Should You Choose Stock or Custom Kitchen Cabinets?

When renovating your kitchen, you get more choices now than ever before for beautiful and functional kitchen cabinet designs. The two major options for kitchen cabinets that you can choose are (a) stock cabinets and (b) custom cabinets. Stock cabinets are inexpensive, they come in standard sizes, styles, patterns and material finishes. Whereas custom cabinets can be made to any size, design, style and material finish but they are a pricier option.

Custom cabinets are designed and made by hand based on your individual kitchen design. You can choose the material, size, features and finishes and your order is made by hand and delivered to your home for installation. When designing custom cabinets, you have unending options for material selection and built-quality; accordingly, labour costs will also vary greatly. Therefore, the costs of constructing custom cabinets get divided between the choice of material, style, labour and a more personalised design. Well, this option is definitely not for those having a modest or tight budget, as it is a pricier option than both stock and pre-fabricated cabinets.

Related: What Advantages Do Custom Kitchen Cabinets Offer

Well, if you have a tight budget then you need to go with stock cabinets. When it comes to stock cabinets, IKEA is a prominent name - they produce in bulk quantities a structure of set sizes, finishes, features and colours that you can select. The pieces you order are extracted from the stock supplies and shipped directly to your home, where you’ll require managing both, the assembly and installation. As IKEA undertakes mass-production using affordable materials, the costs are low; still, the build quality is decent and not substandard in any way. Those having modest or tight budgets can choose stock cabinets without a second thought.

Pre-fabricated cabinets fall in between stock and custom cabinets, and they are known as semi-custom cabinets. Here, you can choose the size, material, design, features, finish quality and colour. Once you have selected everything for your kitchen cabinets then your order is manufactured and assembled for you. When the units are ready, they are shipped to you ready for installation. As you have more choices when it comes to material and built-quality, the prices are slightly on the higher side compared to stock cabinets.

Generally, custom cabinets use robust joinery system and build quality. Often reputed custom cabinetmakers will make use of joints that fit together interconnecting wood pieces to allocate weight and pressure more consistently, while stock nut, bolt and nail methods separate wear on a few points. Moreover, custom cabinets provide choices for sturdier hardware components including drawer sliders’ and hinges. In addition, custom cabinetmakers usually offer a superior level of design support and customer backing. They will come down for site visits and have a genuine person over the phone to talk with you whenever you require.

If you have limited or extravagant space or an odd layout in your kitchen – in all such scenarios, custom kitchen cabinets in Sydney might be actually an affordable option than you believe. In a restricted kitchen space, stock and pre-fabricated cabinets accessible in standard size measurements might not be worth the initial savings on the material, as you’ll require a clever labour to fit in all things together. In a lavish and spacious kitchen, high ceilings or added depth offer you with an opportunity for building extra storage and functionality. Kitchen cabinets with non-standard depths and heights can, in fact, add more value to your home and increase its resale value as well.