Custom Cabinets vs. Ready-Made Cabinets: Home Renovation Guide

Home renovation planning often involves making a number of decisions which will have the greatest impact on the look and feel of a home’s interior space. In many cases, the biggest impact of all will come from the cabinetry installed within a home. So should a homeowner opt for custom cabinets or ready-made cabinets for their home renovation?

Cabinets for a Home can be purchased Ready-Made, also known as Stock or off the shelf, or Custom Made specifically for a homeowner’s needs and for their Space!

Here is the rest of the article where we go into more detail comparing these two cabinet styles.

What Are Ready-Made Cabinets?

Most large home improvement stores, kitchen showrooms and cabinet suppliers offer ready-made stock cabinets in standard dimensions and configurations. They often offer a wide selection of styles, colors and types of cabinets to choose from.

Their convenience is perhaps their greatest feature. Because the cabinets are produced in advance, they enable homeowners to select and receive the style of their choice, then immediately begin to plan and implement the room’s renovation.

Ready-made cabinets can be a practical option when:

 

• The room has a straightforward layout

• Standard cabinet dimensions work well

• Budget is a primary consideration

• A faster installation is preferred

• Extensive customization is not required

For simple rooms and standard dimensions, ready-made cabinetry makes a lot of sense. You can put in a good looking set of cabinets and have a nice functioning space without the hassle of custom design and fabrication.

What Are Custom Cabinets?

Custom cabinets are designed to meet the needs of your home and its inhabitants. This means you have complete control over the custom cabinets you purchase. The cabinets can be any size and configuration, made from a variety of materials and finished to match your other home features.

Custom cabinetry also provides a greater variety of solutions for a room with unusual dimensions, architectural features or storage requirements.

Custom cabinetry can be designed around:

• Unique room dimensions

• Non-standard wall configurations

• Specific storage requirements

• Personal design preferences

• Existing architectural features

• Appliances and fixtures

• Individual lifestyle needs

Custom cabinetry allows you to have the cabinetry fit your space, not the other way around.

The Biggest Advantage: Better Use of Space

Space maximization is a strong advantage to custom cabinets.

Unlike standard cabinets, designed to fit certain pre-determined dimensions, custom cabinetry is designed around the dimensions of your wall. That means that even slightly wider or narrower walls can be fully utilized.

Custom cabinetry can then be designed to use these spaces.

This is particularly relevant for older homes, apartments, small rooms, and strange nooks and crannies found in many properties. Corner units, sloping ceilings, narrow walls, small alcoves — all can be successfully stocked with custom cabinetry.

The improved integration of furnishings and living space elements for every room, offered by living spaces cabinets specifically designed for that room.

More Control Over Storage

Another great advantage of custom cabinetry is the designer can organize the inside of the cabinets for optimal storage and access for their customers.

A ready-made cabinet consists of pre-determined configurations of shelves, drawers and compartments which may not fully match the way you need to organize your space.

Custom cabinetry allows the storage within the space to be designed for your needs.

 

You can design storage that matches your needs: deeper drawers for cookware, appliance storage, adjustable shelving, special cabinets for particular items and tall cabinetry for storage of unusual items.

Greater Design Flexibility

 

Most existing ready-made cabinets are offered in a limited selection of colors, door styles, finishes, and hardware.

Custom cabinetry provides significantly more freedom.

 

Homeowners can have greater input into:

• Door styles

• Cabinet dimensions

• Wood species and materials

• Paint colours

• Stains and finishes

• Hardware

• Drawer configurations

• Interior storage

• Decorative details

When creating interior design for your home, there are many variables to create cohesive interior design throughout home.

Custom cabinetry for your living spaces can be drawn to coordinate with your flooring, countertops, architectural details and more to create one unified look for your home when combined with your furniture, lighting and other design elements.

Custom Cabinets Can Adapt to Your Lifestyle

Good cabinetry should work for the people using it.

 

A couple with young children has different storage needs than an empty-nester. Someone who cooks every night has a very different need in the kitchen than someone who rarely cooks at home.

This also pertains to the rest of your home such as your home offices, media rooms, laundries, play rooms, storage areas and more.

Custom cabinetry for living spaces are also designed around the user of the room. As opposed to being forced into a pre determined cabinetry configuration for a room.

What About Quality and Durability?

 

Bear in mind that quality can vary for both custom-made and ready-made cabins. While going for custom doesn’t automatically mean better quality, it does provide more room for discussion with the cabinetmaker regarding the materials, the way the cabinets are constructed and so on.

Custom cabinetry on the other hand gives you the opportunity to discuss the materials, the method of construction, the finishes, the hardware and any other requirement that you may have with the cabinetmaker.

