When we were looking at houses, we knew we wanted a fixer upper that we could make our own on a small budget. So we were prepared to renovate a kitchen no matter where we ended up. There are so many ways to update your kitchen cabinets, we considered them all:
- Keep the original cabinets and refinish/paint them.
- Keep the original cabinets but replace the doors as well as refinish/paint them.
- Buy used cabinets.
- Build our own cabinets.
- Buy RTA (Ready To Assemble) cabinets unfinished and finish/paint them.
- Buy pre-finished RTA cabinets.
- Buy fully assembled and pre-finished cabinets.
Out of all of those options, never did I think we would choose either of the last two (and most expensive) options. We even purchased doors on Craigslist for $100 to try and make them work on the existing cabinets – nope. But after weeks of trying to make the cheapest options work, we realized we should price out pre-finished cabinets and see if we could swing the cost.
Our reasoning: The original cabinets were cheap, builder grade material that we didn’t even like enough to refinish. We couldn’t find enough used cabinets in the size we need all in the same style. Building our own cabinets not only seemed crazy, it worked out to not be as cheap as we assumed and had so many more variables than we were comfortable taking on on our first time building cabinets. Unfinished cabinets are hard to find and you don’t save nearly enough to justify finishing them yourself.
So one Saturday, we went to a few cabinet places to price out our kitchen. We first visited Cabinets To Go who had just released one of the cabinet styles we liked (already available in white) in gray, which we wanted for our island. Armed with our measurements, we went to a show room in Delaware and met with the only employee of that location. A bit grumpy at first, I was able to talk geek (i.e. video games and computers) and get him to be friendly with us. He designed our kitchen in less than 20 minutes, while it had been taking me days to make any decisions. The measurements were one aspect I somehow couldn’t wrap my mind around and it was so easy for him. Without him, we may not have even made our kitchen work by ourselves. The price was great at around $5,500 for solid wood cabinets in our two colors. Then he says they’re back ordered and shipping from China, meaning we wouldn’t receive them for 6-8 weeks minimum. Out the door we walked.
We found out about an outlet store close by called Solid Wood Cabinets. They could order cabinets new but also had a stock of scratch & dent cabinets. I thought we had found what we were looking for: solid wood cabinets produced in the US and KCMA certified. Then the quote ends up being over $10k and we felt deflated.
That week I remembered going on Craigslist looking for cabinets and finding a dealer in Levittown. At the time, I was asking them about unfinished options but I went ahead and emailed them with the list of cabinets we had from Cabinets To Go to see what price they would give me. They came back at around $4,700! I looked up the line they said they sell and was thrilled to find out that Forevermark Cabinetry was solid wood, KCMA certified and finished with paints by Sherwin Williams. We made a trip out to their showroom to make sure these were “the ones”. Our contact said we could have our cabinets delivered right to us within a week! We checked our list and layout, made some adjustments and upgrades, added assembly for $15/cabinet and placed the order for $5,200 including delivery!
Like I said in Update #1, I don’t want to mention the company we worked with because of a negative interaction we had with them a couple weeks after installation was complete. For the majority of the transaction, they were responsive and provided great service. I’m happy to share the information privately, so feel free to email me at nicole@techmomogy.com.
Up next, I’ll go over the kitchen plans and installation of the cabinets! Want to follow along with where we are in our renovation right now? Follow @techmomogy on Instagram!
Nicole
Previously posted on Techmomogy@Home.
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Thanks for posting this! I’ve also been meaning to update my kitchen cabinets. Looking at them, I can see that they could probably use a new coat of paint. I was considering buying a new set of cabinets, but my budget won’t allow it right now. Considering how refinishing and painting my cabinets can make them look like knew, I should just work on improving the paint job to give them the look that I want.
We painted our cabinets in our last house and it’s definitely a budget friendly way to upgrade your cabinets and get the look you want. Good luck!
I have recently finished renovating my kitchen. As we were on a budget and didn’t wanted to spend much so my husband suggested that we should re-paint the cabinets and add crown moldings on it. Firstly I was a bit reluctant but then he convinced me. And I am glad that I agreed as now our kitchen looks amazing. Now we are planning to add some stylish lighting but this might take a while.
I liked your way too and I am eagerly waiting to see the result once you are finished with renovating your kitchen completely. Good luck!
It’s nice to hear that you love your updated kitchen! And I can’t wait to share ours! 🙂
I really liked your post! I’ve been thinking about updating my kitchen cabinets, because they’re very old! I loved your idea of keeping the original cabinets, but changing out the doors. My budget is pretty tight, and changing out the entire cabinet is out of the picture, so I think that this would be my best option! I’m going to go look for cabinet doors that suit my taste, and find a good paint for them, too. Thank you for the help!
It’s been a year now. How have the cabinets held up? I am having a hard time finding reviews on Forevermark cabinets durability.
Hi Lisa! The cabinets are holding up great! We are still absolutely in love. They are easy to clean with a very durable finish. Not saying my kids haven’t managed to mark some up with their scooters, but we are extremely happy with the quality of Forevermark cabinets.
So how do you clean them? Are they made in the US?
Hi Chris! We just wipe them down with soap and water. The cabinets are made in China. We would have preferred US produced cabinets, but we are extremely happy with the Forevermark ones.