straight either. If ever there was a custom cabinet makers nightmare I believe our kitchen would be that nightmare. Through a measuring technique and crown molding they were able to create an effect that makes the ceiling and floors to appear level. Your eyes are not distracted by obvious slopes and valleys in the kitchen floor and roof. Also the upper cabinets were made at different heights so the bottom level is all the same height where the back-splash comes up to so the line for the back-splash remains level. When using a local Tyler custom cabinet maker you can have weird corners done custom unlike a pricey custom order request that would be required when going with Home Depot or Lowes. Now if you had Lowes or Home Depot cabinets delivered what chance do you think you have of these cabinets being installed with this level of experience? Consider that nothing was custom made for your kitchen situation when using these larger national brand companies.

So lets go through a typical persons experience even like what I had when walking through Lowes or Home Depot and observing their cabinet demos. I am always impressed at these stores with the whole turnkey product you see. The cabinet doors always look amazing and the hardware choices are unique when examining the door handles. I usually pay close attention to the immaculate paint styles and stains on the cabinet doors and sides. The cabinets appear so well done that it would seem impossible for a small customer cabinet maker in Tyler to be able to do the same or better. Well let me tell you my assumption that a custom cabinet maker could not do a better job than what you see at Lowes and Home Depot is way off. If you are a typical Tyler home owner unfamiliar with the construction trade you may fall into this same uninformed category as me.

Here are some questions a real custom cabinet maker will likely ask you to ask a Lowes sales person:

• What wood material are the cabinets built out of?
• The price per foot says $40 a foot but what is the total package price? (Most people that buy Home Depot and Lowes cabinets do not know what the whole turnkey price will be)
• Are they plywood ends, partical board, a special grade of contact paper?
• Did you know partical board is sawdust and glue?

Here are some points to consider on why a custom Tyler Texas cabinet maker is a much better choice than choosing stock cabinets from Lowes or Home Depot.

• Instead of possibly lower quality materials you get plywood construction with hardwood face frames and doors.
• You can usually get custom cabinets back in a little shorter time frame than what Lowes and home Depot deliver in.
• From what I understand Lowes and Home Depot usually call in an order to North Carolina and get the cabinets back in 2 – 3 weeks. With a custom cabinet maker you usually have a quicker turn around time than that.
• The staining and painting techniques that can be applied to your custom cabinets look the same and better than what you see at Lowes and Home Depot.
• Sometimes what you get at Home Depot or Lowes may be built out of partical board or medium dencenty fiber board. The coating is similar to firmica that is poured and baked on.
• You get a much better quality cabinet using better materials when going with a custom cabinet maker.
• You Keep the money with Local Tyler companies rather than large national brands.
• Your not saving a tremendous amount but the quality and customability of your cabinets is much better.

 Mitch West with Cupboards Plus can be reached at: 903-963-8606