Kitchen Cabinets

Our kitchen cabinets are not bad at all. They are in really good shape. I am not particularly fond of the light oak so my plan all along has been to paint them.

After we started changing the kitchen layout, my goal was to find cabinets to fill in where the pantry was and additional cabinets to wrap around the wall. I found several in stock options at the big box stores that were similar, but they were just enough different that I was afraid when they were side by side we would be able to tell the difference. Then I remembered that our old cabinets were Merillat and the ones in this house are Merillat and Star Lumber sells Merillat.  So, I took my plans to them along with pictures of my cabinets and asked if they could add on the additional pieces using the same style. By the next day, I received an email with the cabinet plan and was shocked at the price. Was I really going to spend THAT much money on cabinets that I feel are just “so-so” -and I still have to paint them?

I was really beginning to feel discouraged. It seems that the only reasonable way to expand the kitchen was to start from scratch and do we really want to spend that much money on a kitchen that is OK. Maybe I could learn to work in it given time. Maybe I am too spoiled by all the counter and storage space in our old house.

My brother, John, has built 2 houses as used B&B Lumber for both of them. He suggested I go there. I thought, “What do I have to lose?”  I explained my dilemma to the salesman and he assured me that I would be pleasantly surprised. He proceeded to show me their cabinets and right away I was impressed with the dove-tail drawer construction. They do not even sell a stapled drawer. I looked at a few door styles-and of course I’m drawn to the expensive ones, but he showed me options to get a similar look with a less expensive door.

We sat down in his office and worked up a cabinet layout. When he totaled it up, it was only about 20% more than the Merillat cabinets and I wouldn’t have to paint them, plus all of them were new. They were full panel doors which means when you open the cabinet doors, there is no bar running down the middle. I was excited. I took my plans home to Tim and he was sold as well. The next day, we placed our order. They should be here in time for my brother to install them.

We decided to go for it and do a full kitchen update. We don’t know how long we will be in this house. Maybe we will retire here, but maybe we won’t. We felt that we wouldn’t hurt ourselves by remodeling the kitchen from scratch.  We will either thoroughly enjoy our new kitchen for years to come, or we will sell in a few years and the next people will enjoy it too.

Here is the link to the cabinet web site-Cardell Cabinets. The cabinets we picked out will be similar in color to the Canterbury II-soft white with a brown glaze,(very expensive) but the style is Classic II-(ironically shown in light oak.)