If durability is important, ask about:

• Cabinet box construction

• Drawer construction

• Hinges and drawer slides

• Material quality

• Finish durability

• Hardware

• Installation methods

• Maintenance requirements

A quality cabinet has been designed for a particular environment and will be used for a particular purpose.

Are Custom Cabinets More Expensive?

Just because custom cabinetry is more expensive than your typical off-the-shelf cabinetry does not mean you are getting value for your investment.

Note that initial cost is only one factor to consider when purchasing cabinets.

Consider what you are getting for the investment:

 

Ready-made cabinets may provide:

• Lower initial cost

• Faster availability

• Standardized options

• Straightforward installation

Custom cabinets may provide:

• Better space utilization

• Personalized storage

• Greater design control

• More material and finish options

• Solutions for unusual spaces

• A cohesive, built-in appearance

For long-term renovations, the additional flexibility of custom cabinetry can be particularly advantageous when designing a space with unusual limitations that are not well-served by stock cabinets.

How Does Installation Differ?

Most readymade storage cabinets have pre determined measurements and therefore can be installed very quickly by skilled personnel.

Plannning custom cabinetry requires more time and flexibility. Accurate measurement of the space and design of the cabinetry is required and the cabinetry must be fabricated prior to the installation of the product.

Again, for custom work, the installation of the finished cabinetry is important as they were made for that particular space.

In order to ensure that your custom cabinetry is installed correctly, it is highly recommended that you hire a professional installer. This is because proper installation of your cabinetry is crucial to ensure that your cabinets are level, aligned properly and fit into your space perfectly.

Which Option Is Better for Renovations?

There is no universal answer to this. It all depends on your specific needs.

This would be best suited to people with standard-sized rooms, straightforward requirements and a limited budget looking for a quick solution to their furniture needs.

For unusually sized rooms, limited spaces or for projects which require special storage for unusual items, custom cabinets are often the better solution for implementing your design plans and creating your personal space.

Your home renovation is unique in that it is designed and intended to be a very personal space and thus, when done correctly, will provide features and benefits that typical, off-the-shelf product offerings are not able to.

When Custom Cabinets Make the Most Sense

Custom cabinetry is particularly worth considering when:

Your Space Has Unusual Dimensions

Older homes often have unusual configurations of walls, corners, ceilings and other architectural features that do not lend themselves to standard cabinets.

You Need Specialized Storage

They can be designed to contain specific items to maximize space and utilize every available nook and cranny.

You Want a Specific Look

 

This option enables you to decide on the type of materials, finishes, colors, doors and even hardware you prefer.

You Want a Built-In Appearance

 

Custom cabinets are designed to blend into the architecture of a room and can create an integrated “built-in” look.

You Plan to Stay in Your Home

Staying in your present home for many years to come? Then it is worthwhile investing in cabinetry that has been specifically designed for your use.

 Custom vs. Ready-Made: A Quick Comparison

The most important factor to consider when choosing between stock and custom cabinetry is not price but rather the set of factors most important to you such as functionality, aesthetics, durability, etc. paired with the specific needs of your home.

Why Custom Cabinetry Can Be a Long-Term Investment

 

For long term periods of time the average homeowner replaces the finishes of a home not the structure. That being said cabinetry is one area of finish that homeowners do not normally replace on a yearly basis.

By better addressing key needs for functionality, space, design, and value, custom cabinetry can be a better solution for your home and bring more enjoyment for you and your household over time.

For living spaces cabinets, design considerations go beyond how the cabinet will look when installed. Long-term functionality and how the storage and design solutions will perform as the home is used over time are key. Call now to discuss your cabinet needs and create a solution designed for your living space.

Making the Right Choice for Your Home

Conventional flat-pack cabinets offer the homeowner a package of convenient ready-made solutions for storage in their home and are frequently used for rooms with standard dimensions. They offer a lower initial cost than custom cabinetry and can frequently be purchased off the shelf and installed straight away.

Custom cabinetry on the other hand is designed around your room, your storage requirements, your design taste and how you plan to use the space of your home. For those unique rooms and specific needs, custom cabinetry provides the many advantages it has to offer after having planned for it in detail.

For people with unusual rooms or special needs, the advantages of custom cabinetry will, no doubt, outweigh the extra planning required and the cost of the cabinets.

It’s the function, design, quality, space and long term value for your home that matters most!

Ready to Explore Custom Cabinetry?

 

When planning a home renovation, it’s smart to consider whether ready-made or custom cabinetry will be best for your new space. When talking about a room’s dimensions, a homeowner can begin to explore whether custom cabinetry will satisfy their storage needs and design goals.

A professional cabinetry consultation can assist in planning the best cabinetry solution for your home and uncover all of the custom cabinetry solutions that are available to meet your requirements.

Space that is organized, functional and unique is what custom cabinetry can bring to any room when designed around that space.